Kostroma
Kostroma () is a historic city in central
Russia, administrative centre of the
Kostroma Oblast. A part of the
Golden ring of the Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the rivers
Volga and
Kostroma at . Population: 278,750 (
2002); 288,400 (
2000).
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Our Lady of St Theodore (10th century), the holy protectress of Kostroma |
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 Rus, 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 ("
ushkuiniki"). 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 Ipatievsky 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 6-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.
It is understandable why the
Romanov tsars regarded Kostroma as their special protectorate. The Ipatievsky monastery was visited by many of them, including
Nicholas II, 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.
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.
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The Resurrection church (1652) is a superb example of the 17th-century Russian art. |
Built in 1559-65, the 5-domed
Epiphany Cathedral was the first stone edifice in the city; its medieval
frescoes 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 bad that the image was hardly visible; it was interpreted as a bad sign for the Romanov dynasty.
The Ipatievsky 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 Resurrection church on the Lowlands (Russian: церковь 'оскресения на "ебре). As the story goes, the church was commissioned by one merchant who ordered in
England ten barrels of dye but received ten barrels 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 village Krasnoe-on-the-Volga (formerly an estate of Boris Godunov's brother) may be recommended.
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Durham, England*
Durham, NC*
Toyama, Japan*
History and sights of Kostroma (in English)*
History and sights of Kostroma (in Russian)
