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In 1010, Rostov Prince Yaroslav (Yaroslav the Wise) on the
high right bank of the Volga river at its confluence with the
small Kotorosl river, builds a fortress in order to defend his
territory. There is already a settlement of pagans here called Medvezhy
Ugol (Bears Corner). Its inhabitants are descendants of
Finno-Ugrian tribes mixed with Slav people. They are engaged in
hunting and fishing. 
According to
the legend, Prince Yaroslav kills their sacred animal, a Bear,
and subjugates the pagans. The symbol of the city is a silver
shield with a Bear standing and holding a gold pole-axe in the
left paw. Yaroslavl is now the Prince's stronghold, and the
centre of Christianity.
The development of the city is interrupted by the Tatar-Mongol invasion for many years. Like other Russian cities, Yaroslavl does not surrender to the enemy. Most of the individual city uprisings against the Tatar-Mongol invasion fail because of disintegration of the ancient tribes of the Rus. At the end of the XIVth century Prince Dimitri of the Moscow Principality succeeds in organizing a great army and wins the battle of Kulikovo. The Yaroslavl druzhina (host) stands to the last man at the left flank of the unified Russian army.
In the XVI-XVIIth centuries Yaroslavl becomes an important centre of commercial relations with both the East (along the Volga river) and with Europe (through Archangel, the only Russian sea-port at that time) in a centralised Russian state . Foreign merchants have their own podvorja (trade houses) in Yaroslavl used for transporting goods to Moscow, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and to Persia (Iran).
During the Poland-Lithuania-Sweden intervention in the early XVIIIth century, the city is a stronghold of Russian people's volunteer corps and at one point the city becomes a temporary capital of the country.
Yaroslavl is home to the famous church of the Prophet Elijah designated by UNESCO as a World Treasure.