What is the river near the city of Sviyazhsk Tatarstan. Open the left menu Sviyazhsk. By boat from the river port

Sviyazhsk is an island in the Volga River not far from Kazan. In the middle of the 16th century, on the local hill, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, a city was founded, which was the main base for the conquest of the Kazan Khanate.
In the 18th century, Sviyazhsk gradually lost its significance, and since 1932, by decree of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, it completely lost the status of a city, turning into a rural settlement.

Did you know? Sviyazhsk became an island only in 1957 after the lowlands were flooded with water. Kuibyshev reservoir.

Sights of the city of Sviyazhsk and their photos with a description

The island-city of Sviyazhsk is known primarily for its religious sights - ancient monasteries and temples. In addition to complexes of church architecture, tourists will find here an attractive urban development that has been preserved since the 19th century, as well as unique museums.

Did you know? In addition to sightseeing in Sviyazhsk, tourists on the island are offered to take part in various historical reconstructions and shows.

Museum-Reserve "Island-city of Sviyazhsk"

In fact, the entire territory of the island with its architectural sights and cultural heritage is one large museum complex of the State Historical, Architectural and art museum-reserve"Island-city of Sviyazhsk".
The main fund of the SIAHM "Island-city of Sviyazhsk" was established in 2009 by decree of the government of the Republic of Tatarstan. It includes 37 cultural objects, as well as more than 33,000 exhibits that tell about the history and archeology, civil war and repression that took place on the island. The expositions of the complex are presented in several museums of Sviyazhsk:
History Museum
This institution is located in the building offices built back in the 1840s. The museum has two expositions, which, with the help of archaeological finds, historical documents and paintings tell about the stages of development of the city and Everyday life city ​​dwellers until the beginning of the 20th century.
Prison Museum
In 1938-1940s. The NKVD prison was located in the building of the government offices. In the expositions of the museum, in addition to household items of prisoners, you can see unique paintings of the repressed Vladimir Mikhailovich Golitsyn, who served his term here - famous navigator and a painter.
horse yard
The wooden equestrian yard was erected in the 16th century, and later, in the 18th century, it was replaced stone building. For a long time the building was in decline, and only in 2009 it was restored. The ethnographic complex especially popular with tourists with children.
All sights of the State Institute of Art and Music "Sviyazhsk Island-town" are available to tourists from 10:00 to 18:00 seven days a week.

Important! From October 1 to April 31 in the Museum Reserve "Island-town Sviyazhsk" Monday is a day off.

Religious buildings

On the small island of Sviyazhsk there are four monasteries and eleven churches, five of which have been destroyed. Some of these monasteries deservedly claim to be objects of world heritage UNESCO.

• Assumption Monastery - this monastery on the island of Sviyazhsk was founded in 1555. It founded one of the first printing houses of the Holy Scriptures in Russia. The monastery was closed after the October Revolution, and the ark with its main relic - the relics of St. Herman - was opened. Since the 1930s there was a penal colony, and later a psychiatric hospital. In 1997, restoration work began in the preserved Assumption Cathedral and St. Nicholas Church, which continue today.
• Trinity Church - the most ancient temple John the Baptist Convent. It was cut down near Uglich along with other buildings of the fortress built in 1551 by order of Ivan the Terrible. The marked wooden beams were delivered along the Volga to the site of the future city of Sviyazhsk and erected in one day. Today, this is the only one left of the first wooden buildings the object claims a place in the list of UNESCO attractions.
• The Temple of Constantine and Helena is the only surviving church on the island that does not belong to monasteries. It was erected at the end of the 17th century on the site of an ancient wooden church built in 1551. During the period of Soviet rule, a museum was located here, and since 1993 worship services have resumed.

Other temples of Sviyazhsk:

• chapel of Nicholas and Alexandra;
• cathedral icons Mother of God;

• Church of Sergius of Radonezh;
• Ascension Monastery.

Architecture

Isolation from the outside world, which was formed after the transformation of the village of Sviyazhsk into an island, allowed the unique layout and architecture of a typical county town of the 19th century to remain untouched.

Today the majority local residents relocated to municipal apartments, and their houses are being reconstructed and transferred to various institutions.

• The estate of the merchant F. T. Kamenev is one of the most remarkable architectural monuments of Sviyazhsk. The house was built in the XIX century in the style of classicism with elements of Russian wooden architecture. Since 2010, the building has been restored, and a hotel is located in it.
• Rozhdestvenskaya Square is an architectural dominant in the center of Sviyazhsk, around which there are several interesting objects: city school; fire barracks; lower vocational school. From the square itself there is a breathtaking view of the Volga, so this the best place to relax after an exhausting excursion.

Other buildings:

• Polyakov's house;
• county gymnasium;
• almshouse;

• Illarionov's house;
• office building.

Memorable places

In the history of Sviyazhsk, unfortunately, the gloomy events of the period civil war in Russia and the Stalinist repressions, which are narrated by the monuments of this island.

• The monument to the victims of political repressions is a stone stele erected at the burial site of 98 bodies discovered in 2010. It depicts a prisoner releasing a dove as a symbol of the desire for freedom. The author of the monument is the Honored Artist of Uzbekistan Mahmut Gasimov. On the island of Sviyazhsk, which in the 1940s was part of the Gulag, according to various sources, about 5,000 people died of starvation and were shot.
• The wall of the Communards and the stone obelisk are monuments erected at the site of the execution of the Red Guards during the first political repressions in 1918. Every tenth soldier from the units stationed on the island was killed on the orders of Trotsky, after the failure of an attempt to dislodge the white troops from Kazan.

Did you know? According to eyewitnesses, a monument to Judas Iscariot was erected on the island of Sviyazhsk during the years of the civil war. But neither the sculpture itself, nor any exact information confirming these rumors, remained.

What to see in Sviyazhsk in one day

All the sights of the island-city are located on its small territory of 65 hectares, and they can be seen in just one day. There are many guides on the island, but if you plan to see everything on your own, then it’s better to follow the following route:

• Start your tour with historical museum in the government building.
• Next, visit the museum-prison, located in the building of government offices, which served as prison No. 8 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan in the 1930s-1940s.
• After getting acquainted with the expositions of museums, visit the Assumption Monastery.
• Then take a walk in the center of Sviyazhsk, where you can see unique merchants' houses.
• Passing through the whole island, you will find the Church of Constantine and Helena, and on the other side you will see the Church of the Makariev Monastery.
• It is worth completing the tour with a visit to the John the Baptist Monastery, on the territory of which there are several temples at once.

Did you know? You can get to Sviyazhsk by car or bus along the new dam. But the best way to travel is to choose a boat trip from the city of Kazan.

What to see in Sviyazhsk with children

Perhaps our readers will want to offer their own version sightseeing tour on the sights of the island of Sviyazhsk? Be sure to leave your recommendations in the comments!

Sviyazhsk was founded on May 24, 1551 as a strategic fortress of the Moscow kingdom. The city was built as a transit point for the conquest of the Kazan Khanate. The castle was erected under the leadership of Ivan IV the Terrible in just four weeks. However, after the Soviet regime and the remnants of the Gulag, he cannot recover for several decades. Sviyazhsk has become a haven for many artists, among them the main set designer of Tarkovsky's film - Stalker. Pushkin himself admitted that this was how he imagined his fairy island Buyan. This is truly a magical and indescribable beauty place. My story is about the history of the island, its features, museums, sights and people.

You can explore Sviyazhsk endlessly; it is not for nothing that several tens of thousands of exhibits are stored in its archive. The mountain on which the castle was founded was formed during the melting of glaciers. In the 8th-9th centuries, Suvars performed their rituals on the top of the mountain. The young Russian Tsar Ivan IV, seeing this place, decides to build here military base. The need for a transshipment point arose because of the desire to achieve the capture of the Kazan Khanate. The numerous army of the Moscow kingdom was exhausted, reaching Kazan, the soldiers needed rest in a fortified fortress.

A flat area was prepared for the future hail, for this it was necessary to completely cut off the top of the mountain. About a thousand kilometers away, in the Uglich forests, all the structures of the future Sviyazhsk were completely erected, then the hail was dismantled and rafted down the Volga. In 28 days, 75 thousand people assembled a ready-made city, which was larger than the Moscow Kremlin. This became the only and unique example of the city's shortest bookmark. More than a thousand courtyards were erected, in which approximately 5 thousand people lived.

Larch was used in the construction, which eventually becomes as strong as stone and resistant to weather conditions. Many European cities stand on larch, for example, we all know Venice.

There is a wooden church on the island, which is 462 years old. On the logs you can see the notches that were put at that time for counting. Then it was believed that the saw tormented the tree and only a rough ax was used in construction. They built without nails, so that over time the tree would not rot.

The church was built in one light day. There is an altar in it, where Ivan IV prayed before going to Kazan, after which the conquest was successful. It is believed that this is the oldest wooden church on the Volga.

The decorative elements of the iconostasis are made of linden, while the icons themselves are stored in State Museum fine arts Tatarstan. Now it is planned to return the icons to their original place, but not the originals, but their copies. In the 16th century, the church was illuminated thanks to special sliding openings, they were also used for ventilation.

The island held a large social program, 88 Sviyazhsk families were relocated from monastic buildings and architectural monuments to new homes. Previously, it was necessary to heat houses with firewood, and carry water from a well. All communications are provided in the new houses. A good example of resettlement was the Zemskaya hospital, now it is being reconstructed into a museum.

Sviyazhsk has a multinational population. Among 248 people most of Russians, you can also meet Mari, Chuvash, Georgians, and there is even one baptized Tatar family. A little less than 100 years, Sviyazhsk has officially been a rural settlement, before that, in the 4th century, it was an island city. It has its own school, where 27 children study and kindergarten where 14 guys go. The local police department has 3 employees.

In 1555, a monastery was founded in Sviyazhsk, in the first 5 years two churches were built: St. Nicholas Cathedral and the Assumption Church. The temples were erected by masons from the famous Pskov artel. The same people built the powerful walls of the Kazan Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow on Red Square.

Already in the 17th century, a 43-meter bell tower appeared - the most tall building Sviyazhsk. In the 18th century, a fraternal building was built.

The first abbot of the monastery German in 1564 was invited to Moscow. Ivan the Terrible was going to raise him to the rank of chief metropolitan of the whole country. But German refused, because he did not agree with the tsarist policy of the oprichnina.

Another temple was built in the pseudo-Byzantine or old Russian style with the money of Mother Apphia. Mother did not live for several years before the opening of the temple and died in 1905, her grave is in the basement of the church. The architect was Pavel Malinovsky, who designed the Trinity Cathedral of the Raifa Monastery and the Church of the Great Martyr Barbara in Kazan.

In 1911, the cathedral was painted, but due to a technical error of the artist, an update was needed after 3 years. The paint had to be applied to the canvas and then glued to the walls. In 1914, ordinary linoleum was used instead of canvas. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Joy of All Who Sorrow means those who ask the Mother of God for joy.

Monasteries used to be the richest organizations, they had their own production. They were the largest landowners of that era, for this reason the Soviet government disliked them. 4 kilometers from the island, Leon Trotsky participated in the battle against the white movement, where his detachment retreated. Having sailed to Sviyazhsk, he came out on Rozhdestvenskaya Square, where he delivered a fiery speech about how priests had fooled people's heads from time immemorial. After that, a monument to Judas Iscareot was erected on the square, as the first revolutionary on earth. The monument stood for several weeks, after which it was destroyed by local residents.

On May 15, 2011, the opening of the Sviyazhsk Museum took place. Prior to that, the building housed a boarding school, and in the 20th century, the execution prison was a kind of prototype of the Tatar Alcatraz. The wall, near which the prisoners were shot, had to be dismantled, since under it was mass grave. But the yard for walking prisoners was preserved.

We managed to restore cell number 8 and turned it into a small museum. Photographs of prisoners taken from the archive hang on the walls. Items of everyday life of prisoners are presented.

Up to 18 prisoners were kept in a small cell. The prisoners experienced terrible diseases that led to the development of gangrene and amputation. Among the exhibits is a real prosthesis, which had to be worn by a victim of political repression in order to alleviate his short life waiting to be shot.

More than 5 thousand people died in the Sviyazhsk branch of the Gulag. Here was the outstanding Tatar poet Hassan Tufan and the inventor of the famous game Pirates - a famous artist and representative of the eminent family of Golitsins. Here he created many of his masterpieces, copies of which are in the museum. The population density of the prison was constantly exceeded, in some years by almost three times.

Every year the island is visited by a large number of artists, many of them stay here to live. The residents themselves joke about such people that they came for a few days, but stayed for several decades. Among these artists is Rashid Safiullin, the chief set designer for Tarkovsky's film Stalker. He draws Sviyazhsk in different times of the year.

Many are sure that the island of Sviyazhsk is the same Buyan island that Pushkin described in his fairy tale. The story says that the great poet visited the island two years after writing The Tale of Tsar Saltan. During his visit, he admitted that this is how he imagined the fabulous island of Buyan. Artists Golubtsov and Artamonov recreated the kaleidoscope of life ordinary person on the island:

People live in their houses.

They leave for work.

Take care of children and read a prayer.

And their souls ascend to heaven.

By the way, Sviyazhsk was not always an island. In 1957, people woke up and said, "Now the sea is around us." As a result of the formation of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the road connecting the capital and the island was flooded. Before that, the lands of Sviyazhsk were 70 hectares larger, now all this is hidden under water. There was a possibility that Sviyazhsk would be completely flooded, but people did not move. Until 2008, the island could only be reached by water.

Another feature of the island is the absence of a civil cemetery, it is located on the opposite bank. Previously, the body of a deceased person could be delivered either by water or by ice. In the spring it was impossible to get to the cemetery. If you believe the legend of the island, then in the spring people simply did not die, and women in labor were delivered to the mainland in advance.

There is a monastery cemetery on the island. Only ministers or honorary patrons were buried here. The richest benefactor was Kamenev, his family was buried on the island, but the burial was completely lost during the years of Soviet power.

The most important and elegant place in Russian homes is considered to be a stove. To make the stove even more elegant, it was customary to decorate it with handmade tiles. A clay tile successfully reflects the way of life and originality of its era.

Quite recently, the exhibition "The Way of the Tile" opened in Sviyazhsk. It presents the tiles of Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, New Jerusalem and other cities. To meet a whole and preserved tile is a rarity. In the exposition you can see quite interesting exhibits.

During its existence, the island-town of Sviyazhsk did not survive the hostilities. Big history small island many states can envy. It may take more than a dozen years to study the grains of history collected here. It remains only to envy the people who live and find themselves in this historical place.