The city of Ivanovo, the center of the Ivanovo region, is located 198 miles (318 KM) northwest of Moscow on the plain between the Volga and Klyazma, on the banks of the Uvod, a tributary of the Klyazma. And Yurievets is located 104 miles (168 KM) northeast of Ivanovo at a steep curve of the Volag, in front of the mouth of the Unzha. Yurievets was founded in 1225 by the prince Yuri Vsevolodovitch to protect eastern boundaries of his lands and control the passage from the Volga to the Unzha leading to the Russian North.
The coat of arms of Yurievets was instituted on March 29, 1779, and its “silver tower with an open gate on a blue shield” is an evidence of the heroic past of this town on the Volga.
In 1237 Yurievets was reduced to ashes by the army of Baty-khan. It was also attacked by Tartars from Kazan. Chronicles emphasize the courage of local inhabitants that fought to the bitter end against Safa-Girey in 1536.
Ivan the Terrible considered Yurievets an important strategic object. It was not by occasion that he selected this settlement for oprichnina in 1556. In 1661 Alexey Mikhailovitch ordered to rebuild the town after the heroic defense from Polish interventionists under Lisovky. In addition to the wooden church on the Predtechensky Hill, a new one was erected on the neighboring hill, with five stone towers on the eastern side, with a stone wall facing the Volga. The church got the name of the White Town. The church has survived but in fragments. The only extant part (i.e., remains of the white fortress), are protected as a rare monument of Russian military engineering. The remains of the fortress have retained the name of the White Town. It was dismantled in the 18th century and never had an opportunity to prove its fighting strength.
In the 17th century, in honor of the victory over Polish interventionists at the expense of inhabitants of the trade quarter, the Church of the Appearance of God was erected.In the trade square of Yurievets people met the volunteer corps of Minin and Pozharsky. Thus, in town has shaped an architectural complex in honor of the victory over interventionists. The trade quarter of that period was located in a low place, by a mountain. There stood homesteads of the voevode, head of the uyezd, clerks, judges, head of the prison and executioner Nikita Sidorov. Nearby was the Church of the Entrance to Jerusalem.
In the 18th century the town gradually lost its importance as a citadel and actively merged into trade activity of Volga merchants. Yurievets boasted 57 stores and 16 smithies. Local people dealt in bread, meat, dye-stuff, iron. Annually they gave to the tsar and the patriarch, who had Yurievets in his sphere of influence, 21 sturgeons, 50 inconnus, 70 big sterlets that were sent to Moscow alive in special boats down the Moskva and Oka.
In 1795 Yurievets got a regular construction plan with the main square in the center. Municipal and administrative offices were erected. Yurievets is unique by virtue of this ancient quarter that has survived. It consists of over 200 buildings protected by the government.
On the background of the monument of military glory erected in honor of those perished in the Great patriotic War, rise two imposing cathedrals of the Entrance to Jerusalem. The main temple was built in 1733, the second one was put up a hundred years later by the talented Kostroma architect P.I.Fursov. The belfry was restored in 1975 for the 750th anniversary of the town. On its north side stands the Nativity Church built in memory of the victory over the French army in 1812.
All architectural epochs and styles are represented in town — industrial buildings of the 19th century, stone and wooden houses of the 18th – 19th centuries in the central street. Yuriev houses are noted for their small porches, fences, lattices, and weathercocks. The eye will be attracted by a carved wooden sculpture of a half-girl, half-fish, mounted on the frieze of one of the houses, she is the patroness of sailors; the picture of this house with the ancient river goddess entered all albums of popular applied arts.
Yurievets has always been loved by artists. Here worked V. Maksimov, A. Savrasov, B. Kustodiev, A. Benua, E. Lancere, I.Levitan. Pictures of modern painters can be seen in the art gallery situated in the bell-tower of the Cathedral of the Entrance to Jerusalem. Yurievets is a museum of the Soviet architects brothers Vesnin. The house where they lived turned into a museum. The town also boasts the museum of the eminent film producer A.Tarkovsky. In Yurievets lived the icon-painter Kirill Ulanov whose works are on show in the Russian Museum. According to some sources Yurievets is the birthplace of Yermak.
The town risked to be flooded in the fifties because of the launch of the Gorkovskaya hydroelectric power station. In order to save the town was built a protecting concrete dam surrounding Yurievets along the foot of the hills holding the town. Now Yurievets is called “town on the mountains”. Streets run down the slopes, linked by suspended bridges and staircases.
The information above on the history of Yurievets was found on the following web page, which is part of a series of pages on what is known as the “Golden Ring of Russia.”
