Kurba village

Historical significance

The village of Kurba is one of the oldest in the Yaroslavl region. The first mentions of Kurba date back to the 14th century. Prince Lev Kurbsky is mentioned in the "Legend of the Mamaev Massacre". The village of Kurba is also recorded among the towns and villages that sent troops to battle the Tatars on the icon "Sergius of Radonezh with the life and legend of the Mamayev Massacre", which is in storage at the Yaroslavl Art Museum.

In 1426, the grandson of Prince Fyodor Vasilyevich of Yaroslavl, Simeon, received the village of Kurbu as an allotment and became the founder of the family of princes Kurbsky. The Kurbskys were close to the grand ducal court, participated in battles with the Tatars, in the first Siberian campaigns, served in the ranks of voivodes and governors, participated in the work of the Boyar Duma. The last representative of the family, Andrei Kurbsky, was born in 1528. He was a friend and associate of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. According to oral traditions, Ivan and Andrey came to Kurba to hunt and stayed at the hunting castle. Andrey Kurbsky owned the village until 1564, when he left his family and service and fled to Lithuania. By order of Tsar Kurba, it was ravaged and burned, and a church in the name of Basil the Great was subsequently erected on the ruins of the destroyed stone tower and the Vasilievsky churchyard was formed.

After Kurbsky's flight, the village was assigned to the tsar, and subsequently given to various owners on the estate. In the XVIII – the first half of the XIX century, Kurba was owned by the landowners Naryshkins and Kamynins. In the middle of the 19th century, Kurba became the center of the parish. In 1852, there were 125 houses in the village, including eleven stone ones. Since ancient times, local residents have been engaged in trade and crafts. A fair was held here every year, where flax and its processed products occupied the main place since the middle of the 19th century. In 1869, the Zemstvo national school was opened in Kurba with a three-year term of study. The high culture of the village at that time is evidenced by the fact that in 1894 one of the first rural libraries in the province was opened here, choral concerts of pupils of the local women's college were organized. Kurba also housed a military headquarters, a hospital, a post office, small and manufactory shops, inns, a flour warehouse, blacksmiths, and an oil mill.

Attractions

The compositional center and urban planning dominant of the village is the temple ensemble of the Kazan and Resurrection churches. The Kazan Church, built in 1770, is a 16-petal centric structure unique in its architecture. The church admires the beauty and richness of the frescoes on the subjects of the New and Old Testaments, made by Yaroslavl craftsmen in 1796-1799. However, the frescoes were significantly damaged during the placement of a machine and tractor station in the temple during the Soviet period.

In the 19th century, a five-tiered bell tower was built at the churches, which became a bright dominant not only for the temple ensemble, but also for the surrounding landscape. The richly decorated facades, decorated with Baroque elements, gave the temple complex a metropolitan splendor and monumentality. The last building that formed the historical complex of the ensemble was the chapel, built in 1895. The restoration of the temple ensemble is currently underway with the support of the White Iris Charitable Foundation.

In the historical center of the village, one- and two–story stone and wooden houses built in the 19th and early 20th centuries, belonging to wealthy peasants and merchants, have been preserved. There are wooden houses with interesting carvings and architraves.

Opposite Kurba, on the picturesque left bank of the Kurbitsa River, is the village of Vasilyevskoye with a temple ensemble, including the churches of the All-Merciful Savior and Our Lady of Smolensk, built in the XVIII century. According to legend, it was on this spot that the chambers of Prince Kurbsky stood. The miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God from the Kazan temple of the village of Kurby is kept in the Church of the Savior. According to experts, the icon is unique: it dates from 1640-1660, painted on silver by Yaroslavl craftsmen.

A narrow pedestrian bridge across Kurbitsa connects Kurba and Vasilyevskoye, visually uniting two high–rise and architectural dominants - the ensembles of the Kazan and Spasskaya churches.