Kostroma
Encyclopedia
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast
, Russia
. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence
of the Volga
and Kostroma River
s. Population: It is served by Kostroma Airport
.
, Kostroma was sacked by the Mongols
in 1238. It then constituted a small principality, under leadership of Prince Vasily the Drunkard, a younger brother of the famous Alexander Nevsky
. Upon inheriting the grand ducal title in 1271, Vasily didn't leave the town for Vladimir
, and his descendants ruled Kostroma for another half a century, until the town was bought by Ivan I of Moscow
.
As one of the northernmost towns of Muscovy, Kostroma served for grand dukes as a place of retreat when enemies besieged Moscow
in 1382, 1408, and 1433. In 1375, the town was looted by Novgorod pirates (ushkuiniks
). The spectacular growth of the city in the 16th century may be attributed to the establishment of trade connections with English and Dutch merchants (Muscovy Company
) through the northern port of Archangel
. Boris Godunov
had the Ipatyevsky and Epiphany monasteries
rebuilt in stone. The construction works were finished just in time for the city to witness some of the most dramatic events of the Time of Troubles
.
Kostroma was twice ravaged by the Poles; it took a six-month siege to expel them from the Ipatievsky monastery. The heroic peasant Ivan Susanin
became a symbol of the city's resistance to foreign invaders; several monuments to him may be seen in Kostroma. The future tsar, Michael Romanov, also lived at the monastery. It was here that an embassy from Moscow
offered him the Russian crown in 1612.
, the last Russian tsar. The monastery had been founded in the early 14th century by a Tatar prince, ancestor of the Godunov family. The Romanov tsars had the magnificent Trinity Cathedral rebuilt in 1652; its frescoes and iconostasis are a thing of beauty. A wooden house of Mikhail Romanov is still preserved in the monastery. There are also several old wooden structures transported to the monastery walls from distant districts of the Kostroma Oblast
.
Town status was granted in 1719.
In 1773, Kostroma was devastated by a great fire. Afterwards the city was rebuilt with streets radiating from a single focal point near the river. They say that Empress Catherine
dropped her fan on the city map
, and told the architects to follow her design. One of the best preserved examples of the 18th century town planning, Kostroma retains some elegant structures in a "provincial neoclassical"
style. These include a governor's palace, a fire tower, a rotunda on the Volga embankment, and an arcaded central market
with a merchant church in the center.
Built in 1559-1565, the five-domed Epiphany Cathedral was the first stone edifice in the city; its medieval fresco
es perished during a fire several years ago. The minster houses the city's most precious relic, a 10th-century Byzantine icon
called Our Lady of St. Theodore (Russian: Федоровская Богоматерь). It was with this icon that Mikhail Romanov was blessed by his mother when he left for Moscow to claim the Russian throne. They say that just before the Revolution
the icon blackened so badly that the image was hardly visible; it was interpreted as a bad sign for the Romanov dynasty.
The Ipatyevsky monastery survives mostly intact, with its 16th-century walls, towers, belfry
, and the 17th-century cathedral
.
Apart from the monasteries, most of the city churches were either rebuilt or demolished during the Soviet years. The only city church that survives from the 17th-century "golden age" is the of gold instead. He resolved that the unearned gold was the devil's gift and decided to spend it on building a church, beautiful within and without. Two other 17th-century temples, of rather conventional architecture, may be seen on the opposite side of the Volga.
Among the vestiges of the Godunov rule, a fine tent-like church
in the urban-type settlement
of Krasnoye-na-Volge (formerly an estate of Boris Godunov's brother) may be recommended.
with: Aachen, Germany
Durham, England
Durham, North Carolina
, United States
Hyvinkää, Finland
Berane, Montenegro
Cetinje, Montenegro
Samokov, Bulgaria
Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of the Volga
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
and Kostroma River
Kostroma River
The Kostroma is a river in the European part of Russia. It flows through the Kostroma and Yaroslavl Oblasts, and is a left tributary of the Volga, which it enters at the Gorky Reservoir, at the city of Kostroma, at ....
s. Population: It is served by Kostroma Airport
Kostroma Airport
Kostroma Airport is an airport in Russia located 6 km northeast of Kostroma. It services propeller-driven transports....
.
Kostroma under the Rurikids
The city was first recorded in the chronicles for the year 1213, but historians believe it could have been founded by Yury Dolgoruky more than half a century earlier. Like other towns of the Eastern RusVladimir-Suzdal
The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus’ was one of the major principalities which succeeded Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century and lasted until the late 14th century. For a long time the Principality was a vassal of the Mongolian Golden Horde...
, Kostroma was sacked by the Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
in 1238. It then constituted a small principality, under leadership of Prince Vasily the Drunkard, a younger brother of the famous Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky
Alexander Nevsky was the Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most trying times in the city's history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval Rus, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military...
. Upon inheriting the grand ducal title in 1271, Vasily didn't leave the town for Vladimir
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
, and his descendants ruled Kostroma for another half a century, until the town was bought by Ivan I of Moscow
Ivan I of Russia
Ivan I Danilovich Kalita was Prince of Moscow from 1325 and Grand Prince of Vladimir from 1328.-Biography:Ivan was the son of Prince of Moscow Daniil Aleksandrovich....
.
As one of the northernmost towns of Muscovy, Kostroma served for grand dukes as a place of retreat when enemies besieged Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 1382, 1408, and 1433. In 1375, the town was looted by Novgorod pirates (ushkuiniks
Ushkuiniks
The ushkuiniks were medieval Novgorodian pirates who led the Viking-like life of fighting, killing, and robbery. Their name derives from "ushkui", a type of flat-bottom medieval Finnish ship Uisko , which could be easily transported over portages between the rivers.Although the Novgorodians took...
). The spectacular growth of the city in the 16th century may be attributed to the establishment of trade connections with English and Dutch merchants (Muscovy Company
Muscovy Company
The Muscovy Company , was a trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England, and became closely associated with such famous names as Henry Hudson and William Baffin...
) through the northern port of Archangel
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
. Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov
Boris Fyodorovich Godunov was de facto regent of Russia from c. 1585 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles.-Early years:...
had the Ipatyevsky and Epiphany monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
rebuilt in stone. The construction works were finished just in time for the city to witness some of the most dramatic events of the Time of Troubles
Time of Troubles
The Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar of the Rurik Dynasty, Feodor Ivanovich, in 1598, and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. In 1601-1603, Russia suffered a famine that killed one-third...
.
Kostroma was twice ravaged by the Poles; it took a six-month siege to expel them from the Ipatievsky monastery. The heroic peasant Ivan Susanin
Ivan Susanin
Ivan Susanin was a Russian folk hero and martyr of the early 17th century's Time of Troubles.-Evidence:In 1619, a certain Bogdan Sobinin from Domnino village near Kostroma received from Tsar Mikhail one half of Derevischi village. According to the extant royal charter, these lands were granted...
became a symbol of the city's resistance to foreign invaders; several monuments to him may be seen in Kostroma. The future tsar, Michael Romanov, also lived at the monastery. It was here that an embassy from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
offered him the Russian crown in 1612.
Kostroma under the Romanovs
It is understandable why the Romanov tsars regarded Kostroma as their special protectorate. The Ipatievsky monastery was visited by many of them, including Nicholas IINicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
, the last Russian tsar. The monastery had been founded in the early 14th century by a Tatar prince, ancestor of the Godunov family. The Romanov tsars had the magnificent Trinity Cathedral rebuilt in 1652; its frescoes and iconostasis are a thing of beauty. A wooden house of Mikhail Romanov is still preserved in the monastery. There are also several old wooden structures transported to the monastery walls from distant districts of the Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...
.
Town status was granted in 1719.
In 1773, Kostroma was devastated by a great fire. Afterwards the city was rebuilt with streets radiating from a single focal point near the river. They say that Empress Catherine
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
dropped her fan on the city map
City map
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understood symbology.Depending upon its target group or...
, and told the architects to follow her design. One of the best preserved examples of the 18th century town planning, Kostroma retains some elegant structures in a "provincial neoclassical"
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
style. These include a governor's palace, a fire tower, a rotunda on the Volga embankment, and an arcaded central market
Kostroma Gostiny Dvor
The Gostiny Dvor in Kostroma is the best preserved complex of provincial Neoclassical trading arcades in Russia. It was built on the site of the ancient Kostroma kremlin after the great fire of 1773...
with a merchant church in the center.
Sights and landmarks
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es perished during a fire several years ago. The minster houses the city's most precious relic, a 10th-century Byzantine icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
called Our Lady of St. Theodore (Russian: Федоровская Богоматерь). It was with this icon that Mikhail Romanov was blessed by his mother when he left for Moscow to claim the Russian throne. They say that just before the Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
the icon blackened so badly that the image was hardly visible; it was interpreted as a bad sign for the Romanov dynasty.
The Ipatyevsky monastery survives mostly intact, with its 16th-century walls, towers, belfry
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
, and the 17th-century cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
.
Apart from the monasteries, most of the city churches were either rebuilt or demolished during the Soviet years. The only city church that survives from the 17th-century "golden age" is the of gold instead. He resolved that the unearned gold was the devil's gift and decided to spend it on building a church, beautiful within and without. Two other 17th-century temples, of rather conventional architecture, may be seen on the opposite side of the Volga.
Among the vestiges of the Godunov rule, a fine tent-like church
Tented roof
A tented roof is a type of roof widely used in 16th and 17th century Russian architecture for churches. It is like a polygonal spire but differs in purpose in that it is typically used to roof the main internal space of a church, rather than an auxiliary structure...
in the urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...
of Krasnoye-na-Volge (formerly an estate of Boris Godunov's brother) may be recommended.
Twin towns/sister cities
Kostroma is twinnedTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with: Aachen, Germany
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
Durham, England
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
Durham, North Carolina
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Hyvinkää, Finland
Hyvinkää
Hyvinkää is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in Uusimaa region, approximately north of the capital Helsinki. The town was chartered in 1960. Hyvinkää belongs to the Province of Southern Finland. The population of Hyvinkää is ....
Berane, Montenegro
Berane
Berane , formerly Ivangrad, is a town in north-eastern Montenegro. It has a population of 11,776 .Berane is the centre of municipality and one of the centres of Polimlje area, named after the Lim River, on which Berane is situated.-History:During the medieval period the Montenegrin land of Berane...
Cetinje, Montenegro
Cetinje
Cetinje , Цетиње / Cetinje , Italian: Cettigne, Greek: Κετίγνη, Ketígni) is a town and Old Royal Capital of Montenegro. It is also a historical and the secondary capital of Montenegro , with the official residence of the President of Montenegro...
Samokov, Bulgaria
Samokov
Samokov is a town in Sofia Province in the southwest of Bulgaria. It is situated in a kettle between the mountains Rila and Vitosha, 55 kilometres from the capital Sofia...