Pereslavl-Zalessky

Pereslavl-Zalessky

Pereslavl-Zalessky is located near Pleshcheyev Lake, 100 kilometers from Moscow. Here, in 1152, at the intersection of trade routes, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky founded a new city.
Pereslavl was once rich and famous. The very name of the city translates from Old Russian as "who took over the glory." The most famous prince of Pereslavl was Alexander Nevsky, who was born in this city and then went to reign in Novgorod. After joining the Moscow Principality in 1302, Pereslavl saw almost all the grand dukes and tsars. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Pereslavl-Zalessky became a stronghold of the Oprichnina.
The unique face of Pereslavl-Zalessky today is defined by its temples, monasteries, and museums. Not far from the city you can see the archaeological monument "Kleshchinsky complex", the center of which is the ancient city of Kleshchin, from which the ramparts of the XII century have been preserved.
Everyone knows the legend of the "Blue Stone" — a huge boulder that lies on the shore of the lake. It is said that the stone has miraculous powers and cures many diseases.
The Goritsky monastery was founded, probably at the beginning of the XIV century under Ivan Kalita. In 1382, Tokhtamysh's army destroyed Pereslavl-Zalessky, and with it the Goritsky Monastery. Shortly before the ruin, Grand Duchess Evdokia, the wife of Dmitry Donskoy, came here to pray. She and several other people miraculously escaped from the Tatars, hiding in the fog on the lake. In memory of her salvation, Evdokia invested in the restoration of the monastery in 1392. And in Pereslavl there was a tradition to make a procession by boat from the Goritsky monastery to the middle of the lake.
The largest temple of the Goritsky Monastery is the Assumption Cathedral. The interior of the Assumption Cathedral is spacious and lofty, well-lit, lavishly and tastefully decorated. The temple is similar to a palace and is richly comparable to the cathedrals of Moscow and St. Petersburg of the XVIII century. The vaults and walls of the cathedral are covered with stucco cartouches, monograms, garlands of flowers, and images of angels.
Nikitsky Monastery is located in the northern part of Pereslavl-Zalessky, on the shore of Lake Pleshcheyev. It is the oldest monastery in the city, founded earlier than 1186.
Legend has it that it was founded by Prince Boris, the son of Prince Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko. The monastery became famous thanks to the exploits of St. Nikita Stylites of Pereslavl. Nikita was a tax collector before becoming a monk and enjoyed an extremely bad reputation until he repented and went to the store, where he wore iron chains and a stone cap without removing them. He was endowed with the gift of healing and exorcism. Prince Mikhail of Chernigov was among the people he healed. In memory of this healing, there is a Chernigov chapel in front of the entrance to Pereslavl-Zalessky on the Moscow road.
All the monastery buildings from earlier than the 16th century were wooden and have not been preserved to this day. The Nikitsky Monastery flourished in the 16th century, when it attracted the attention of Ivan the Terrible and his wife Anastasia. The royal couple repeatedly came here for a prayer service, after which the seriously ill heir recovered. After that, by order of the tsar, stone structures and walls began to be erected. Ivan the Terrible planned to use the monastery as a reserve fortress in case of betrayal by the oprichniks.
In 1611, the monastery walls withstood a siege by Polish-Lithuanian troops for two weeks.
The main cathedral of the monastery is the church of the Great Martyr Nikita.
The construction of the Transfiguration Cathedral was begun under Yuri Dolgoruk in 1152. The cathedral is a witness to the founding of the city and all the events in its history. The temple is made of white limestone, its height is 34 meters, the walls are 1.5 meters thick. It was once the main temple of the city and the princes. The most famous Pereslavl princes Dmitry Alexandrovich and Ivan Dmitrievich are also buried here.
The cathedral was painted in 1157, but today the ancient frescoes are almost lost. In the second half of the 20th century, during the restoration, the walls of the cathedral were strengthened and the paintings of the 19th century were cleaned off, leaving the temple inside as white as it was under Yuri Dolgoruk.
4 km from Pereslavl-Zalessky, on Mount Gremyach, on the shore of Lake Pleshcheyev, at the end of the 17th century, Peter I began the construction of the "funny flotilla", which laid the foundation for the Russian navy. From 1688 to 1693, about 100 ships were launched. The first Russian military sailors were trained here. Only one ship has survived to our time, the Fortuna boat.
In 1803, a special building was built for him, which housed the exposition of one of the first Russian museums. The building was built with funds collected from the residents of the county. In the middle of the 19th century, an architectural ensemble with a monument to Peter, a Triumphal Arch, a White Palace, and a Rotunda appeared on the estate.
The museum's collection contains unique items — the remains of the first Russian fleet. The main exhibit is a boat, the handiwork of Peter himself.