Suzdal

city Suzdal Суздаль flag coat of arms Federal district Central Russia Oblast Vladimir Rajon Suzdal mayor Sergei Godunin First mention 1024 City since 1024 surface 15  km² population 10,535 inhabitants (as of Oct. 14, 2010) Population density 702 inhabitants / km² Height of the center 115  m Time zone UTC + 3 Telephone code (+7) 49231 Post Code 601291, 601293 License Plate 33 OKATO 17 254 501 Website www.gorodsuzdal.ru Geographical location Coordinates 56 ° 26 '  N , 40 ° 26'  E Coordinates: 56 ° 26 '0 "  N , 40 ° 26' 0"  E

Location in the western part of Russia

Location in Vladimir Oblast

List of cities in Russia

The Suzdal Kremlin in winter

Suzdal ( Russian Су́здаль , scientific transliteration Suzdal ) is a Russian city ​​in the Vladimir Oblast . It is located about 220 km northeast of Moscow and 26 km north of the Oblast capital Vladimir on the Kamenka River . The city with 10,535 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010) is one of the oldest in Russia and is part of the so-called Golden Ring .

history

Suzdal is one of the oldest Russian cities. In the 10th century Slavic settlers ( Kriwitschen ) came from the area of Smolensk to the fertile region around Suzdal, with archaeological evidence of settlement since the 9th century. The first written mention was made in 1024. Suzdal offered protection from attacks by nomadic tribes due to its forests. At that time Suzdal was already an important settlement and, along with Rostov, an important trading center of Northeastern Russia . A Kremlin was built at the beginning of the 12th century . This was located in the bend of the Kamenka River in the southern part of today's Suzdal city. Suzdal experienced its first heyday when Prince Juri Dolgoruki made Suzdal the residence of the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal . His son Andrei Bogolyubsky also moved the residence to Vladimir because of the city's boyars . This did not detract from the importance of the city. Instead, it continued to develop into a trading center. The city's upswing was finally put to an end when the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal was conquered by the Golden Horde under Batu Khan in 1238 . Despite bitter resistance from the locals, Suzdal was captured, robbed and partially destroyed.

Already in the years 1222-1235 the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Nativity was built in the Suzdal Kremlin, which has largely been preserved in its original form and is one of the oldest Russian Orthodox church buildings that have survived to this day .

In the 14th century, Suzdal tried to defend its independence against the emerging Moscow Grand Duchy and allied itself with Nizhny Novgorod to form the Principality of Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod . After a brief interlude as a bishopric, Suzdal fell to Moscow in 1392. This ended the time of Suzdal as a political center. However, it remained a bishopric and developed into an important religious center. Numerous stone churches and monasteries were rebuilt or rebuilt in place of earlier, wooden structures. Among the sacred buildings that were built in Suzdal from the 13th to the 17th centuries are, for example, the Alexander Monastery ( founded by Alexander Newski according to a legend ), the Maria Deposition and Vasily Monastery as well as the Archbishop's Palace, which for centuries served as a residential building for Suzdal clergy served to call.

In the early 17th century, Suzdal experienced difficult times again: It was attacked by Crimean Tatars and twice by Poland-Lithuania , and it was hit several times by large fires and epidemics. In the second half of the century, however, the city was able to recover from these catastrophes. At this time the Kremlin walls with watchtowers were rebuilt and several other church buildings were erected. After the territorial reform at the end of the 18th century, Suzdal became the district center within the newly formed Vladimir governorate . At the beginning of the 19th century, the high bell tower of the Maria deposition monastery was built to commemorate the victories of Russian armies in the war against France in 1812 . Even in the 19th century there was hardly any industry in Suzdal, the city was predominantly agricultural, and Suzdal was also left out in the construction of the railway connection from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. However, the city retained its great importance as a religious center and pilgrimage site.

During the Second World War Field Marshal General Friedrich Paulus and other generals of the 6th Army were interned in Suzdal after the defeat in Stalingrad in the first months after their capture. The prison was located on the premises of the Redeemer Euthymios Monastery , which was still used in the 18th century by Catherine the Great as a prison for arrested participants in the Pugachev uprising . In addition, there was a POW camp 160 in the city for German prisoners of war from World War II. It was a large transit camp with several departments that was closed soon after the war.

During the Soviet era , Suzdal lost its importance as a religious center for around 70 years, but gradually developed into an important tourist destination. Most of the churches and monasteries in Suzdal, together with other distinctive architectural monuments in the region, have formed the so-called Vladimir-Suzdal Museum Reserve since the 1960s. It is now part of the Russian Golden Ring tourist route . Suzdal is also one of the most visited cities by tourists in the European part of Russia.

Population development

year	Residents
1897	6,412
1939	6,567
1959	9.012
1970	10.179
1979	11,529
1989	12,063
2002	11,357
2010	10,535

Note: census data

Attractions

The bell tower of the Deposition of the Virgin Mary (Rizopolozhensky Monastery)

Archbishop's Palace in the Suzdal Kremlin

Boris and Gleb Church

Far from industries and main traffic arteries, the city has largely retained its historical image to this day, and the museum city also contains old buildings that originate from other parts of the country and have been rebuilt.

Former Suzdal Kremlin , the Virgin Birth Cathedral with the five blue domes and the Savior Euthymius Monastery since 1992 include the UNESCO - World Heritage " White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal ."

Three large monasteries have been preserved in Suzdal. In the center of the city is the Virgin Mary Deposition Monastery . Outside the old city of Suzdal, in the north on the banks of the Kamenka River, the Savior Jewfimi Monastery and the Maria Protection Nunnery are opposite each other and are used as intended. According to legend, they are connected by an underground passage.

The Savior Euthymios Monastery , founded in 1352, houses many sacred buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries, a collection of old Russian books, including a copy of the first book, Apostol , printed in Russian , and the grave of Prince Dimitri Posharski , des Heroes of the Russian uprising in 1612 against Polish rule during the turmoil of the Smuta . The monastery served from 1764 to the 1950s as a prison for political and religious " deviants " and during the Second World War as a prisoner-of-war camp for the Red Army and was part of the Gulag before and afterwards .

The buildings of the Maria-Schutz-Kloster, founded in 1364, date from the 16th and 17th centuries. It was a well-known place of exile for aristocrats, including the wives of Tsar Ivan III. the great , Vasily III. and Peter I the Great .

Sights include the Icon Museum as well as the rebuilt log houses, wooden churches and windmills in the open-air museum.

Town twinning

• Évora , Portugal (since 1986)
• Rothenburg ob der Tauber , Germany (since 1988)

sons and daughters of the town

• Alexei Gastew (1882–1939), union activist and poet
• Sergei Shirokogorov (1887–1939), ethnographer
• Dmitri Winogradow (1720–1758), mountain master, inventor of Russian hard porcelain

literature

• Zinaida Pastuchova and Elena Ponomarëva: Drevnerusskie goroda . Rusič-Verlag, Smolensk 2006, ISBN 5-8138-0470-6 , pp. 216–229

Web links

Commons : Suzdal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Unofficial website
• City portal
• Museum of Wooden Architecture and Open Air Museum (Suzdal)
• Suzdal: Memory of old Russia on Russia Beyond the Headlines: News from Russia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Itogi Vserossijskoj perepisi naselenija 2010 goda. Tom 1. Čislennostʹ i razmeščenie naselenija (Results of the All-Russian Census 2010. Volume 1. Number and distribution of the population). Tables 5 , pp. 12-209; 11 , pp. 312–979 (download from the website of the Federal Service for State Statistics of the Russian Federation)
2. ↑ Maschke, Erich (ed.): On the history of the German prisoners of war of the Second World War. Verlag Ernst and Werner Gieseking, Bielefeld 1962–1977.