Suzdal

The first reference to Suzdal was made in the chronicle in 1024 in connection with the peasants' uprising, which spread "throughout the land". At the turn of the 12th century a fortified town (i.e. the kremlin) was built at the bend of the Kamenka river. The river protected the town from the west and a deep moat was dug from the east. The eastern ramparts with wooden walls and towers on the top were also built for protection. The old ramparts and the moat survived up to now, and belong to the historical sights of the town.

The ancient cathedral of the Assumption was constructed in the Kremlin by the craftsmen of prince Vladimir Monomahk of Kiev at the end of the 11th - the beginning of th 12th centuries. It was at the same period that the first Suzdalian monastery of St. Demetrius was founded to the west of the Kremlin. To the east of the Kremlin the posad inhabited by craftsmen and traders began to grow. The posad was also fortified with ramparts and walls. All the main parts of the old town (the Kremlin, the posad, the monasteries) are well preserved in Suzdal. Suzdal is one of those rare towns in Russia, which could preserve their old lay-out.

In 1222-1225 the cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin was built in the Kremlin on the site of the Assumption cathedral, which had collapsed. The Nativity cathedral is the oldest surviving monument in Suzdal, one in a row of beautiful monuments of the Vladimir-Suzdal white stone architecture of the 12th-13th centuries.

The flourishing of art and culture in the North-Eastern Russia at the beginning of the 13th century was interrupted by the Mongol-Tartar invasion. In winter of 1238 Suzdal was seized and burnt down by the tartars. In the 14th century the principality of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod rises. The princes of Suzdal minted their own coins and that showed their great political and economic power at that time. Two new monasteries were founded in the 14th century - the monastery of Our Saviour in 1352 and the convent of the Intercession in 1364. Later on in the 16th-17th centuries a great deal of stone construction was carried out in these very monasteries.

At the end of the 15th century Suzdal lost its independence and was subordinated to Moscow.

From the middle of the 14th century to the end of the 18th century Suzdal was a center of the bishopric. At that time the Kremlin became the residence of the archbishops. Here the stone chambers were built for the bishops in the 15th-17th centuries.

The archbishops' palace with its ceremonial cross chamber whose design was quite unique at that period is a monument of Russian civil architecture. At the beginning of the 17th century during the Time of Troubles Suzdal was pillaged by the Poles but the town's economy was reconstructed. After this polish - lithuanian invasion Suzdal never suffered of destructive wars.

In 1719 the town was severely damaged by fire. All the wooden churches burned down by this fire were replaced by new stone ones. From the end of the 18th century the church life is dying away in Suzdal - the bishop left Suzdal for Vladimir. Suzdal became a district town of the Vladimir Gubernia. The life was moving on unhurriedly in Suzdal. The town's inhabitants earned their living by horticulture and market-gardening. The industry (the textile and processing of agricultural products) was of no importance. In the middle of the 19th century the Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod railway was built, but Suzdal was left without it, the road ran through Vladimir. Objectively, it contributed to the preservation of the ensemble of the monuments of old russian architecture in Suzdal.

During the Soviet period the town is not developed industrially, as before it is interesting for its old history and architectural monuments and that makes Suzdal attractive for tourists and travelers.

Suzdal is a museum town. Its best monuments - the Kremlin, the monastery of Our Saviour and St. Euthimius and the Museum of Wooden Architecture - belong to the Vladimir-Suzdal museum-reserve.