Central Russia. Foundation of the city of Yuryev by Prince Yaroslav the Wise The city of Yuryev was named in honor

The name of the city Yuryev-Polsky (or Yuryev-Polskaya) speaks of its founder and location. The city was named in honor of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, as the Nikon Chronicle confirms to us with the entry under 1152: “Grand Duke Yuri of Suzhdal created many churches and founded the city of Yuriev in his name, called Polish.” Cities in Rus' were usually built on a high, steep bank at the confluence of two rivers, which served as an additional defensive fortification when enemies attacked the city. The city of Yuryev was founded on a plain, in a field, although at the confluence of the Koloksha and Gza rivers. To distinguish it from another city of Yuryev (Yuryev-Derpt-Tartu), founded by Yaroslav the Wise and named after the name of the founder (given to him at baptism), the new Yuryev received the prefix Polsky due to the treelessness and large fields surrounding the city.

Yuriev-Polsky was built during the active construction of new fortified fortified cities to repel raids of nomads and became the stronghold center of Opole. There were no steep banks or deep ravines around the city. The only natural defense of the city was the swamp, and Yuryev was protected from enemies by fortress walls. The Yuryevskaya fortress had a round shape, was surrounded by a high rampart (up to seven meters high) and wooden walls. The shaft and walls opened three times, forming gates to three roads: to Vladimir, Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and Moscow. Behind the fortress there was a settlement, the inhabitants of which took refuge behind the fortress walls in the event of an enemy attack.

Yuryev-Polsky was part of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. The short-lived prosperity of the city is associated with the name of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, who became the appanage prince of Yuryev in 1212. During the princely strife, the field near the city several times became the site of bloody battles. The most brutal was the battle on the Lipitsa River, in which the Vsevolodovich brothers fought to the death. The chronicle says about her: “Not 10 were killed, not 100, but thousands by thousands, and many were drowned, fleeing in the river, and others were wounded, they came in and died, and the living ones ran to Volodimer, and some to Pereyaslavl, and some to Yuryev.” Prince Svyatoslav took part in this battle on the side of the Vladimir prince Yuri. Victory in the battle went to their opponents. During the reign of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, the tragic year 1238 also occurred. There is information in the chronicles that Yuryev’s squad fought with the Tatars on the City River, and many warriors fell on the battlefield. In the same year, Yuryev was destroyed by the Tatars and imposed tribute.

During the reign of Ivan Kalita, Yuryev became part of the Moscow Principality, and in 1380 the Yuryevites bravely fought on the Kulikovo field under the banner of Prince Dmitry Donskoy. Yuryev Polsky was often subjected to devastating raids by the Horde. The Novgorod Chronicle preserved information about the raid on the Russian lands by the army of Khan Tokhtamysh in 1382: “The Tatar king Tokhtamysh came in great strength to the Russian land, much wasteland of the Russian land: he took the city of Moscow and then Pereyaslavl, Kolomny, Volodymer and Yuryev.” In 1408, during the next invasion of the Golden Horde led by Edigei, the city was burned again, and many of its inhabitants were taken into captivity. From this time on, Yuryev-Polsky lost its significance as a strategic fortress and trading city. He is often given “to feed” to foreigners serving the Moscow princes. Yuryev-Polsky was owned by the Lithuanian prince Svidrigailo Olgerdovich, the Kazan Khan Abdul-Letif, and the Astrakhan prince Kaibula.

The Polish-Lithuanian invaders brought a lot of troubles to the city. Yuriev-polsky was taken by troops of False Dmitry II, who gave it to the Kasimov prince Mohammed Murat. In 1609, the townspeople, who did not want to endure humiliation, raised an uprising, led by the centurion Fyodor the Red, and liberated their city from their enemies with arms in hand. In 1612, in the ranks of the militia of Minin and Pozharsky, the military men of Yuryev-Polsky liberated Moscow from enemies.

From the middle of the 17th century, a commercial and industrial boom began in the city. The development of the city and the growth of trade were facilitated by its position on the Great Stromynskaya Road, which connected the Suzdal lands with Moscow. Trade was carried out mainly in grain and flax. Among the craft items, linen and yuft were brought to the capital.

In 1708, Yuriev became part of the Moscow province, and since 1778 it became a district town of the Vladimir governorship (since 1796 - a province). The manufacturing production of yarn and fabrics was developing in the city, and by the end of the 18th century the first industrial enterprises, textile and paper weaving, appeared here.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, Yuryev received thousands of wounded and gave shelter to no less a number of refugees. One and a half thousand militiamen, who made up half of the 5th regiment of the Vladimir militia, left the city to defend the Fatherland. The regiment was headed by Lieutenant General Prince Golitsyn, a representative of the nobility of Yuryevsky district. The merits of the Yuryev militia were noted by Emperor Alexander I, who in February 1813, in a letter to Prince Golitsyn, expressed “special favor and gratitude” to them.

In the 19th century, Yuriev-Polsky, as before, retained considerable trade importance. Even during the time of Peter the Great and his successors, the intensification of trade in Russian cities forced the authorities to pay special attention to shopping areas and guest yards in urban planning plans. A new Gostiny Dvor also appeared in Yuryev-Polsky, where each type of goods had its own shopping row. On market days, the city's trading area was filled with tents, tents, trays and carts of peasants bringing their goods here. The role of the city as an industrial center of the Vladimir province especially increased in the second half of the 19th century, when the railway passed through it.

But Yuryev-Polsky did not become a city with developed industry. By the beginning of the 20th century, several paper-weaving factories and a workshop for agricultural implements operated here. But trade flourished. The Gostiny Dvor became cramped and there were not enough trading places. Therefore, the city council decided to build new shops at the expense of the owners. This is how log shops with one solution under a common roof appeared in the city, which received a strange nickname from the residents - “Warsaw Bazaar”.

Yuryev-Polsky remained a trading city. In a newspaper for 1910, in a note by a local resident, there are the following lines: “There are more than enough shops and merchants in our city. Wherever you spit, you’ll end up in a shop. Trashy little shops.”

The city received its coat of arms at the beginning of the 19th century: “In the upper part of the medallion is the coat of arms of the provincial Vladimir, and in the lower part in a silver field are two golden baskets filled with ripe cherries.”

- this is not just a territory that unites several central regions of the country: Vladimir, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, Yaroslavl.

is a land of picturesque and truly Russian nature: coniferous and deciduous forests, clean lakes and rivers, fresh air and a harmonious climate familiar to us since childhood.

- These are slow-flowing rivers with wide floodplains, occupied by water meadows. Thick, dark, overgrown with moss, like enchanted spruce trees. Magnificent broad-leaved forests consisting of huge oaks, ash trees, maples. These are sunny pine forests and cheerful, pleasing birch forests. Dense thickets of hazel on a carpet of tall ferns.

And beautiful clearings, strewn with flowers emanating intoxicating odors, are replaced by huge islands of impenetrable thickets, where tall fluffy spruces and pines live their measured, centuries-old life. They seem like incredible giants who slowly make way for uninvited guests.

In the thicket you can see old dried driftwood everywhere, so intricately curved that it seemed like there was a goblin lurking behind the hillock, and a pretty kikimora was peacefully dozing near the stone.

And endless fields, going either into the forest or into the sky. And all around - only the singing of birds and the chirping of grasshoppers.

This is where the largest rivers of the Russian Plain: Volga, Dnieper, Don, Oka, Western Dvina. The source of the Volga is a legend of Russia, the pilgrimage to which never stops.

IN middle lane more than a thousand lakes. The most beautiful and popular of them is Lake Seliger. Even the densely populated Moscow region is rich in beautiful lakes and rivers, sometimes even intact cottages and high fences.

The nature of the middle zone, glorified by artists, poets and writers, fills a person with peace of mind and opens his eyes to the amazing beauty of his native land.

It is famous not only for its literally fabulous nature, but also for its historical monuments. This - the face of the Russian province, in some places, in spite of everything, even preserving the architectural appearance of the 18th-19th centuries.

In the middle zone there are most of the cities of the world famous Golden Ring of Russia - Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov Veliky, Uglich, Sergiev Posad and others, ancient landowner estates, monasteries and temples, architectural monuments. Their beauty cannot be described; you have to see it with your own eyes and, as they say, feel the breath of deep antiquity.

But the most fruitful and happy thing for me was my acquaintance with central Russia... It captured me immediately and forever... Since then, I have not known anything closer to me than our simple Russian people, and nothing more beautiful than our land. I would not exchange Central Russia for the most famous and stunning beauties of the globe. Now I remember with an indulgent smile my youthful dreams of yew forests and tropical thunderstorms. I would give all the elegance of the Gulf of Naples with its feast of colors for a willow bush wet from the rain on the sandy bank of the Oka or for the winding Taruska River - on its modest banks I now often live for a long time.

Wrote by K.G. Paustovsky.

Or you can just climb into some remote village and enjoy nature far from civilization. The people here are very welcoming and friendly.

History of Yuryev-Polsky

Foundation of the city and the Middle Ages.
The city of Yuryev-Polskaya was founded on the Koloksha River and the Gze River flowing into it in 1152 by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky and received its name in honor of the prince and his heavenly patron - St. Georgy (Egoriya, Yuriy). To distinguish the new city from the old Yuryev in the Dnieper region, it received the prefix “Polish”, that is, standing in the fields - in Opole. The city was surrounded by earthen ramparts with wooden walls. At the same time, the white-stone St. George Church was founded in the center of the new princely fortress city.
In the XII-XIII centuries, the role of Yuryev-Polsky was insignificant. Not far from the city in 1177, a battle took place between the Vladimir people and the Rostov people, which ended in the victory of the Vladimir prince Vsevolod III Yuryevich (Big Nest). The second major battle - the Battle of Lipitsa - took place in 1216; this time the Rostov troops won. In 1212, Yuryev became the center of a small appanage principality, the son of Vsevolod III Svyatoslav ruled here. Under him, a new St. George's Cathedral was laid on the old foundation (it has come down to us in a rebuilt form) and the Archangel Michael Monastery was founded.
Even Yuryev did not escape the Tatar-Mongol yoke: in 1238, 1382 and 1408 it was devastated by the Horde. During the strengthening of the Moscow principality, the small city came under the patronage of Moscow and was more than once handed over “for feeding” to the princely vassals. It is known that in the 15th century it was the patrimony of the Lithuanian prince Svidrigailo, and in the 16th century - the Kazan Khan Abdul-Letif and after him - the Astrakhan prince Kaibula.

XVII-XIX centuries.
Yuryev accepted the rule of Moscow calmly. But when, during the Time of Troubles in 1609, the city was taken by Polish-Lithuanian troops and False Dmitry II intended to give it also “to feed” the Kasimov prince Magomed Murat, the Yuryevites, led by Fyodor the Red, rebelled.
After the Polish-Lithuanian devastation, Yuryev-Polskoy began to live the life of a quiet provincial town. Since 1708, it became part of the Moscow province. The status of a city was officially assigned to it already under Catherine II - in 1778; then it became the center of the Vladimir governorate district. In the county town in the middle of Opole, life was leisurely, but it left many traces on its streets and alleys. Actually, even now Yuriev attracts both tourists and filmmakers precisely because of the preservation of its ancient flavor.

There was trade in the district town - trade routes to Suzdal - the Great Stromynskaya Road - went through it. The military lived here, there were merchants and small industrialists, and the production of fabrics and yarn developed. Thanks to the efforts of the 1st Artillery Grenadier Brigade, which was stationed here, a city park was laid out near the eastern part of the ramparts, of which now almost nothing remains except a small square with a pond and a new monument to Yuri Dolgoruky.
The War of 1812 did not leave the residents of Yuryev indifferent - the local militia was commanded by Prince B.A. Golitsyn, owner of the village of Sima, where Bagration later died from a wound received on the Borodino field.
In 1871, the city suffered a heavy blow - a severe fire that destroyed many buildings in the central part of the city - residential buildings, all the shopping arcades, and the Vvedensky Monastery. After the fire, the shopping arcades were rebuilt in stone, and in 1893 a Voluntary Firefighting Society was founded in the city with a fire station, where amateur performances and dances were held.

20th century and modern times.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Yuryev-Polskoy had up to 6 thousand inhabitants, and 13 weaving factories operated here. A women's gymnasium, a real school, and a higher elementary school were opened. In 1904, an almshouse opened. In 1913, electricity was supplied to the city; it was planned to install 80 lamps. Celebrations took place in the city garden accompanied by a firemen's orchestra. In 1906, the local intelligentsia organized the Society of Performing Art Lovers. The political events of the country passed by the city, almost without affecting it; Only a few revolutionary protests took place in the city during this time.
Little is known about the Soviet period of Yuriev-Polsky’s life - in essence, little has changed in the lives of ordinary people. Monasteries and churches were closed, a sculpture of Lenin was installed in the city park (later it was moved to another place), collective and state farms appeared around the city, factories were nationalized and management changed. Otherwise, Yuryev has retained its appearance as a county town with shopping arcades, merchant and bourgeois houses and - what is important - with unique ancient monuments. In 1920, the Yuryev-Polsky Museum of Local Lore was founded; later turned into a historical, architectural and artistic building. From 1974 to 1989 The museum was a branch of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve. Since 1989, it acquired the status of an independent museum.

In 1967, the film crew of the film “The Golden Calf” arrived in the city. Yuryev-Polsky had to play the role of the city of Arbatov, which he did brilliantly, and now in the frames of the popular film it is easy to recognize the streets of the city.
Now Yuryev-Polskoy attracts more and more tourists with its antiquity, silence, and the combination of natural beauty with the discreet beauty of an ancient county town with unique monuments. The earthen ramparts of the ancient city have survived to this day - only there are no high strong walls on them, massive gates do not block the entrance to the Kremlin, and you can freely walk along the once strong defensive fortifications, admiring the magnificent cathedral, views of the monastery and the entire city.

May 22nd, 2017

1) First, in general terms about my adventures during the trip.
I arrived in Yuryev-Polsky at 2 am by train Moscow-Kineshma. Initially I planned that, as always, I would sit at the station until the morning, but no, due to the fact that this railway line, although stretched to the north of the Ivanovo region, is considered inactive (1 Moscow train, and 2-3 suburban ones to Ivanovo and Aleksandrov), so the railway station was closed for the night.

2) In addition, the temperature in Moscow before was +17 degrees, so I went in a T-shirt and jacket, without taking care of a sweater, which would have been very useful. So I’m standing at the station, watching the train I was traveling on, and the city is also without power - at night the street lights are turned off... and it’s dark, the dogs are barking and everyone is sleeping except me. I went to the bus station (there, 10 years ago, Kirill Serebrennikov filmed the film “St. George’s Day,” which he previously mentioned in previous posts) - it was also closed.
Map of the explored area.

3) Fortunately, a woman arrived who was supposed to go to Moscow on a shift in a minibus in 1 hour (even I thought about whether I should go back). So she said that there is nowhere to sit at night (even the police don’t really work there, which is why many people don’t fasten their seat belts and just drive), hotels are expensive. I went to the center, that’s right, the cost of rooms in 3 hotels is 1500, 1800, 2300 rubles, everything else is closed at night, except for a 24-hour sauna with girls opposite the factory, where business travelers often come, and what, an industrial enterprise. It’s wildly cold, otherwise Belarus was spoiled when in a central hotel a luxury room cost 400 rubles with all amenities, but here for 1,500 rubles a three-bed room without a shower.
The bus station building where the heroine of Ksenia Rappoport cried after the loss of her son, cellular communications, and car wheels.

4) Interior of the bus station. Now everything has been improved there, the only bad thing is that the routes are only to Moscow and Vladimir, and the villages no longer exist for them.

5) I went to warm up... to the branch of the Savings Bank (it’s true, if you are left in a city where there is nowhere to stay or spend the night, it’s still cold - go to the Savings Bank, it’s always nearby. There I even wrote a little plan for the coming days, however, due to the attack that had begun warm, I went to wander again (and no one has canceled the law of physics, as long as you move, it won’t be cold). Then I decided to replay the game a little, since the Kremlin opens at 9 in the morning, and it’s only 5, I quickly made up a route with a visit and went to another. bus station - they said that they no longer have suburban connections to nearby villages, that in the center only a few private drivers carry them.

Examples of private wooden buildings in the city.

6) I’m going there - I’ll announce there and see that from March 1 the minibus doesn’t go there, the locals answered that it’s only hitchhiking. And I decided to hitchhike to see everything and return to the city by 12.00, when I could start getting acquainted with the history of this place. the minibus took me to a fork in the road, there I already started catching rides - so I rode first in a cargo gazelle, then in a minivan in the luggage compartment next to the willows, then I was picked up by a pensioner on the Volga, he said that he would drop me off at one turn, he would quickly go to a friend, If I don’t leave, he’ll pick me up. That's how they got to the final village with a church 28 km from the regional center. From there I went back with the director of the forestry enterprise (fortunately, I was pleased with the local general store workers that their taxi costs 420 rubles or just a ride), whose mother was born in the neighboring regional center from my Bryansk region))) the weather changed during the day from a clear and sunny morning, then rain with snow in the form of hailstones, then a sharp cold snap, towards the end of lunch again clear sun and rain again. I didn’t get the train to Moscow until 1 a.m.; I had to wait out the next 7 hours, since it was getting cold and everything was closed (there are 2 grocery stores and a sauna in the whole city). In the evening at the station I saw a man who was heating the building itself with wood, he advised me to knock on the employee’s window at night and ask to open the waiting room (fortunately, they open it for those who have a train ticket). I sat in one cafe until 11 p.m., then they let me into the station, and there I plopped down dead on a metal seat, even dozing. The train arrived, settled down in its place and fell asleep all the way to the capital :)))

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11) Yuryev-Polsky is located on the territory of Vladimir Opolye, on the banks of the small Koloksha River, the left tributary of the Klyazma. Unlike other ancient Russian cities, Yuryev-Polsky has practically no natural fortifications: the banks of Koloksha are low, and there are no noticeable hills nearby. The location of the city is explained by the economic importance of the Vladimir Opolye during the times of Ancient Rus' - roads leading to Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereslavl-Zalessky and Rostov the Great converged here. Currently, Yuryev-Polsky has completely lost its commercial importance. Major highways run far from the city, and the railway is inactive. Yuryev-Polsky is the geographic center of the Golden Ring, but inconvenient passenger connections make the city relatively unpopular among tourists and travelers.
In the photo - an ensemble of churches of the warm “winter” Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary built in 1769 with an attached bell tower in the 19th century (left) and the “summer” Church of St. Nicholas the Martyr 1792-1808. (on right).

12) Let's come closer.

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14) In the Intercession Church now rest the relics of Prince Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, the builder

15) The ensemble near the Church of St. Nikita the Martyr, in architectural style, has a mixture of classicism and pseudo-Gothic style of Vasily Bazhenov; on three sides the entrances to it are decorated with lush porticoes with columns. Particularly beautiful is the tall drum with a number of narrow and high windows, providing excellent illumination of the temple. The drum is topped with a small dome, which picturesquely complements the entire appearance of the temple and gives it upward direction.

16) Monument to the wines of the Great Patriotic War on the site of the former monument to Vladimir Lenin.

17) Let us now examine the market square of Yuryev-Polsky.

18) Yuriev-Polsky was founded in 1152 by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky. The name of the city is associated with the name of the founder and the area (Polish - located on the field). The advantageous location in the center of a rich agricultural region (Vladimir Opolye) led to the rapid growth of the settlement, and already in 1212 Yuryev-Polsky became the center of a small principality that arose as a result of civil strife and the collapse of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality. A sign of the city’s importance is the construction of St. George’s Cathedral, unique for Ancient Rus', at the beginning of the 13th century. The Mongol invasion of 1238 led to the decline of Yuryev-Polsky, and later the city was severely destroyed during the invasions of Tokhtamysh (1382) and Edigei (1408). The move of the capital to Moscow reduced the economic importance of the region and changed the main trade routes: from the 14th century, Yuryev-Polsky became a small and insignificant settlement on the outskirts of the Moscow principality. In the 15th–16th centuries, the city was often transferred to the management of foreign vassals of the Moscow prince and hardly developed. Since the 17th century, Yuryev-Polsky has been a town on the road from Moscow to Suzdal. With the development of railways, the importance of the latter also decreased, and Yuryev-Polsky remained a quiet county town. Thanks to its well-preserved setting and suitable atmosphere, in 1968 Yuryev-Polsky became the location for filming the first part of the film “The Golden Calf” (Arbatov) - a classic film adaptation of the satirical novel of the same name by Ilf and Petrov.

19) Stills from the film.

20) Most merchants here simply did not have enough resources to develop their own stores, trade was mostly small-scale, and trade was not limited to merchants - mainly artisans, fishermen, and peasants from the surrounding villages. The shopping arcades here were built in 1873-77, and their four buildings are grouped in pairs - most likely, in some they sold agricultural goods, and in the other - handicrafts and industrial goods.

21) Nevertheless, the rows here are very picturesque.

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25) Lenin was moved closer to the city center.

26) Pseudo-Gothic fire department building, which has not lost its purpose to this day.

27) Monument to Yuri Dolgoruky.

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30) Let's explore the local "Arbat", the so-called. street May 1st. Pay attention to the cobblestone street peeking out from under the asphalt.

31) The street is still pedestrian, if only a pavement could be opened, it would be like in Yuryevets, Ivanovo region.

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33) The building of an orphanage on the site of the former Church of the Resurrection, built in 1760.

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36) Vvedensky Nikon Monastery, founded by Nikon of Radonezh, a student of Sergius. In fact, it is a diptych of the summer Vvedenskaya (1763) and winter St. Nicholas (1666) churches typical of the Vladimir region.

37) The trip took place on April 13, so don’t be upset that there is no greenery and it’s a bit dirty. After a warm March, a sharp cold snap set in. Yes, you can see in the photographs a constant change in weather from a clear sunny morning, snow at lunch, hail in the afternoon and evening sun.

38) Let's continue along the roadway of May 1st Street, from where most cars go to Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl or Moscow.

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40) Yuryev-Polsky is rich in entire ensembles of “double” churches.
In the photo - the temple complex of the Church of the Nativity of Christ and Boris and Gleb 1700-1752. buildings in the middle of specific residential areas.

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City of Yuryev-Polsky