VOLGA RIVER AREA NEAR MOSCOW | Facts and Details

VOLGA RIVER

The Volga River is the longest river in Europe. Draining two thirds of European Russia and nearly a third of Europe and known to Russians as "Mother Volga," it is of great importance and economic value to Russia. Navigable nearly its entire length, it is the country's main commercial waterway, providing connections between the Baltic Sea, St. Petersburg, Moscow, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. [Source: Howard Sochurek, National Geographic, May 1973]

The Volga has the largest drainage basin of any European river and carries nearly two thirds of Russia's waterborne cargo and provides electricity and irrigation water. Over a forth of Russia's population lives within the river's half million square mile drainage basin, an area twice the size of Texas. In Russian Volga means "holy" and often times the river is referred to as Matushka, or mother.

The Greeks discovered that the Volga flowed into the Caspian Sea in the 2nd century A.D. and the Geographer Ptolemy described it around 150 A.D. The Volga has been an important trade routes since Viking times. Between the 9th and 12th century, Vikings used it to transport goods between Scandinavia and northern Russia and Persia and Constantinople. Before steamboats were invented, huge gangs of serfs pulled barges upstream with ropes. Many cities of importance are located on it: Yaroslavl, Nizny Novgorod (formally Gorky), Kazan, Volgagrad (once Stalingrad) and Astrakhan. A wide variety of ethnic groups have made their home in the Volga basin including Tatars, Germans and Kyrgyz.

Volga–Baltic Waterway

Volga-Baltic Waterway connects the Baltic Sea with the Volga River through a series of rivers, lakes and canals. Along the shores are small farms, rolling green hills, old villages and birch forests. Both Peter the Great and Stalin had hope to complete a Volga-Baltic water but that goal was not realized until the summer of 1964, when the last link of the waterway — the 368-kilometer (229-mile) stretch between the Rybinsk Reservoir at Cherepovets and Lake Onega — was completed. Linking the major cities of European Russia and sometimes called the "Path of God," the 1,100-mile waterway includes dams, locks, canals, reservoirs, Vytegra and Kovzha rivers, Lake Beloye, and the Sheksna River. River cruise ships ply the waterway from May to September.

The Volga-Baltic Waterway — officially called the V.I. Lenin Volga-Baltic Waterway and formerly known as the Mariinsk Canal System — has a total length is about 1,100 kilometers (685 miles). Originally constructed in the early 19th century, the system was rebuilt for larger vessels in the 1960s, becoming a part of the Unified Deep Water System of European Russia. According to Encyclopædia Britannica: “The first link between the Volga and the Baltic, via Vishny Volochek, the Msta River, and the Ladoga Canal, opened in 1731, creating a route 1,395 km (867 miles) long. A second route, the Tikhvin system, opened in 1811, creating an 890-km (about 550-mile) waterway via the Mologa and Syas rivers. A third route, the Mariinsk system, opened in 1810, using the Sheksna and Svir rivers; it was improved in the 1850s and again between 1890 and 1896, creating a 1,135-km (705-mile) waterway for boats drawing less than 1.8 metres (5.8 feet). It was decided to rebuild the whole system in 1939, and this was completed in 1964.” [Source: Michael Clarke, Encyclopædia Britannica]

Going from the Volga to St. Petersburg and the Baltic Sea, the waterways starts, Michael Clarke wrote for Encyclopædia Britannica, “at Rybinsk, on the Volga River and the Rybinsk Reservoir, and goes northward by way of the Sheksna River, which was converted to a reservoir by a dam and power station above Cherepovets, to Lake Beloye. Crossing the lake, now within the Sheksna Reservoir, the waterway follows the Kovzha River, which is linked by a canal section over the watershed to the Vytegra River; the latter canal section was improved by the construction of six locks and two hydroelectric stations and reservoirs. The Vytegra River flows into Lake Onega, and from there the waterway continues westward through the Svir River. It follows the Svir to Lake Ladoga and the Novoladozhsky Canal and then to the Neva River, which empties into the Gulf of Finland at St. Petersburg. The length of the waterway from Lake Onega to Cherepovets is 368 km (229 miles). The system has seven modern automatically controlled locks and can take craft with drafts up to 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) and 5,000 tons capacity; in contrast, the old Mariinsk system, with 38 locks, had a limit of 600-ton barges.

Moscow-Volga Canal

Moscow-Volga Canal heads north from Moscow and connects with the Volga about 137 kilometers (85 miles) north of the capital near the town of Uglich. Ships traveling the canal pass through 11 locks and pass sunbathers, bucolic villages, birch forest and farmland.. Commissioned by Stalin to bring drinking water to Moscow and built largely by gulag prisoners, the canal was took 4½ years to make and was opened in 1937 to mark the 800th anniversary of the founding of Moscow.

The Moscow-Volga Canal is of great importance to the national economy and to Moscow’s health. The relatively clean water coming through the canal has helped solved Moscow's water-supply problems. In conjunction with Volga-Don canal and the Volga-Baltic Water, the Moscow-Volga Canal has given Moscow access to the White Sea in the north, the Baltic Sea near Scandinavia and the Black Sea and Caspian Sea in the south.

Source of the Volga

Source of the Volga (450 kilometers north of Moscow) is a remote area of forests and lakes reached by 150 mile train ride from the Volga city of Tver. The source is reached down a down a cart track. Next to the source is a village with some painted wooded houses. Over the source — a marsh with brown peat-stained water — is a Chinese-style pavilion. On a nearby hill is large redbrick church with seven domes built around 1890.

The source of the Volga is located on the Valdai Ridge of the Valdai Hills, in the watershed between the Caspian and the Baltic seas. It is located in Ostashkovsky District of Tver Oblast, on the outskirts of Volgoverkhovie village, at an altitude of 228 meters above the level of the Baltic Sea. Several springs on the edge of a nameless swamp produce a small basin which is recognized as the source of the Volga.

A chapel was built over the spring in ancient times, and it is now being renovated. There is a well-maintained wooden bridge, several dozen meters long, over the swampy land, leading to the building. In the center of the chapel there is a round opening with a protective enclosure, directly over the spring. The house is surrounded by a platform with steps leading down to the water.

The Volga flows out from the little swamp as a brook, about one meter wide and no more than 30 centimeters deep. It is even narrower during the dry season, and sometimes the first few dozen meters from the source dry up. The water, which is potable, is of a reddish-brown color. The first bridge across the Volga in this place is only 3 meters long. The source of the Volga is protected as a natural monument. The eponymous nature reserve around it includes a forest with a total area of 4,100 hectares.

Seliger Lake

Lake Seliger (320 kilometers northwest of Moscow) is located near the headwaters of the Volga. It is a beautiful place, dotted with islands and surrounded by forests with pines and white-barked birches. There are plenty of opportunities for hiking, camping, fishing, canoeing and hunting. You can take a boat ride to an island with a monastery turned into a labor camp in the Stalin era. Website: region.visitnovgorod.ru

Located in the Tver and Novgorod Oblasts and of glacial origin, Seliger Lake covers a total area of 260 square kilometers and has about 160 islands covering 38 square kilometers. The largest island is Khachin. It covers an area of 30 square kilometers and has ten lakes of its own. The water is fresh and generally clean. Among the 30 species of fish that live in Seliger are bream, pike, burbot, pike perch and ide.

The deepest part of the lake is 24 meters. The irregular coastline of 589 kilometers long and consists of 24 distinct stretches, broken up by rivers and channels. A total of 110 rivers and tributaries flow into the lake, the largest of which are the Krapivenka, Soroga and Seremukha. Only one river flows out of it — the Selizharovka. One of the largest stretches of Seliger is the Polnovsky stretch.

The first mention of Lake Seliger is in the 12th century. At that time the village of Polnovo on Seliger was named as a a settlement on the ancient trade route between Volga and Novgorod. On the shores of the lake are numerous archeological sights, the oldest of which date back to the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C. On the eastern and western shores of the Polnovsky stretch, there are graveyards, mounds and hills from the 9th-15th centuries.

Nilova Hermitage

Nilo-Stolbensky Hermitage (on Stolbny Island on Seliger Lake, 10 kilometers to the north of the town of Ostashkovo) is a Russian Orthodox monastery. Also known as Nilova Hermitage, its has served over the years as a monastery, POW camp, juvenile criminal colony, hospital, nursing home and holiday camp. Now it is under the control of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The monastery dates back to 1528 when a hermit monk, Venerable Nil, moved from near Rzhev to Stolbny Island. During the first year, he lived in a dug-out hut. Later he built a cell and a prayer chapel. During his time there he endured fires, floods, bandits and animal attacks. However, Nil never gave up or moved away, overcoming adversity with prayer and faith and is said to have healed the sick. There is a legend that the Venerable Nil made a vow to never lie down. He slept standing up, keeping himself upright with ropes and hooks driven into a wall. Venerable Nil lived on the island for 27 years until his death in 1555. Before he died he wished that a monastery be built in that spot he lived and that wish was ultimately fulfilled.

The construction of the Epiphany Cathedral of the monastery began in 1767, and was finished in 1833. But many monks were already living there at that time. The monastery flourished in the 17th-19th centuries. In the early 20th century, the number of permanently residing monks stood at 1,000. After the Revolution of 1917, the cloister was sacked. Despite thing the monastery continued to exist until 1927. In the Soviet era is when it served as a POW camp, juvenile criminal colony, hospital, nursing home and holiday camp. It was returned to the church only in 1990.

There are two ways to reach Nilova Hermitage: by tourist boat across the Seliger Lake from Ostashkov, or by car. The monastery and other sights of Stolbny Island are open to visitors every day. You can view the cloister of the monastery and climb the bell tower of the Epiphany Cathedral to see breathtaking sights of Seliger Lake. Venerable Nil’s relics are considered holy and monastery attracts many pilgrims. Entrance to the territory is free. Visitor are advised to dress conservatively. Women are expected to wear long skirts and cover their heads. Men should not wear hats. There is a hotel in the monastery. Homestays are guest house are available on nearby Svetlitsa peninsula. Local shops sells honey, bread, dairy products and tea. For more information check the the Tourist Portal of Tver Oblast: www.welcometver.ru

Tver

Tver (on the Volga, 145 kilometers northwest of Moscow) is city of 410,000 that was brutalized by the Tatars and Ivan the Terrible and reborn after Catherine the Great decided to make it a rest stop on her journey between Moscow and St. Petersburg. There isn’t a whole lot to see: a few museums, a large market and some streets with old wooden houses. Catherine the Great built a palace here, now a museum. The Soviets blew up the cathedral. A handful of nice churches are slowly being restored. The forests around Tver have some good cross-country ski trails.

Tver is located located where three rivers come together: where the Tvertsa and Tmaka flow into the Volga. The Volga is not so wide here — up to 500 meters across — and flows from west to east, dividing Tver into two parts: the historical center on the right bank and the Volga region on the left. In 1701, on the orders of Peter the Great, a temporary floating bridge of rafts was built in Tver. It stood for 199 years, until 1900). Now Tver city has about 30 bridges.

Tver is the administrative center of the Tver Oblast (Region. A large industrial, scientific and cultural center, the city has a convenient geographical location, between St. Petersburg and Moscow, and connected to them by railway and highway (M10 “Russia”). The city is considered the first port on the Volga River. There are several types of public transport in Tver: trams, trolleybuses, buses and shuttles. They are all very cheap.

Tver has several tour operators and travel agencies, many restaurants and cafes and more than 30 hotels in all price categories, as well as youth hostels. The Hotel “Isaevsky” on the street Ilyina, and Karl Marx’s mansion at Karl Marx, 59 are recommended. The latter has sleeping rooms in a small old stucco house in a quiet neighborhood Tourist Portal of Tver Region: www.welcometver.ru

E105 is part of the International E-road network and one of the main roads in Europe. Begins in Kirkenes, Norway and follows the M18, M10 and M2 in Russia and the M18 in the Ukraine, ending in Yalta, Ukraine. Some cities on its route include Kirkenes, Murmansk, Kandalaksha, Saint Petersburg, Novgorod, Tver, Moscow, Kharikiv, Simferopol and Yalta. The road may be closed due to heavy snows or rains. Long delays may occur at the border crossing. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the road is closed to vehicles with a foreign registration

Getting There: Every day several trains travel ply the routes between Tver Moscow and St. Petersburg. The travel time to Moscow is just a couple of hours. If you choose the high-speed “Peregrine Falcon”, it takes about an hour. The average ticket price is 500 rubles. If you take a bus to Moscow, it will take about three hours and cost 400-600 rubles. A taxi will set you back 1500 rubles or more and takes 1.5–2 hours. The Separate — a free federal highway runs between Moscow and Tver, but it is quite busy. The Moscow-St. Petersburg M11 highway passes by Tver. It is a toll road. The toll from Moscow is about 400 rubles.

In Tver, the railway and bus station are close to each other. Tickets for the main destinations: Tver-Rzhev-330 rubles; 1) Tver-Vyshny Volochek: 340 rubles; 2) Tver-Kuvshinovo-260-400 rubles; 3) Tver-Torzhok-165–230 rubles. Flight schedules and ticket information s can be found here https://www.tverautotrans.ru/onlajn-prodazha .

History of Tver

Tver was established in 1135 at the meeting place of three rivers: Tvertsa, Tmaka and Volga. In medieval times Tver was the center of the principality that rebelled against and competed with Moscow for supremacy in the northern parts of Russia. In the fall of 1941, it was under Nazi occupation for several weeks and severely damaged at that time. The meaning of the world Tver is a matter of some debate. Most scholars believe it come from an ancient word meaning “firmament”, “stronghold” or “fortress”

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Tver was controlled by Novgorod merchants. Its most famous merchant, Athanasius Nikitin, traveled over three seas. Over the centuries, Tver has experienced many events. It was fortified during the Tatar-Mongol period and fought against Moscow for the right to control Northeastern Russia. In 1488, Tver was annexed by the Grand Principality of Moscow, which later became the Russian monarchy.

Tver experienced many fires. The “main” one occurred in 1763, then the whole city center, including the Tver Kremlin, was burnt down. After that Catherine the Great ordered the creation of a team of architects for the reconstruction of the city center. The main feature of the new layout was a long axial street (now Sovetskaya), as well as a “Versailles trident” — a three-beam composition of streets converging at one point, modeled after the urban plan used in St. Petersburg. In 1851, the Nikolaev Railway arrived in Tver, connecting it even more firmly with St. Petersburg and Moscow. After the revolution of 1917, man streets and squares were renamed and the city itself was called Kalinin. In 1990 its historical name was restored.

Sights and Attractions in Tver

The main attraction of Tver is the 18th century Travel Palace of Catherine the Great. In the 19th century, it became a fashionable cultural center and literary salon, attracting artists and writers from all of the world, and was used extensively by Emperor Alexander I and his closest relatives. The palace — also known as Imperial En Route Palace is located in the historical center of Tver in Cathedral Square, between Sovetskaya Street, Starovolzhsky Bridge and the City Garden. The 18th-century classical mansion was built to be resting place for the imperial family on travels between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Over time new buildings were added and the interior decoration changed. Now it houses an art gallery. Around the mansion there is a garden where you can walk. On Cathedral Square, you can also find the main church of Tver — the Transfiguration Cathedral, which also served as the burial vault of the Great Tver princes (destroyed in the 1930s).

Tver is also famous for its bridges. The bridge that connects the two banks of the Volga and is the main transport artery of Tver is called “New”. It was installed between 1953 and 1956. The “Old” was built more than half a century before across the Volga. In reality, the “New” bridge is older than the Old Bridge as it was built in St. Petersburg in 1843-1850 as the first permanent bridge across the Neva and later moved to Tver. The Old Bridge is a symbol of Tver. The openwork silhouette of the bridge is depicted on many postcards and calendars. It was designed by V. Tochinsky and the Czech engineer L. Mashek and opened in 1900, when it replaced the Peter the Great pontoon bridge. A “twin” of the Old Tver bridge, the Franz Josef Bridge, was opened in Budapest in 1896.

Walking through the city garden along the shore of the Volga near the Old Bridge you can see the exquisite monument to A. S. Pushkin, called “White Nights” by sculptor O.K. Komov. Located on the left bank of the Volga, between the New and Old Bridges, is four-meter bronze statue of the merchant Afanasy Nikitin. The viewing platform of the Volga resembles a ship deck. The Stepan Razin Embankment is one of the favorite walking places in Tver.

Museum Tverskaya Armory has an extensive collection of weapons, armor, equipment, clothing and household items from Middle Ages that you can only look at but also touch and in some cases try them on. You can hold the sword of the German Landsknecht in their hands or try on Russian knight helmet. The museum also has unique exposition called "Development of military skill in the era of Rurik the Falcon to Ivan the Terrible."

Museum of Tver life opened in 1970 in an 18th century manor house, The theme of the museum is "Visiting Tver merchant", which tells about the life and customs of Tver’s merchant class in the 19th and 20th centuries and has exhibits on bazaars, shops, factories workshops, and grammar schools. The nteractive exhibition "Russian samovars. Tver Tea Party" is located on the ground floor and has an extensive collection of 18th - 19th century samovars as well as a large number of items used to drinking tea: - dishes, coasters, tea-caddies, urns, boxes for sweets and gingerbread boards. One can enjoy a cup of tea here surrounded by antique samovars, with traditional cakes, bagels and bread rings.

Tver State Circus will celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2014. Several times its buildings have burned down but each time they were replaced with a new structure. An old and wooden structure built on the banks of the Volga until 1971, when it was replaced by modern stone circus building, where performances are held today. A branch of the Russian State Circus Company, the Tver Circus is considered one of the most skilled in the country. It has performed all over Russia, produced many famous Russian circus artists and has toured China, Vietnam, Romania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia and Hungary.

Near Tver

Zavidovo National Park contained a hunting hut used by Ivan the Terrible. In the 1920s, Lenin hunted here. During the Soviet era, deer, deer and wild boars were brought to the reserve to and Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, and other members of the Politburo, liked to stay here and hunt. The hunts in Zavidovo was serviced by more than 400 military personnel. Hams, other smoked meats, fresh meat and hunting sausages were delivered to those who wanted them in ceramic barrels. The park is closed to outsiders.

Novotorzhsk Borisoglebsky Monastery (in Torzhok, 40 kilometers northwest of Tver) is medieval monastery, possibly dating back to the 11th century, with existing buildings that date back to the time of Ivan the Terrible. In 1925, much of the monastery was destroyed, and a maximum-security prison was built on its land and remained there for 50 years. After that, the monastery was turned into an occupational therapy rehabilitation center for alcoholics. In 1993, services there resumed.

By some reckonings Novotorzhsk Borisoglebsky Monastery is the oldest monastery in Russia. In the 1990s and 2000s, archaeological excavations revealed ceramics dating back to the 11th-13th centuries along with ruins, building fragments and wall paintings of a white-stone Boris and Gleb Cathedral from the late 12th century, The cathedral appears to have been built by Smolensk masters during the reign of David Rostislavovich (1140–1197)

According to a 17th century hagiography, the monastery was founded in 1038 by the boyar Efrem, former equerry of Vladimir I Svyatoslavovich, the Prince of Kiev, and patronized by his son Prince Boris. Upon the murder of princes and brothers Boris and Gleb by their brother Svyatopolk, Efrem decided to leave social life and build a monastery on the bank of the Tvertsa river. As legend has it, first building Efrem founded was on a hill near the river. In 1038, he built a cathedral there consecrated in the name of princes Boris and Gleb, after whom monastery was later named.

Vyshnevolotskaya Water System

Vyshny Volochyok Water System (100 kilometers northwest of Tver) is the oldest water system in Russia. Established by a decree in Peter the Great in 1703, it brings together more than 1,414 kilometers (879 miles) of waterways between Rybinsk in the Yaroslavl region and St. Petersburg, linking the the Msta river with the Tvertsa river, a tributary of the Volga — thus making it possible to supply St. Petersburg with food and other goods from Central Russia. The first canal was built in the Vldai Hills, an area used for portage between lakes and rivers and the Tvertsa. Construction was led by the king's steward based on a plan devised by Dutch engineers. More than 6000 people were put to work digging the channel. After six years, the first part — the 2.8-kilometer-long, 15-meter-wide channel — was completed. However, there were problems, the floodgates were too low and there wasn’t enough water flow for the passage of ships.

Later more trustworthy channels were built that were largely financed by merchants and private enterprises. Under these system new sections were added gradually over time. The project was given in a big boost in 1785 when Catherine the Great conducted a "General inspection" and took a 10-day trip on the water to St. Petersburg and signed an imperial order establishing Vyshny Volocheck as an official town. After this stone locks and dams were erected instead of wooden ones and the Tveretsky and Tsninsky canals, built by the Novgorod merchant Mikhail Serdyukov Syerdyukov in 1722, was strengthened with huge granitic slabs. In 1802 Obvodny canal was dug.

Vyshny Volochyok was often visited by Pushkin, who wrote about the water system in the "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg" and the "History of Peter I”, By the 1830s and 40s 5000 vessels a year passed through the waterway and the total value of goods reached 100 million rubles. In the mid 19th century the waterway declined in importance when the cost-effective and resilient Mariinsky water system and the Nikolaev railway were opened..

Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl (250 kilometers northeast of Moscow on the Volga River) is a city of 600,000 that spreads for 30 kilometers on both sides of the Volga River. Founded by Prince of Kievan Russia Yaroslav-the-Wise (988-1010) as a small wooden fortress on the confluence of two rivers, it is a large but pleasant place famous for its well-preserved churches and historical buildings in the center of the town. According to one legend the city was founded at a place where Prince Yaroslav killed a sacred bear with his axe.

Until the 13th century, Yaroslavl had belonged to the territory of Rostov Principality. In 1218 it became the capital of Yaroslavl Principality. The city of Yaroslavl started developing in 1463 when Yaroslavl Principality joined the powerful Moscow state. Starting in the 16th century, after several fires, the original wooden town was gradually rebuilt in stone. In the 16th and 17th century it grew rich from trade between Europe and the Middle East and for time was the second largest city in Russia after Moscow.

The Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; According to UNESCO: “Situated at the confluence of the Volga and Kotorosl Rivers, the historic city of Yaroslavl developed into a major commercial centre from the 11th century. It is renowned for its numerous 17th-century churches and is an outstanding example of the urban planning reform Empress Catherine the Great ordered for the whole of Russia in 1763. While keeping some of its significant historic structures, the town was renovated in the neoclassical style on a radial urban master plan. It has also kept elements from the 16th century in the Spassky Monastery, one of the oldest in the Upper Volga region, built on the site of a pagan temple in the late 12th century but reconstructed over time.” [Source: UNESCO]

Getting There: The local airport is 18 kilometers from the city. Airplanes from Moscow, Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi, Simferopol, Krasnodar arrive here. Most tourists from Moscow come by train. The travel time is from three to five hours, and the ticket price is 1,500-2,000 rubles per person. By bus it takes at least 5 hours and ticket cost 700-1,000 rubles. Buses run every two hours on weekdays; on weekends — less often. To get to Yaroslavl by car one drives along M8 federal highway. If uou don’t stop and the traffic is not a problem it is possible to make the journey in about 3½ hours. It takes 12 hours by train to reach Yaroslavl from St. Petersburg, with tickets going for 1,600–2,500 rubles. Planes fly several times a week from St. Petersburg. The travel time 1.5 hours. By car it takes more than 10 hours.

Sights in Yaroslavl

Sights in Yaroslavl include the magnificent 13th-century Spassky Monastery, a group of 17th century cathedrals, an elegant rotunda, a belltower with good views of the city, the remnants of an ancient trading center and a number of museums. The church of St. John the Baptist has 15 domes and outstanding murals. The Church of the Epiphany has bright exterior ceramic tiles and a carved iconostasis.

Altogether Yaroslavl has about 50 churches. The loveliest church in the city is the church of Elijah the Prophets situated in the town's central square. Financed by contributions from 17th century merchants, it features an iconostasis and, sometimes, black-cassocked monks chanting parts of Bortniansky’s concertos. The frescoes on the walls and the vaulting inside the church constitute a veritable museum of Russian painting. Many of the finest works are painted in a realistic style by members of the Kostroma school.

The Yaroslav Art Museum (Yaroslavl State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, in the Metropolitan Palace, boasts 100 icons from the 13th to the 19th century, many of which were taken from churches destroyed in the 1920s and 30s. Climb the belfry, which offers wonderful views of the city and the river. There is a promenade along the river and a number other churches and merchants home scattered around the city. Pleasant boat trips along the Volga can also be arranged.

Historical Centre of Yaroslavl

Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl was inscribed at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. According to UNESCO: “The Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl is the oldest part and the kernel of development of one of the most ancient, rich, and well preserved Russian cities. The historic centre is a representative example of the development of the planning structures of ancient Russian cities, which was subject to regular urban re-development as a part of unique town-planning reform pursued by Empress Catherine the Great at the end of 18th century. Solutions developed and implemented in Yaroslavl ensured preservation of the historical environment and spatial integrity in the central part of the city. The Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl became a recognised model in the art of town planning during the Neoclassical Age, which has organically incorporated ancient elements of the city’s historical structure. [Source: UNESCO]

“The historical centre of Yaroslavl comprises a large number of town-planning elements representing the development of Russian architecture of the 16th to 18th centuries. The property consists of the historic centre of the city, the Slobody, forming roughly a half circle with radial streets from the centre. It is essentially Neoclassical in style, with harmonious and uniform streetscapes. Most residential and public buildings are two to three storeys high along wide streets and urban squares. A specific and unique feature of Yaroslavl is the existence of numerous 16th- and 17th-century churches and monastic ensembles with valuable mural paintings and iconostases, which are outstanding in terms of their architecture, as dominant town-planning elements and composition centres. The main merits of the town-planning structure and architectural face of Yaroslavl city centre are the rational approach to activation of artistic values of the past within the city system, and the subordination of further architectural constructions to them, using the contrast between picturesque ancient churches and distinctly regular, symmetrical, composed classical buildings of the later periods. Another particularity is the organic use of the rich natural landscape at the junction of two rivers, with their picturesque banks and wide water expanses. They reveal marvellous sights of well-equipped embankments with the best buildings constructed there.”

The site is important because: 1) The Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl with its 17th-century churches and its neoclassical radial urban plan and civic architecture is an outstanding example of the interchange of cultural and architectural influences between Western Europe and the Russian Empire. 2) It is “an outstanding example of the town-planning reform ordered by Empress Catherine The Great in the whole of Russia, implemented between 1763 and 1830.”

Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Holy Transfiguration Monastery (in Yaroslavl) was founded in the 12th century and was one of Russia’s richest and best-fortified monasteries. The oldest surviving structures, dating from 1516, are the Holy Gate near the main entrance by the river and the Cathedral of the Transfiguration. A great view of Yaroslavl and its rivers awaits those who climb to the top of the cathedral's bell tower.

The monastery was founded beyond the walls of Rubleny Gorod near the Kotorosl river crossing and was an important component of Yaroslavl’s defenses. In 1216-18 the monastery was built. It was the first religious school in northeastern Russia (later the school moved to Rostov). The Holy Transfiguration Cathedral was constructed in 1216-1224 along with the small Church of the Entry into Jerusalem, which has not survived. The monastery buildings were severely damaged by fire in 1501. In 1516 the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral was rebuilt, modeled after the Cathedral of the Annunciation and Arkhangelsk Cathedral in Moscow’s Kremlin. This structure, the oldest building in Yaroslavl, still stands today. Its frescoes, painted in 1563-1564, are the oldest paintings that survive from the time of Ivan the Terrible. Llocal artists and artists from Moscow created a large iconostasis, from which 13 icons have survived.

The bell tower and Refectory with the Cross (Christmas) church were built in the 16th century. The monastery became the most fortified part of the city. Ivan the Terrible liked to visit it. By the end of the 1560s, the tsar had provided 55 grant charters for six large villages, and gave over 200 small villages, fisheries, and salt works tax exemptions.

In 1609, during the Times of Trouble, the Holy Transfiguration monastery held out during a month-long siege by Pan Budzilo and Commander Naumov, while the rest of Yaroslavl was captured. Minin and Pozharsky began their journey to Moscow in 1612 from the walls of this monastery. Future tsar Mikhail Romanov stayed at the monastery in from in March and April 1613, while on his way from the Monastery of St. Ipaty to Moscow. From here he sent his first letter with the consent to take the throne. The monastery was closed in the Soviet era. The Yaroslavl Historical and Architectural Reserve Museum took over the the monastery in the 1950s, after a restoration and remains the owner of the property today. The Official Tourist Portal of Yaroslavl Region / tourism.yarregion.ru

Uglich

Uglich (160 miles north of Moscow, on the Moscow-Volga Canal) is where Ivan the Terrible sent his seventh wife to live in honorary exile, and where his nine-year-old son Dmitri was murdered in 1591, presumably on orders by the boyar Boris Godunov, who became tsar eight years later. Impersonators called the false Dimitis appeared on the seen in the Times of Troubles to claim the throne.

Uglich is a charming and nicely situated small town founded in 1148. Known for its unique architecture and plentiful greenery, it boasts two splendid old churches surrounded by trees, that can be seen from the canal. The Church of Nativity of John the Baptist is made of white stone and has a half dozen or so green domes which also are crowned with gold crosses. The other church, , was built on the site where Dimitri’s body was found. Frescoes this church recount Dmitri's death. An old palace contains on icon of Dimtri portrayed as a saint. The church itself is a pink and white building topped by navy blue onion domes with gold stars which in turn are crowned with gold crosses. Uglich contains a small vodka museum. It is also known for its singing monks, Sunday flea market and watch factories.

Among the places of interest are the Uspenskaya Divnaya Church and the chamber of the palace of the apanage princes. There are many monasteries and merchant mansions Modern museums include the Bicycle Museum, the Museum of Hydropower, Dolls Museum, the Russian Vodka Museum and the Prison Life Museum.

Myshkin (Mouse Town) (20 kilometers north of Uglich on the Volga) is the home of the five-room Mouse Museum or “mouseum.” Many of the 1,500 item on display are paintings and clay figures. Inspired by a fairy tale about a prince who was saved from a snake by a mouse scurrying across his face, it contains a history of mice and examines their roles in popular fairy tales. Myshkin means “Mouse town.”

Church of St. Dimitri on the Blood

The Church of St. Dimitri on the Blood (in Uglich), built at the site of the tragic death of Ivan the Terrible's infant son Dmitri, is the best known church in Uglich. A small chapel was built here right after the death of the tsarevich. It was there for a short time, until the town was devastated by the Poles in 1611. The wooden hip-roof church of Tsarevich Dmitry and the warm (winter) Church of Michael the Archangel nearby were constructed in 1630 in its place. The church contained a tomb that had been moved over the very place where the blood of Dmitry was spilled. According to legend, blood came out of the earth each time on the anniversary of Dmitry's death. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who visited Uglich in 1654, saw this miracle. Struck by what he saw, he donated a cross to the church icon.

A new stone church — in which the ground floor was the Church of Michael the Archangel and the upper floor was the church of Tsarevich Dmitry — was built in place of the wooden one in 1692. It was built in the bright Moscow style characteristic of the time. The drop-forged door (17th century) made of “plank-iron” and the floor covered in the 18th century with cast iron plates are preserved in the church refectory. The interior was decorated in 1778 by the craftsman Peter Khlebnikov with the pictures from the biblical legends on the Creation of the World and the Fall of Adam and Eve and Their Expulsion.

A large composition on Uglich events dated May 15, 1591, occupies the western wall of the church. The relics connected with the death of tsarevich Dmitry are exposed here as well, including the mica lamp, litter, and shrine in which the relics of the tsarevich were carried in 1606 from Uglich to Moscow. The iconostasis built in 1867 holds the old icon of Holy Mother of Smolensk, a contribution by tsar Mikhail Fedorovich to the first wooden church in 1630. The rare subscribed icon Christ Pantocrator was made in the Armory in 1696.

The exiled bell of Uglich can be called the most outstanding exhibit of the church. It was a participant of the tragic event on May 15, 1591, and tolled the death of the tsarevich. Rousing the citizens with its tolling and calling upon them to the riot against the people of Boris Godunov, the bell was thrown down from the chapel as if it had been a person, deprived of the sign of the cross, of the tongue, and of one ear, was beaten 12 times with whips, and exiled to Tobolsk. The dwellers of Uglich many times tried to return the alarm bell to its homeland. They managed to do it only at the end of the 19th century. On May 20 (June 3), 1892, a steamboat carrying the alarm bell moored at the quay opposite the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour. The citizens welcomed it shouting “Hurray!”.

The inscription on the bell reads: “This bell tolled the murder of right-believing tsarevich Dmitry. In 1593 it was sent from Uglich to exile to Tobolsk, to the Church of Savior, and later was moved to the clock of Sofia's Chapel.” Currently one of the departments of the Uglich State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum is situated in the Church of Dmitri on the Blood.

Moscow-Volga Canal

Rostov the Great

Rostov-Veliky (55 kilometers south of Yaroslavl) is a charming town of 40,000 with some splendid old building beautifully situated on a lake. First mentioned in A.D. 862, making it one of Russia's oldest towns, it is regarded by many as being more pleasant than Suzdal because it has an undiscovered feel to it and you can stay in some of the old buildings.

Among the sights are the 17th century kremlin, with gate churches, museums and churches; collections of Orthodox church vestments; the Cathedral of the Assumption, with five stunning onion domes and a belfry with 13 bells, the largest of which weighs 32 tones. Two monasteries flank the kremlin on the lake shore. There are also old trading arcades. The best view of the kremlin is from the lake. Rowboats can be rented.

The most striking sights of Rostov the Great are the stone churches, the Rostov Kremlin, the Assumption Cathedral, the Abrahamiev Epiphany Monastery, and the Church of the Ascension of the Lord. The town’s Orthodox churches architecture attracts thousands of tourists and pilgrims every year, and not only from Russia. Some come to study the rich history of the region; some comes to touch the Christian shrines.

Rostov Kremlin

Rostov Kremlin was nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998. According to a report submitted to UNESCO: “Rostov Kremlin is placed in the center of Rostov Veliky (the Great), on the hill of the side of the Lake Nero. The Kremlin consistod of three independent areas. The central one (Bishop's Yard) is fenced by high walls with towers. Two other smaller parts are: north-Sobomaya Square; soth-territory of Gregory Seclusion. [Source: UNESCO]

“In the second half of the 17th century in the time of Metropolitan Ioan Sysojevich these three parts were united and the integral architectural ensemble was created. High fortress walls with 11 towers enclose metropolitan residence. Above the solemn gate from the south and west temples flanked with towers. Metropolitan Chambers, personal church, "palace for grand sovereigns' advents and others set inside the yard. Metropolitan Residence is one of the best Old Russian ensembles reached our days. It combines masterpieces of Old Russian architecture and monumental painting. In Rostov Bishop's Yard (Rostov Kremlin) there is Museum under the State protection "Rostov Kremlin" which is included into the State Code of especially valuable objects of cultural heritage of Russia.”

The Rostov Kremlin state museum-reserve is one of the largest museums in Yaroslavl Oblast. It containw about 200,000 items, including icon paintings from the 13th–19th centuries, works of Russian painting from the 18th–early 20th centuries, fne examples of Rostov enamel, works of decorative and applied arts, and archeological finds. Among the affiliated exhibitions are the Museum of Rostov Merchants (the estate of the Kekiny merchant family), the Children's Museum Center (the house of the Koperiny merchant family), and the church of John the Apostle on the River Ishna (17th century).

Rybinsk Reservoir

Rybinsk Reservoir often called the Rybinsk Sea, is a water reservoir on the Volga River and its tributaries Sheksna and Mologa, formed by Rybinsk Hydroelectric Station dam, located in the Tver, Vologda, and Yaroslavl Oblasts. At the time of its construction, it was the largest man-made body of water on Earth. It is situated the northernmost point of the Volga. The Volga-Baltic Waterway starts from there. Its principal ports are Cherepovets in Vologda Oblast and Vesyegonsk in Tver Oblast.

The construction of the huge dam near Rybinsk began in 1935. Much of the work wasdone by Russian "volunteers" and German prisoners of war between 1941 and 1946. It was the first of three massive hydroelectric projects that submerged forests, villages and towns, and transformed the Volga into a "series of six massive inland seas, some with coastlines of more that 3000 miles."

The filling of the reservoir started in 1941 and continued until 1947. Some 150,000 people had to be resettled elsewhere, and the historic town of Mologa in Yaroslavl Oblast along with 663 villages were completely submerged. Today the dam is less important for hydroelectric power supply than it used to be, and the ecological damage caused by the reservoir is being reassessed, with some saying it is a typical example of Stalinism in which a bold nationalist projects was pursued with total disregard for the local people affected by the project.

Cherepovets

Cherepovets (on the Volga River) is located a few miles north of a town that was submerged by the Rybinsk reservoir. The dome of the Lyubets church can often be seen piercing through the surface and 20 years ago you could see the entire town in the eight-meter-deep water before it was covered with silt and mud.

On Cherepovets, Ian Frazier wrote in The New Yorker: ““If that city consists of buildings, like a conventional city, you couldn’t prove it by me, because all I saw of it was complicated highway ramps among a forest of power-line towers. The towers were everywhere, many stories high, sometimes clustering right up next to one another like groves of trees all striving for the daylight.” [Source: Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, August 3, 2009, Frazier is author of “Travels in Siberia” (2010)]

Roads Between St. Petersburg and Moscow and Cherepovets

Ian Frazier wrote in The New Yorker: “Past the city, we turned onto the Murmansk highway eastbound. Its four lanes soon became two. Trucks were speeding toward us in the downpour. I thought Sergei was driving too fast but I couldn’t tell for sure, because the speedometer needle, which had been fluttering spasmodically, suddenly lay down on the left side of the dial and never moved again for the rest of the journey. After a couple of hours, we came to the highway leading southeast to Vologda, and we pulled over at the intersection. The rain had let up by then. The intersection appeared to be a popular place to stop, with broad aprons of gravel beside the pavement and trash strewn around. We got out to use the facilities, which were bushes and weeds that had seen such employment before. Near the intersection stood a ruined brick church with grass and small trees growing from its upper towers and from the broken-off parts where the onion domes had been. [Source: Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, August 3, 2009, Frazier is author of “Travels in Siberia” (2010)]

“The Vologda road led through rural places with people selling potatoes along the narrow shoulder and irregularly shaped yellow meadows sometimes opening widely to the horizon. Then birch forest thronged close around, and Sergei said we were going into a huge swamp where many men had died in battles with the Nazis. People still go back in the swamp and find rusted grenades and skulls in helmets, he said. This conversation got Volodya talking about Ivan Susanin, the heroic Russian peasant who deliberately misled a Polish army deep into a swamp in order to save the life of the first Romanov tsar, in the Time of Troubles, during the seventeenth century. The Poles, discovering the trick too late, killed Ivan Susanin before perishing themselves. He is the main character of Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar,” Volodya told me. (Later, in my more uncertain moods, I wondered if my guides might be Ivan Susanin, and the Polish army might be me.)

The woods continued; now we came to a rotary completely enclosed by forest. On a pedestal in the middle of the rotary, pointing nose upward as if about to swoop into the sky, was a bright silver MIG fighter jet. I had never seen a MIG up close. We had passed no airbases or factories that I recalled, so I couldn’t figure out what it was doing here. Sergei seemed not to know, either. The shiny MIG was a strange object encountered inexplicably in a dark forest, spaceship-like.

“The Vologda road had become a spill of pavement, untrimmed along its edges, with scalloping where the poured asphalt had flowed. Small villages followed, one after another, at regular intervals, roadside signs announcing their names. Often I looked up the names in my pocket Russian-English dictionary to see what they meant. According to my translations (verified by Sergei), that day we went through villages named Puddle, Jellies, Knee, New Knee, and Smokes.

“All along the road, sometimes to heights of ten or twelve feet, grew a plant that Volodya identified as morkovnik. This plant resembles a roadside weed in America called Queen Anne’s lace—except that morkovnik is like our modest, waist-high plant drastically and Asiatically enlarged. Queen Anne’s lace and morkovnik are in fact related, both belonging to the carrot family (morkov’ means “carrot”). Along the route we travelled, morkovnik grows abundantly from one end of Russia to the other.

“In early afternoon, we stopped at an informal rest area like the one at the intersection of the Murmansk and Vologda roads. Here for the first time I encountered big-time Russian roadside trash. Very, very few trash receptacles exist along the roads of Russia. This rest area, and its ad-hoc picnic spots, with their benches of downed tree trunks, featured a ground layer of trash basically everywhere, except in a few places, where there was more. In the all-trash encirclement, trash items had piled themselves together here and there in heaps three and four feet tall, as if making common cause. With a quick kicking and scuffing of nearby fragments, Sergei rendered a place beside a log bench relatively trash free and then laid out our cold-chicken lunch on pieces of cellophane on the ground. I ate hungrily, though I did notice through the cellophane many little pieces of broken eggshell from some previous traveller’s meal.

“Back on the Vologda road, we continued in the direction of Cherepovets. After not many kilometres, the warning light for the engine generator lit up on the dashboard, making a companion for the oil-pressure light, which had never gone off. I expected that soon every warning light on the dashboard would be glowing. I pointed out the generator light to Sergei, and to humor me he said that we would stop and have the generator looked at in Cherepovets.

Volga–Baltic Waterway

Pereslavl-Zalessky

Pereslavl-Zalessky(150 kilometers northeast of Moscow and 150 kilometers southwest of Yaroslavl) is where Alexander Nevsky and, according to some sources, Tsarevich Fyodor, the last representative of the Rurik dynasty, were born. Located on the shore of Lake Pleshcheyevo, It is a nice town. Along the Pereslavl earthen ramparts and the arboretum are nice places for a stroll. Transfiguration Cathedral was founded by Yuri Dolgoruky in the 12th century. You can also visit the six monasteries, which are majestic complexes of buildings.

The Transfiguration Cathedral of Pereslavl-Zalessky has been nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the earliest and best-preserved examples of northeastern medieval Russian architecture. Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (1090-1157) was the sixth son of Vladimir Monomakh, a ruler of the Kievan State. It fortifications were among the largest in medieval Russia. The area of the Pereslavl Kremlin is about 28 hectares, while the fortified part of the Upper Town of Kiev, the capital of the Kievan Rus occupied only 10 hectares. The rampart city wall of Pereslavl has been preserved intact, which makes it an invaluable monument of Old Russian defensive architecture.

Four kilometers from Pereslavl-Zalessky in the village of Veskovo is the Peter the Great's Boat Museum, one of the oldest museums in Russia. Its main attraction is the “Fortuna “, a preserved Peter the Great's Boat, and forerunner of early Russian Navy ships, which the emperor had built it here. The White Palace in Botik is the main building of the museum. There are two monuments to Peter, the ship and a triumphal gate as well as historical exhibits. The museum is open May-October from 10:00am to 6:00pm; October-May, from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Monday it is closed.

Lake Pleshcheyevo

Lake Pleshcheyevo(beside Pereslavl-Zalessky) is large lake with an area of more than 50 square kilometers formed formed thousands of years ago as a result of glacial movement. The lake is fed by 19 rivers and streams but has only one outlet: the Veksa river, which is only eight kilometers long, and and connects Lake Pleshcheyevo with the Volga through Lake Somino and the River Nerl Volzhskaya. The Pereslavl lake is home to more than 16 species of fish, including burbot, pike, roach, and the famous whitefish — a very rare freshwater herring.

The history of Lake Pleshcheyevo and Pereslavl-Zalessky have been intertwined. The beautiful places along the hilly shores of the lake were often used to build orthodox monasteries and churches that were frequently visited by grand dukes and tsars. For Peter the Great the lake was like an inland sea used for maritime experiments. Some consider it the birthplace of the Russian Navy.

Blue Stone in Lake Pleshcheeva is said to be part of an ancient pagan temple and is regarded as one of the few authentic ritual objects preserved from pagan times in Russia. The name the stone is derived from the fact that after its rain the color of the stone varies from gray to blue.

The Blue Stone, according to one story, was an object of worship of the Meria people, pagans of the Novgorod region. Located at the foot of Yarilin mountain, the stone was considered the heart Yarily — god of the sun — and was decorated with flowers and ribbons. Circle dances were performed around it. According to another story, the boulder was the sanctuary of the god Veles, the patron of herdsmen, tillers and healers. According to legend, the stone originally was on Yarilin mountain. In 1152 it was taken from the mountains and placed at its foot where it rested peacefully for more than six hundred years. The “Life of Saint Irinarkh Rostov” says that the saint-monk was advised by his friend Deacon Onufriev to bury the stone. He did so and then, according to the text, became seriously ill. The stone lay buried for some time, and then was exposed, presumably form water erosion.

As the story continues, in 1788, the Blue Stone was chosen to be in the foundation of a church built on the banks of Dukhovsky Murmazha, a tributary of the Trubezh river, which flows into Lake Pleshcheyevo. The Blue Stone was placed on a big sled and taken across the ice of Lake Pleshcheeva. But ice broke and the stone sank in the water, but a depth of less than two meters. Seventy years later, the Blue Stone "floated" to the shore of the lake, north of its former location. Today, the Blue Stone, for unclear reasons has sunk into the ground. In the 1970 it stood as tall as as a man. Now it rises to less than knee height..

The Blue Stone is comprised of fine-grained quartz biotite shale. The blue color is formed on the refractive surface of stone due to the reflection of light from the biotite and quartz grains and flakes. The stone is 3.1 meters long, 2.6 meters high and 0.6 meters,thick and dotted with small tubercles.. According to recent studies, it weighs about 12 tons. The stone surface’s is studded with coins and flowers. Ribbons and patches hang from the nearby bushes. Some people bring gifts and tie ribbons. Others bring objects and and "charge" them in the Blue Stone’s energy field, and then using them as amulets.

Kostroma

Kostroma(160 kilometers north of Vladimir, 65 kilometers east of Yaroslavl, 330 kilometers northeast of Moscomw on the Volga River) is the birthplace of the Romonav dynasty — Russia's last lines of tsars. Founded in 1152, Kostroma was once a lovely city but is now a drab textile center with 300,000 residents. Kostroma's pride and joy is the Ipatyevsky Monastery. Founded in the 14th century by the Zemov family, the Mongol ancestors of Boris Godunov, it contains a cathedral with golden domes, old frescoes by local painters and a number of buildings with associations to the Godunovs and Romonavs and crypts for members of both families.

The city of Kostroma is one of the oldest Russian cities and the administrative, cultural and industrial center of the Kostroma region. There are several interpretations of the city's name: 1) from the Finno-Ugric “kostrum”, for fortress; 2) from the pagan deity Kostroma, the embodiment of fertility and spring, and 3) from kostra, flax products. The main square of Kostroma is called Susanina Square. Previously is was known as Yekaterinoslavskaya.

Kostroma is considered to be the Russian capital of jewelery, linen, and cheese (it produces 80 varieties and once had 120 cheese factories) has a special place in Russian history as Mikhail Romanov was elected tsar here, Ivan Susanin accomplished his heroic deed, saving Mikhail Romanov from the Polish invaders, and the writer Alexander Ostrovsky settled with a tribe of Berendeys in the forest. Legends and fairy tales also have a strong hold on Kostroma. It is regarded as the home of Snow Maiden of Veliky Ustyug, granddaughter of Santa Claus.

Getting There: Kostroma is 344 kilometers from and 932 kilometers from St. Petersburg. By car, the journey time from Moscow is about four hours, from St. Petersburg, 12 hours. Kostroma is well connected by buses to Moscow and cities and towns in the region and neighboring regions. A ticket to Yaroslavl costs 350 rubles, to Vladimir, 1100 rubles; to Moscow, 200 rubles; to Nizhny Novogorod, 2300 rubles; to Ivanovo, 660 rubles (all price, adult round-trip). By Train: Kostroma is easily reached from Moscow by train and is a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railroad A reserved seat to Kostroma costs 1500 rubles, a compartment — 4800. There are no direct trains from St. Petersburg to Kostroma except during the new year holidays (from December 27 to January 8). The adult ticket price is 3408 rubles. Other times, you can get to St. Petersburg with a transfer in Moscow. By plane: There are no planes from Moscow, but there are planes from St. Petersburg on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in An-26 and An26-100 planes. Tickets are 6400 rubles on weekdays and 7800 on Fridays and Sundays (economy rate per adult round-trip).

History in Kostroma

The history of Kostroma begin with the generally accepted legend that in 1152, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky arrived in the region with his army to protect people from bandit raids and established a fortress town at the confluence of the Sula River in the Volga. The first chronicle mention of Kostroma as a significant city is in 1213. Kostroma became the capital of the Kostroma principality the middle of the 13th century. In the first half of the 14th century it became part of the principality of Moscow.

Kostroma's location on the Volga bank affected its development. The city was at the crossroads of important water and land trade routes. Thanks to a favorable strategic position, the city more than once served as a refuge for Moscow princes from sudden raids by Tatars and rivals in the struggle for the grand reign. At the beginning of the 15th century, Kostroma was already a fairly large city with a large number of inhabitants.

At the beginning of the 17th century, Russia was plunged into the Time of Troubles. Shortly after the expulsion of the invaders, Kostroma was at the center of events that shaped Russian history. In 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected Mikhail F. Romanov, who was in the Ipatiev Monastery at that time, to be tsar. After the accession of Mikhail Fyodorovich, representatives of the House of Romanov began to honor Ipatiev Monastery as their family shrine. It was thus considered a duty of the Russian monarchy to visit Kostroma. Each visit brought something new to the city.

For example, the city owes its coat of arms — “the galley under the Imperial Standard in a blue field, rowing on the river, depicted in natural colors on a shield” — to Catherine the Great. While traveling through the Volga cities on the Tver galley, the empress, struck the magnificent reception she received in Kostroma and ordered “to make the city and the county the Kostroma coat of arms, which I intend to honor them with.” So, Kostroma became the first city in Russia to receive its own (city) coat of arms.

There is a story that the city owes its layout to the empress too. Until the 18th century, all buildings of Kostroma were wooden, so the city repeatedly suffered from fires. After one particularly bad fire destroyed almost all the houses and churches, it became clear that it was time to do something. However, in order to implement the new layout of the city, it would've been necessary to demolish most of the buildings that survived the fire. Having learned about the town-planning problems of the inhabitants, Catherine the Great solved the problen simply and elegantly. She dropped an open fan on the map of the Volga and said: “Build it like this.” The plan for Kostroma was developed in 1784 and carried out soon afterwards. The streets, fanning out from the main city square, were named after the grandchildren of Catherine II.

The events of the Time of Troubles (1598—1613) reminded the residents of Kostrama of the need for additional fortification. The New City — fortified with moats and surrounded by a wooden wall with twenty-three towers and six gates, a commercial and industrial plant and settlements around it — was built because of this need. The city traded, prospered and was rebuilt. Stone monasteries and churches were built; traditions of mural and icon painting developed.

A new stage in the development of the region began in the 1620s. A big shopping arcade that offered meat, flour, salt, pastry, icons, iron and fur coats was opened in Kostroma. There were new settlements — Kuznetsk, Yamskaya, Rybnaya and Kirpichnaya — and these names have been preserved in the names of streets to the present day. Of the Kostroma crafts, soap-making, linen and tanning were especially famous. The growth of the economy benefitted the development of the city, turning it into one of the centers of Russian culture. At the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, a unique ensemble of trade rows and administrative and public buildings was built. These survive today and provided a model of Russian town-planning adopted by other urban areas. In 1913 Kostroma was the center of celebrations dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the royal dynasty.

Sights in Kostroma

The old town of Kostroma is one of the few places in Russia that has retained its 18th century layout. Most of the buildings found here date back to the 18th and 19th century. Many historical Russian films have been shot here. The buildings include a 19th-century working firetower, a former military jail, a hotel for noblemen, an early 18th-century place, merchants houses, a town hall and an art museum. The Museum of Wooden Architecture contains peasant houses, churches and windmills. Nearby are some brightly painted wooden buildings that were used for an Italian-Russian film called “Black Eyes.” There is also a 14th-century monastery and a 17th century church.

Snegurochka (Ice Maiden) Residence and Academy of Winter Miracles (central Kostroma) offers entertaining, educational, and interactive programs for children. The legend of Snegurochka comes to us from ancient times. The great Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky placed her home in the lands of Kostroma after he wrote the spring fairy tale “Snegoruchka” at his mansion in Shchelykovo. Ever since then, Kostroma has been considered the rightful birthplace of Snegurochka. Every Russian child has read the stories about the magic mirror, the well with the water of life, and the candy rain. The facility makes an effort to bring the stories and the characters to life as swell as teach magic tricks and let visitors touch the top of the New Year's tree, get carried away in the center of a snow storm, and make a wish. The Maiden Tower is another amusement place for children.

Fire Tower (on the main square of Kostroma, called the Susanina square (previously, Yekaterinoslavskaya). was built in the 1830s according to the following instructions: “The city needs a proper fire tower, which will serve both as a decoration and protection for the citizens in case of a fire.” The provincial architect P. I. Fursov designed the project of the tower. These days, the fire tower is one of the five buildings, forming the main complex of the Kostroma State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve. Inside the tower, visitors will find the tour office, where they can buy tickets to any exhibition of the museum and book tours around the city and region.

Kostroma State Historical-architectural and Art Museum-Reserve is the largest cultural institution of the Kostroma region and is comprised a parent museum in Kostroma, and 10 branches elsewhere with a total of 600,000 items. The buildings in the k6-rserve are former Noble Assembly, Romanovsky museum, Storage Facility, fire tower, a former guardhouse, the Governor's House and one of the buildings of the fish series

Kostroma Museum-Reserve is one of the oldest museum of wooden architecture in Russia. Founded in the 1950s and located at two sites, the facility has around 30 buildings. Among them aremedieval Church of the Kostroma region — Cathedral Church of the Virgin — from the village of Holm, dated to 1552; houses by built by the master Yemelyan Zirinova, adorned with rare "blind" ship Volga thread; and the house of the peasant Ivan Skobelkina from the village Strelnikova, built in the 18th century. Along the shore of the river stretches leisurely Igumenka real village street. Several times a year the museum hosts festivals of traditional folk crafts such as blacksmithing, pottery and weaving. The museum is open from early May to late September 10:00am to 5:00pm. From October to April it is open from 9.00am to 5.00pm.

Historical Shopping Areas of Kostroma

Merchants Rows (Gostiny Dvor or , Red Rows) are an outstanding example of Russian civil architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. Since earl medieval times the area near the now gone Kremlin has been a place of trade. In 1787 according to the new general plan, the town’s magistrate made the decision to build the trade pavilions for foodstuff and haberdashery (Merchants Rows and Gostinyi Dvor). The building was finished in 1796, with antium facing to the Volga at southwestern gate of the court and a bell-tower above the passage. 1820 the inner galley was extended by the structures of the Gauntlet and Cloth rows. In 1830-1832 the courtyard of Gostiny Dvor was built up with four stone pavilions containing small shops. In 1874-1875 two more pavilions were added in the northwest part of the yard.

Shopping Arcade (on central Galich Square) is one of the best history shopping complexes preserved to our time in Russia. , is a bright monument of the provincial public architecture in the Empire style. The first part of it — four L-shaped corps standing along the perimeter of the rectangular courtyard in the eastern part of the square in Gostiny Dvor — was built in the 1820s. This project envisaged the construction of two squares, each consisting of four identical L-shaped corps with passages between them, that led into an internal square courtyard (the so-called Upper Shopping Arcade). When the work was there were only three buildings in each square, as the two eastern buildings remained unfinished.

In 1825, merchants who traded bread and flour, asked for the construction of 16 stone shops in front of the Gostiny Dvor. The design of the two buildings (the so-called Lower Shopping Arcade) was constructed in 1828-1830. Later, behind the stone buildings a second row of wooden shops appeared. The courtyards of the Upper Shopping Arcade were gradually built up with wooden shops and barns with canopies that rested on pillars. During the restoration of the complex of the Gostiny Dvor in the 1970s, two unfinished buildings of the Upper Shopping Arcade were completed in accordance with the original design.

Ipatiev Monastery

Ipatyevsky Monastery is Kostroma's most important historical complex. Founded in the 14th century by the Zemov family, the Mongol ancestors of Boris Godunov, it contains a cathedral with golden domes, old frescoes by local painters and a number of buildings with associations to the Godunovs and Romonavs and crypts for members of both families.

Beginning in the autumn of 1612, Mikhail Romanov, the founder of the Romanov Dynasty of Tsars, lived here with his mother, the nun Marfa. Here he learned of his election to be the leader of Russia. In March, 1613 in the Trinity Church of the monastery he was crowned in a solemn rite, ushering in the 300-year rule of the last Russian tsarist dynasty. The monastery museum contains personal belongings of Mikhail Romanov and his mother. These are also icons, crosses, the gospel and other relics. Among the greatest treasures Sacred objects of the monastery: a wonder-working Tikhvin-Hypation icon of the Mother of God; a fragment of the robe of the Lord; relics of St. Hypatius of Gangra.

The Ipatyev Monastery of the Holy Trinity is the oldest preserved architectural ensemble of Kostroma and one of the most renowned Russian monasteries. It is located on the right bank of the Kostroma River at the confluence of the Kostroma and Volga rivers. The earliest historical records mentioning the monastery are dated to 1435, however its origin is sometimes said to date to the second part of the 13th century to the reign of Prince Vasily Kvashnya. According to the legend, Murza Chet, whose male-line descendants include such noblemen as the Godunovs, was the founder of the monastery.

The first church of the monastery was a wooden church of the Holy Trinity. The monastery’s stone Trinity Cathedral was erected in circa 1558 and included a side altar, dedicated to Philip the Apostle and the Martyr Ipaty. Construction of the second stone Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1564.

Many members of the Godunov family who patronized the monastery were buried in family vaults there. Extensive stone work on the monastery was done in the second half of the 16th century with the financial aid of the Godunov family. The retreat with its walls and towers turned into a real fortress. In 1609 the Ipatyev Monastery was occupied by the supporters of False Dimitri II, also known as the “the imposter of Tushino”, whose troops had been defeated by an alliance of the northern regions.

March 14, 1613 is an important day in Kostroma and Russian history. On that day, the Assembly of Land came to visit Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov and his mother nun Marpha who were staying at the Ipatyev Monastery at that time to announce Mikhail Romanov's election to the throne. The delegation was accompanied by a religious procession who carried a the miraculous icon of the Theodore Mother of God. Before the image in Kostroma’s church, Mikhail Fedorovich accepted synodical election. Since then Kostroma has been known as the cradle of the Romanov dynasty and the miraculous icon of the Theodore Mother of God has been considered a family shrine of the Russian sovereigns.

In 1642-1645 under the order of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich a few walls were built to adjoin the cloisters on the western side (the so-called “New Vity” with three towers). The Trinity Cathedral of the monastery was destroyed by the explosion of gunpowder in 1649 (the gunpowder was kept in the basement). The new Trinity Cathedral, founded in 1652, was adorned by the outstanding Kostroma icon-painters, Guriy Nikitin and Sila Savin. Their frescos covers vaults, dome drums, chamfers of windows, doors and walls. The beauty, composition, harmony of colors and elegance of ornamental decor adds both to the festivity and solemnity to the interior of the Cathedral. Under its arches is the locally-venerated, miracle-working Tikhvin-Hypation Icon of the Mother of God.

Up to the 18th century, the retreat’s library kept a unique chronicle (later it was called the Ipatyev chronicle). It was one of the oldest records of the Primary Chronicle. Since 1744, when Kostroma diocese was formed, the Ipatyev monastery has been the residence of Kostroma’s bishops and the Trinity Church has been Trinity Cathedral. The building of a new church in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Theotokos was completed in 1764.

In 1919 the Ipatyev monastery was closed and its monks were driven out of their dwellings. The Nativity of the Blessed Theotokos Cathedral was completely destroyed in the 1930s. In 1958 the former cathedral became the Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve. The Ipatyev Monastery was to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992. An agreement on joint use of the monastery ensemble by Kostroma diocese and the Museum-Reserve was signed in May 1993. Monks re-appeared in 1994. In 2004 the whole Ipatyev Monastery complex turned over to the Kosrtoma's diocese. Nowadays the complex includes the Trinity Cathedral, the Lazarevskiy Church (in the basement of the cathedral) and the Church dedicated to the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria. The Church Historical and Archaeological Museum is open for the tourists and guests of the monastery and receives many visitors every day.

Near Kostroma

Ancient Russian architecture has been preserved in the towns of Galich, and Nerekhta. Of special interest is the outdoor museum in the village of Berengeevka. Plyos (65 kilometers from Kostroma on the Volga) is a charming little town filed with trees and wooden houses. Volga cruises often stop here. It is lovely to take walks and soak up Russian country life. Sights include a simple church and small museum.

Sumarokovo Moose Farm (15 kilometers southeast of Kostroma) is the only established producer of moose (elk) milk in Russia at the moment. The Soviets tried to domesticate moose for meat and skins but not much came of it. But here in Sumarokovo you can find moose nursery with a few dozen animals. From May to October you can drink moose milk. People say it tastes fatty and salty. Tours from half an hour to an hour and a half — that cost 150 rubles for adults, 100 rubles for students and children — includes carrots-to feed the moose. You can buy a moose milk. In the gift shop, there are moose: mugs, plates and charms. You can get there by car or take a taxi.

The farm allows people to watch the life of moose in conditions similar to those found in nature. Here humans have managed to domesticate these forest giants, who are not scared to make contact with visitors. On the contrary, they love when the guests give them carrots and in exchange allow visitors to scratch them on the back. Every grownup moose carries on it a transmitter to facilitate their location in the woods. At the end of spring, one can watch newborn moose. The employees of the farm carefully hand-feed the babies. Moose milk is said to cure various diseases and illnesses.

Kologriv (200 kilometers northeast of Kostroma) is famous for being the geese capital of Russia. The Kologrivskaya Poyma National Breeding Ground is the only place in our country where, in the spring, thousands of geese live practically within the borders of a town. It does not happen anywhere else in Russia. Every spring tens of thousands of birds stop here to rest before before continuing their migration to the Arctic. For a month they rest in the fields and meadows of the Unzha river valley. Usually cautious, the birds live very close to people.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation (official Russia tourism website russiatourism.ru ), Russian government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Yomiuri Shimbun and various books and other publications.

Updated in September 2020