Classic sightseeing tour of Uglich
Uglich, one of the oldest cities on the Volga, is known to many for its architectural monuments and its special role in Russian history. But not everyone knows his way of life and history, rich in legends, rumors, fictions, vivid real events and incidents.
According to local legend, our city was founded in 937. Imagine how much he remembers! And the fateful event on May 15, 1591, when the last scion of the Rurik dynasty, Tsarevich Dimitri, died under mysterious circumstances, which marked the beginning of the Time of Troubles in Russia.
waypoints
1. Assumption Square
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, Успенская пл.
- 10 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping Center
The meeting place of the guide and the tourists is Uspenskaya Square. The main square of the city, from where all the central streets originate. Some streets radiate away from the square, while others intersect them, creating a radial-arc layout in accordance with the regular plan approved by Catherine II in 1784.
The square has long been a shopping area. Merchants' shops with houses and shopping malls lined Uspenskaya Square around the perimeter until the fire of 1921, after which only the building of Maly Muchny Ryad (now the Uspenskaya Hotel) survived. Uglich merchants traded with Moscow, Pskov, and traveled to Persia and India on business. The Uglich people traded bread, fish, milk, cheese, boots and leather, sheepskin and wool, silver, hay, oats, gingerbread and kvass, candles, metal products.
2. The Uglich Kremlin
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, ул. Кремль
- 10 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping CenterThe Uglich Kremlin is the founding site of the ancient city, its historical and urban core. According to established tradition, the first fortification that marked the beginning of the city was laid in a beautiful and convenient place for defense, on a high promontory at the turn of the Volga River. Time has not preserved the fortifications of the Kremlin, only the island remains, where temples and buildings are located among the trees of the old park – witnesses of many events in the history of the Uglich land. Currently, there are expositions of the Uglich Historical, Architectural and Art Museum, representing many aspects of the millennial history and culture of Uglich. This is where our journey through Uglich begins.
3. Tsarevich Dimitri's Church "on the blood"
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, ул. Кремль, д. 3
- 20 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping CenterTsarevich Dimitri's Church "on the blood". In 1606, a wooden chapel was built on the site of the death of the prince, later a wooden temple was built, and only in 1692 a stone Church was erected, which has survived to our time.
The refectory has a wrought-iron door made of "board iron" and a floor covered with cast-iron slabs in the 18th century. The gilded carved iconostasis of the temple contains several icons of the masters of the Moscow Armory. The church also houses the stretcher in which the tsarevich's body was transferred from Uglich to Moscow, and a mica lantern that illuminated the procession's path.
For exposing Godunov's murder by the British, about 200 people were executed, many had their tongues cut off, and more than 60 families were exiled to Siberia.
The cathedral bell, which alarmed the townspeople with its ringing and called them to riot, was thrown from the bell tower, deprived of the sign of the cross, the tongue was torn out, one ear was cut off, beaten 12 times with whips and exiled to the city of Tobolsk.
The inscription on the bell reads: "This bell was tolled at the time of the murder of the blessed Prince Dimitri. In 1593, he was sent from the city of Uglich to exile in the city of Tobolsk, in the Church of the Savior, which is at the auction, and then he was venerated at the Sofia Bell Tower."
The exiled bell was returned only 300 years later. The townspeople greeted him with shouts of "Hurrah!" and after a festive prayer service he was solemnly installed in the Museum.
4. Chambers of the Uglich appanage Princes
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, ул. Кремль, д. 4
- 20 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping CenterChambers of the Uglich appanage princes. Next to the church of Tsarevich Dimitri is the oldest civil building in central Russia, built in the 80s of the XV century. The chambers of the palace of the appanage princes are called the Palace of Tsarevich Dimitri, since he is the last of the Uglich princes who lived within its walls.
XV century – the golden age of Uglich, ruled by the younger brother of Grand Duke Ivan III, Andrei Bolshoy. He improved the city, making it one of the leading cultural centers of Russia. Under Andrei the Great: The principality of Uglich was called "Semigradny" – it consisted of seven cities: Romanov (Tutaev), Zvenigorod, Ustyuzhina, Ust-Sheksna, Dmitrov, Bezhetsk, Rozhalov. The first stone buildings were built. They even minted their own coin in Uglich. Correspondence and book design were conducted. The famous icon painter Dionysius worked at the princely court throughout Russia.
In the Kremlin, the princely residence, a representative palace was built, consisting of several buildings interconnected by passageways. The secret exits to the river found during the excavations gave rise to the legend of an underground passage through the Volga to the left bank. In 1892, the first museum of Russian antiquities in Uglich was opened in the former throne room on the top floor. Now the exposition of the Department of decorative and applied arts is located here. On the ground floor there are two halls telling about the life of the city in the XVII –XVIII centuries.
5. Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, Успенская пл., д. 6
- 10 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping CenterThe Kazan Temple, located on Assumption Square, is undoubtedly the most notable. It is visible from everywhere – from the Kremlin, from the perspective of Moskovskaya Street, and from many other places.
For a long time, this place near the Kremlin has been a shopping area. More precisely, there were three of them: Khlebnaya, Sennaya and Lesnaya. And so, at some point, the temple of the Great Martyr George appeared on the first of them. According to legend, it was built in honor of his saint by a prince of Uglich. We don't know exactly who it was. Either Georgy (Yuri) Alexandrovich, or Yuri Zvenigorodsky, or Ivan the Terrible's younger brother Prince Yuri Vasilyevich. Accordingly, this could have happened at the beginning of the 14th century, at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries, or in the 16th century. At least by the beginning of the 17th century, there was already a church of the Holy Icon of the Mother of God with chapels of the Great Martyrs George and Mikhail Malein. The temple stood until the Time of Troubles, when it was burned down, sharing the fate of the city and its Orthodox shrines.
It would seem that after all the misfortunes, the temple would have been forgotten, besides, shops appeared on the place where it stood. But fate decreed otherwise. A certain elder Varlaam arrived in Uglich, "a former builder of the Alexander palace settlements of the Simonov Monastery patrimony." According to his promise, he certainly wanted to build a Kazan temple in the city. In 1638, he asked for permission from Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich and received it after a while.
Soon a wooden church was built. In addition to the main Kazan throne, there were three more in it: the Great Martyrs George, Mikhail Malein, St. Evdokia, and Alexy the man of God, which was reflected in the memory of the former temple and the strange dedication to the royal family. After all, as the documents say, the consecration of the thrones contains the named saints of the tsar himself, his wife and son. Perhaps this is not only an expression of loyal feelings, but also evidence of the elder's closeness to the royal family.
6. Spasskaya Street
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, ул. Спасская
- 20 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping CenterWe move along Spasskaya Street to the Resurrection Monastery. If we had walked through it 100 years ago, we would have seen it completely different – very crowded and densely built up; a kind of continuation of the shopping area, where almost every house has a shop, an inn or something else.
7. Voskresensky Monastery for Men
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, ул. Спасская, д. 31/2а
- 15 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping CenterThe Voskresensky Monastery was founded in the second half of the 13th century on the banks of the Volga River. The low shore was flooded more than once, washed away - these places were popularly called Luzhniki - therefore, in the 1670s, Metropolitan Jonah of Rostov, who had once taken vows here, rebuilt the monastery in stone away from the shore.
The huge ensemble of the monastery includes the Resurrection Cathedral, the belfry with the Church of Mary of Egypt, the refectory with the church of the Hodegetria and the chapel, where the clock was "striking and recasting."
8. The Uglich HPP Ensemble
- Ярославская обл., Угличский р-н., г. Углич, ул. Спасская
- 15 min
photo: Uglich Shopping Center / Uglich Shopping CenterThe Uglich Hydroelectric complex, built in 1935-1940: a hydroelectric power station with an adjacent dam and bridge and a single-chamber lock with a shipping channel. The turbines, launched in the early 40s, are still in working order. The station was completed during the Great Patriotic War.
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