The cities which make up what we call the Golden Ring must rank as one of the most glorious and least explored tourist trails in Europe. Here are 12 towns or so (the exact number is disputed) lying within easy reach of Moscow, unspoilt and almost completely unvisited, packed full of beautiful buildings and significant historical artefacts. These were the settlements that preceded Moscow as the centre of the nascent Russian state. A visitor to any one of these peaceful places will not only find churches, castles, kremlins and museums of great antiquity but also a way of life which continues in the country places of European Russia to this day.

The 12 towns which are usually said to make up the Ring are Sergiyev Posad, Pereslavl-Zalesskiy, Rostov Velikiy, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Ivanovo, Gus-Khrustalny, Suzdal, Vladimir, Rybinsk, Uglich and Alexandrov. For years I thought that Pskov and Novgorod were part of this picture, but though they are both old and by some definitions precede even the Ring towns as the original protectors of Russian culture, they are too far to the west to join them. All the Ring towns are gathered to the north-east of Moscow, from where they can each be visited in a day by train or bus.

Better still, though, would be to travel from one to the next and so build up a complete picture of the very first years of Rus. Originally this land formed part of the territory of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, which existed from about 880 until the Mongol invasions of 1237-40 so destabilised it that it fell into its component pieces. One of these was Vladimir, which had been founded as a fort by Vladimir Monomakh of Kiev in 1108. By 1157 it had become the principal town of all Kievan Rus by virtue of the fact that Kiev itself had been sacked by discontented members of the ruling family. Having consolidated their power, these men began to beautify their surroundings, not least by inviting craftsmen from as far away as Western Europe to help build and decorate Vladimir's cathedrals.

The results, which can still be seen, are three of the most beautiful buildings in Russia: the Dormition Cathedral (begun...