Abstract: The article undertakes a study of the perceptions on the history of Veliky Novgorod, formed in the practical historical consciousness of the 18th century. The main research sources are the notes of travelers who visited Novgorod during this period. The author focuses attention on their impressions of visiting local monuments, as well as their reflections concerning the history of Novgorod and the role of Novgorod in Russian Medieval history. The author also identifies the sources from which travelers could have gathered information regarding Novgorod and describes the factors that influenced their perception of this urban space. The author's comparative analysis of the notes of Russian and foreign travelers suggests the existence of a number of characteristic stereotypes in the perception of the history of Novgorod in Modern times. The author comes to the conclusion that for Europeans the most famous events tied to the history of Novgorod were its joining to the Moscow State by Ivan III and its ruin by Ivan IV. The perception of Russian travelers of Novgorod antiquities was based mainly on the images from fiction and drama.