Hi everyone!
Today I joined the "Haveyoubeenhere" community and I want to tell you about my trip
To translate the text into English, I used Google translator. I am sorry for possible mistakes.
In October 2017, we went on an excursion to Zaraysk, a small ancient city on the border of the Moscow and Ryazan regions. The first mention of Zaraysk dates back to the XII century. It is located 150 km southeast of Moscow.
The main attraction of Zaraysk is the Kremlin of the 16th century. That's what I want to talk about today.
Since the Middle Ages, 12 kremlin have survived in Russia, and two of them are located in the Moscow region - one in Kolomna, the other in Zaraysk. And if small fragments remain from the Kolomna Kremlin, the Kremlin in Zaraysk has been preserved completely, almost in its original form.
The Zaraisk Kremlin was built in the first half of the 16th century by order of Grand Duke Vasily III and was part of the southern defensive belt of Moscow.
The peculiarity of the Kremlin is that, firstly, it is the smallest Kremlin in Russia, its area is only 2.3 hectares. And, secondly, it is "regular", i.e. It has the correct shape, which is also a rarity (there are only two Kremlin of the correct shape - Tula and Zaraisk).
The Kremlin is brick-built, lined with white stone on the outside, has 7 towers, of which 4 are corner towers and 3 are travel towers.
Interesting fact: In 1551, Prince Andrei Kurbsky served in the Zaraisk Kremlin. In the future, he will become an opponent of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
In the Time of Troubles, in 1608, the Kremlin was captured for a year by the supporters of False Dmitry II. In 1609 he was released, and in 1610 Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, a hero of the liberation war in the first half of the 17th century, became its governor.
Since the end of the 17th century, the Kremlin has lost its defensive significance, and Zaraysk itself turns into a large trade center. But in the middle of the 19th century, due to the fact that the new road to Ryazan bypassed Zaraysk, its trade value sharply decreased.
Since 1918, a local history museum was founded within the walls of the Kremlin. Today it is one of the largest museums in the Moscow Region - the State Museum-Reserve Zaraiskiy Kremlin.
In the Kremlin there are the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, the Church of John the Baptist, a dwelling house in which the abbot of the temple lives, the building of the local history museum, the grave of the Zaraisk prince Theodore, who was killed by Khan Batu.Eupraxia, the wife of Prince Theodore, and their son John are also buried in this grave.
Nikolsky Cathedral is the oldest. 1681 year. In October 2017, the cathedral was closed for restoration.
The second cathedral - the temple of John the Baptist, was built in 1904, at the expense of the famous patron A.A. Bakhrushin.
This church houses the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas of Zaraisky, painted around 1513.
And this is how the cathedral looked before the 1917 revolution (the photo was photographed from the information stand on the territory of the museum). Subsequently, the bell tower was blown up, and a new one has not yet been erected. :
In the photo, to the right of the church, you can see a canopy chapel over the grave of Prince Fyodor and his family:
The house, built in the 19th century, where the abbot of the temple lives:
Archaeologists are working under a green canopy:
Zaraisk Kremlin Towers
Souvenir row:
The entrance to the territory of the Kremlin and the temple is free.
Thank you all for your attention, comments and supervision!