Yaroslav's Court (Yaroslavovo Dvorishche) was the princely compound in the city of Novgorod the Great. Today it is roughly the area around the Trade Mart, the St. Nicholas Cathedral, the Church of St. Procopius, and the Church of the Myrrh-bearing Women. The Trade Mart renovated and heavily modified in the 16th and 17th centuries, is all that is left of the princely palace itself. The prince also had a compound called the Riurik's Court (Riurikovo Gorodishche) south of the marketside of the city.
Yaroslav's Court is named after Yaroslav the Wise who, while prince of Novgorod in 988–1015, built a palace there. The Novgorodian veche often met in front of Yaroslav's Court and in 1224 several pagan sorcerers were burned at the stake there.
According to the traditional scholarship, after the Novgorodians evicted Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich in 1136, Novgorod began electing their princes and forbade them from holding land in Novgorod. Yaroslav's Court then ceased to be a princely compound and the prince resided at Riurik's Court. Between 1113 and 1136, the Saint Nicholas Cathedral was built at the court. The cathedral is intact and is the second oldest building in Novgorod after the Saint Sophia Cathedral.
References:The Beckov castle stands on a steep 50 m tall rock in the village Beckov. The dominance of the rock and impression of invincibility it gaves, challenged our ancestors to make use of these assets. The result is a remarkable harmony between the natural setting and architecture.
The castle first mentioned in 1200 was originally owned by the King and later, at the end of the 13th century it fell in hands of Matúš Èák. Its owners alternated - at the end of the 14th century the family of Stibor of Stiborice bought it.
The next owners, the Bánffys who adapted the Gothic castle to the Renaissance residence, improved its fortifications preventing the Turks from conquering it at the end of the 16th century. When Bánffys died out, the castle was owned by several noble families. It fell in decay after fire in 1729.
The history of the castle is the subject of different legends. One of them narrates the origin of the name of castle derived from that of jester Becko for whom the Duke Stibor had the castle built.
Another legend has it that the lord of the castle had his servant thrown down from the rock because he protected his child from the lords favourite dog. Before his death, the servant pronounced a curse saying that they would meet in a year and days time, and indeed precisely after that time the lord was bitten by a snake and fell down to the same abyss.
The well-conserved ruins of the castle, now the National Cultural Monument, are frequently visited by tourists, above all in July when the castle festival takes place. The former Ambro curia situated below the castle now shelters the exhibition of the local history.