History of Gorodets: from the ancient fortress to the merchants

Gorodets is one of the small towns in Russia. Over the centuries of its history, it has experienced periods of prosperity and decline, glory and oblivion. Gorodets was a city of ambitious princes and talented craftsmen, a city of stern Old Believers and enterprising merchants.

Gorodets stands on the high bank of the Volga, 53 km up the river from Nizhny Novgorod. Like many cities of Ancient Rus', the date of its foundation is unknown. It first appeared on the pages of chronicles in 1172 as an already existing fortified city.

The choice of the Gorodets construction site was determined by its purpose - control and protection of salt production. Salt was highly valued and was often the same equivalent to money as gold, silver and furs. The military river ships of the town residents, constantly stationed in the bays under the city, blocked the Bulgars’ path along the Volga deep into the Russian lands, and the city itself became a gathering place for Russian squads and their preparation for campaigns in the Ponizov region, a place for diplomatic meetings and negotiations of the great Vladimir-Suzdal princes with those who held power peoples between the Oka and Volga rivers.

Content

• 1 History of the founding of the city
• 2 Wood-earth fortifications of Gorodets
• 3 Revival of Gorodets after the invasion of Batu’s troops
• 4 Gorodets in the XIV-XVI centuries
• 5 Gorodets in the 17th-19th centuries
• 6 Archaeological excavations on the territory of Gorodets
• 7 Architectural monuments 7.1 Fedorovsky Monastery
• 7.2 Michael the Archangel Church
• 7.3 Trinity - Nikolsky Pogost (Cathedral)
• 7.4 Church of the Vladimir Mother of God
• 7.5 Spasskaya Church
• 7.6 Assumption Edinoverie Church

History of the founding of the city

Gorodets is the most ancient city in Nizhny Novgorod, almost the same age as Moscow. In 1152, Yuri Dolgoruky, having crossed the ancient river Ra at the place where Unzha flows into it, reached the heights where he found the village of Maly Kitezh. There was a small monastery here where the first Russian settlers, monks, lived. Yuri founded a city here and gave it the name Gorodets - Radilov, which means Gorodets on the Volga or Volzhsky Gorodok. There is another version of the explanation for the name. In 1147, Radil was the ambassador of Prince Izyaslav Mstislavovich to the people of Kiev and spoke at a meeting at St. Sophia. Later, he apparently found himself surrounded by Yuri Dolgoruky and, when he left for the Rostov-Suzdal land, he became his confidant during the founding of Gorodets, leaving his name as a clarifying name for the ancient city for centuries.

The choice of the Gorodets construction site was determined by its purpose - control and protection of salt production. Salt was highly valued and was often the same monetary equivalent as gold, silver, and furs. The military river ships of the town residents, constantly stationed in the bays under the city, forever blocked the Bulgars’ path along the Volga deep into the Russian lands, and the city itself became a gathering place for Russian squads and their preparation for campaigns in the Ponizov region, a place of diplomatic meetings and negotiations, the great Vladimir-Suzdal princes with the peoples who held power in the area between the Oka and Volga rivers.

The initial place of origin of ancient Gorodets was the area of ​​​​the Prince's Mountain. The fortress ramparts of Gorodets around Detinets and Posad had the shape of two concentric arcs, the ends of which faced the Volga. The shaft was made of pure continental sand, construction lasted 30 years, the earth had to be carried in buckets and even in hems and hats. The eastern slope of the shaft had a steepness of up to 40%. The length of the shaft was about 2100 meters. The Posad shaft had three passages with towers and gates.

Already in 1155, Gorodets became the center of the Rostov-Suzdal principality, acquiring the significance of a transshipment point on trade routes from Vladimir, Suzdal, and Rostov the Great.

At the behest of Prince Yuri Vladimirovich, the construction of the St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral, as well as the famous Fedorov Monastery, began.

Prince Yuri Dolgoruky did not rule Gorodets for long. He handed over the management of the city to his son Vasily, who was the first appanage prince of Gorodets.

Literature[ | ]

• Gorodets, village of Nizhny Novgorod province // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
• Seleznev F.A. The question of the time of the founding of Gorodets in Russian pre-revolutionary historiography // Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod University. N.I. Lobachevsky. 2012. No. 1 (1). P.182 - 189.
• Seleznev F.A. Foundation of Gorodets on the Volga: results of the study // Bulletin of Nizhny Novgorod University named after. N. I. Lobachevsky. 2012. No. 4 (1). P.287 - 294.
• Seleznev F.A. Celebration of the 800th anniversary of Gorodets Volzhsky in 1952: historiographical background // Proceedings of the Faculty of History of St. Petersburg University. 2013. No. 12. P. 168-174.

Wood-earth fortifications of Gorodets

Three lines of fortifications, which formed the system of its defense in the first decades of the city’s existence, remain a unique monument of Gorodets antiquity. True, the ramparts of the fortress were practically razed and the ditch of Knyazhya Mountain, the heart of Gorodets on the Volga, was filled in. Powerful fortifications of the settlement were not preserved along the entire perimeter. And the fortress ramparts of the settlement were erected by ancient builders only to a height of 2.5-3 meters, and they were abandoned like that, giving rise to a lot of unanswered questions among researchers about the reasons for this.

The Gorodets fortifications of the 12th – 13th centuries remain a truly unique focus of three lines of fortress of a medieval Russian city, rare not only for the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region, but also for the entire country. They can be used to study the general principles and features of domestic defensive architecture of the pre-Mongol period, but the fortress system of Gorodets was explored only in 1960-1962 by Moscow archaeologist A.F. Medvedev.

The construction of the Gorodets fortress began with the construction of a ditch and ramparts of the Prince's Mountain (Detinets), which was a flat, elevated plateau of the left, here high bank of the Volga, on the sides limited by deep ravines - washouts formed by spring catchments and erosion of soft clayey coastal rocks.

Ramparts and ditches (about 550 meters) encircled Prince Mountain in an arc, breaking off at the ends with screes towards the Volga. Detinets occupied only 3.5 hectares. The width of the base of the rampart was 22 meters, and the width of the ditch was 18 meters, with a total height of the rampart embankment of up to 7 meters. Archaeologists also revealed the process of constructing the Prince's Mountain: first, the width of the ditch and the fortress rampart was determined, and then the earth was transferred from the edge of the floor side of the ditch to the opposite edge of the rampart, in order to save people's efforts as much as possible. At the same time, the slope of the shaft slopes was also taken into account. As the shafts were filled, the climb up it became steeper, but the distance from the digging site to the dumping site turned out to be shorter and shorter. At the final stage of the work, the buckets of earth were lifted upward using a device in the form of a well “crane.” The fortress moat of Prince Mountain was 5.15 meters deep with a sharpened piece at the bottom. The stakes had a diameter of 8-12 cm with a length of up to 70 cm, and were stuck slightly obliquely towards the field.

Just remember that the wooden-earth Russian fortresses in the 12th century did not have towers, and the walls were made up of gorodneys placed along the crest of the rampart - log houses the length of a log (10-15 m), filled inside for stability and reliability with earth and cartilage (stone , remains of ceramic production and waste from forges). To enter the territory of the detinets, a bridge was cut across the moat on rezha (wooden cages), and a powerful gate device was launched up to the mainland, which was a huge chopped road tower with a bridgehead barbican and cut with half-height joists, on which earth and cartilage were poured. In the event of an enemy attack, the ends of the logs were cut off, and they, along with the cartilage, fell down, creating a blockage that was difficult for the enemy to overcome. An additional element of the defense of the gate device was the bridgehead barbican - a stockade, behind which the defenders of the gate took cover at the beginning of the siege, and then it was burned on the spot.

To protect the craft settlement that had grown around the village, wood-earth fortifications had to be hastily erected. Already in plans it was supposed to become a fortress, the perimeter of the ramparts of which was 2100 meters. The width of the base of the shaft reached 33 meters with an embankment height of 9 to 15 meters. Among the fortifications of other cities of Ancient Rus', the Gorodets ramparts were second only to the height of the embankment ramparts of Kyiv, which testified to some special purpose of Gorodets Radilov, who, since its foundation, had never allowed military caravans of Bulgar ships to pass along the Volga deep into the Russian lands.

Notes[ | ]

1. Chairman of the Gorodets City Duma
2. Nizhny Novgorod Region. Total land area of ​​the municipality
3. ↑ 12
   Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2022 (Russian). Date accessed: October 17, 2022. Archived October 17, 2022.
4. Register of administrative-territorial entities, urban and rural settlements of the Nizhny Novgorod region dated January 15, 2019
5. Law of the Nizhny Novgorod Region of June 15, 2004 No. 60-Z “On granting municipalities - cities, workers' settlements and village councils of the Nizhny Novgorod Region the status of urban and rural settlements"
6. Bakhareva N.N.
   Gorodetsky Theodore Icon of the Mother of God Monastery // Orthodox Encyclopedia. - M., 2006. - T. XII: “Gomel and Zhlobin diocese - Gregory Pakurian.” — 752 p. — 39,000 copies. — ISBN 5-89572-017-X.
7. THE USSR. Administrative-territorial division of the union republics on January 1, 1980 / Comp. V. A. Dudarev, N. A. Evseeva. - M.: Izvestia, 1980. - 702 p. — P. 118.
8. Pudalov B. M.
   The initial period of the history of Gorodets in the context of chronicle news // Gorodets readings.
   Gorodets, April 25, 2002 (unspecified)
   .
   Volzhsky Crossroads
   (November 29, 2007).
9. Guseva T.V.
   Results and prospects of the archaeological study of Gorodets on the Volga // Gorodets readings.
   Gorodets, April 24–26, 1991 (unspecified)
   .
   Volzhsky Crossroads
   (November 17, 2007).
10. Pudalov B. M.
    Part 2. The Gorodets principality in the last third of the XIII - first third of the XIV centuries // The initial period of the history of the most ancient Russian cities of the Middle Volga region (XII - first third of the XIII century).
    - N. Novgorod, 2003. Archived copy (unspecified)
    (inaccessible link). Retrieved March 22, 2007. Archived September 27, 2007.
11. Walking across three seas by Afanasy Nikitin. - L., 1986. - P. 57.
12. Storozhev V.N.
    Zemshchina // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
13. Zemshchina // Great Russian Encyclopedia: [in 35 volumes] / ch. ed. Yu. S. Osipov. — M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2004—2017.
14. Bulgakov CB
    Feodorovsky Gorodetsky // Chronos. - M..
15. ↑ 12
    Gorodets, village of Nizhny Novgorod province // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
16. ↑ 12345678910
    People's encyclopedia "My City". Gorodets
17. All-Union Population Census of 1959. The size of the urban population of the RSFSR, its territorial units, urban settlements and urban areas by gender (Russian). Demoscope Weekly. Access date: September 25, 2013. Archived April 28, 2013.
18. All-Union Population Census of 1970 The size of the urban population of the RSFSR, its territorial units, urban settlements and urban areas by gender. (Russian). Demoscope Weekly. Access date: September 25, 2013. Archived April 28, 2013.
19. All-Union Population Census of 1979 The size of the urban population of the RSFSR, its territorial units, urban settlements and urban areas by gender. (Russian). Demoscope Weekly. Access date: September 25, 2013. Archived April 28, 2013.
20. All-Union population census of 1989. Urban population (undefined)
    . Archived from the original on August 22, 2011.
21. ↑ 1 2
    All-Russian population census 2010.
    Number and distribution of the population of the Nizhny Novgorod region (unspecified)
    . Retrieved July 30, 2014. Archived July 30, 2014.
22. ↑ 123
    Nizhny Novgorod Region. Estimated resident population as of January 1, 2008-2016
23. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities. Table 35. Estimated resident population as of January 1, 2012 (unspecified)
    . Retrieved May 31, 2014. Archived May 31, 2014.
24. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2013. - M.: Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat, 2013. - 528 p. (Table 33. Population of urban districts, municipal districts, urban and rural settlements, urban settlements, rural settlements) (undefined)
    . Retrieved November 16, 2013. Archived November 16, 2013.
25. Table 33. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2014 (unspecified)
    . Access date: August 2, 2014. Archived August 2, 2014.
26. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2015 (unspecified)
    . Access date: August 6, 2015. Archived August 6, 2015.
27. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2016 (Russian) (October 5, 2018). Retrieved May 15, 2022. Archived May 8, 2022.
28. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2022 (Russian) (July 31, 2017). Retrieved July 31, 2022. Archived July 31, 2022.
29. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2022 (Russian). Retrieved July 25, 2018. Archived July 26, 2022.
30. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2022 (Russian). Retrieved July 31, 2019. Archived May 2, 2022.
31. taking into account the cities of Crimea
32. https://rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediabank/bul_Chislen_nasel_MO-01-01-2021.rar Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2022 (1.85 Mb, 07/30/2021)
33. Sergeev I.
    The Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation will be presented with the Nizhny Novgorod “Sura” (Russian) P. 8. Nizhny Novgorod, No. 161 (4699): Kommersant (August 31, 2011). Access date: August 30, 2011.
34. Completion of the seminar “Archaeology of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region and adjacent territories” (unspecified)
    . www.archeo44.ru. Date accessed: January 4, 2022.
35. Dmitrievskaya N.
    “Arhayos” means ancient” (Russian). Date accessed: January 4, 2018.
36. “The Samovar Museum opened in Gorodets” (unspecified)
    (inaccessible link -
    history
    ). “Business Petersburg” ISSN 1606-1829 (Online) with reference to RIA “Nizhny Novgorod” September 10, 2007
37. A new museum has appeared in the Nizhny Novgorod region - “Gorodets on the Volga”, already the 45th in the Gorodets district (unspecified)
    . Official website of the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
38. Gorodets gingerbread (Russian). prianix.ru. Access date: April 18, 2019.
39. Gorodets deanery district (undefined)
    .
    Deanery districts
    . Nizhny Novgorod diocese. Access date: August 19, 2011.
40. Krapivina, Lyudmila.
    Residents of Gorodets landscaped the territory of the Holy Cross Church (photo)
    (unspecified)
    . Nizhny Novgorod diocese (July 29, 2011). Access date: August 19, 2011.

Revival of Gorodets after the invasion of Batu’s troops

In 1238, Batu's Tatar troops burned Gorodets to the ground. The earthen rampart turned out to be impregnable for enemies, but it had one weak point: it had a wide gate. The Mongol cavalry - the Tatars - burst into them.

After the invasion of Batu's troops, the city was rebuilt. In the second half of the 13th century, the Fedorovsky Monastery, the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, which became the tomb of local appanage princes, and city fortifications, which in the 14th century served as reliable protection for the population from passing Tatar troops, were restored in Gorodets.

A bright page in the history of Gorodets is an event associated with the name of the great commander of ancient Rus', Alexander Nevsky. In 1263, he died here in one of the cells of the Fedorov Monastery, returning from the Khan's headquarters of the Golden Horde. At that time, Alexander Nevsky’s brother Andrei reigned in Gorodets.

During the second half of the 13th century, Gorodets was first under the control of Georgy Andreevich, and then by the son of Alexander Nevsky, Andrey. True, Nevsky’s son did not gain fame as a defender of the Russian land, but on the contrary, pursuing selfish interests, he more than once began internecine feuds with his brother Dmitry Pereslavsky. Despite this, he also found his last refuge on July 27, 1304 in Gorodets in the St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral.

According to established traditions, his son Mikhail Andreevich immediately went for a label to the Gorodetsky knot in the Horde, but while he was there, “black” people killed the boyars in Nizhny Novgorod and established a veche republic. True, it did not last long, less than a year.

The above facts eloquently indicate that Gorodets, after the Mongol-Tatar pogrom of 1238 and 1239, quickly regained its former significance as a major political and economic center of North-Eastern Rus'.

Population[ | ]

As of January 1, 2022, in terms of population, the city was in 511th place out of 1,116[31]cities of the Russian Federation[32].

Gorodets in the XIV-XVI centuries

Occupying a more advantageous military-strategic and geographical position, Nizhny Novgorod had more opportunities to become the political, trade and economic center of the Volga region. And after in 1341, Gorodets began to play a secondary role as the rear fortress of the Great Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal Principality in comparison with the capital, which was then quickly being rebuilt, where in the second half of the 14th century four stone temples were erected, the stone fortifications of the Detinets-Kremlin and wooden earthen defensive line of settlements.

Gorodets submitted to Nizhny Novgorod and was ruled mainly by the brothers of the Grand Duke. So, after the death of Andrei Konstantinovich on June 2, 1365, the struggle for the grand-ducal table unfolded between his brothers. Although, according to seniority, the table should have belonged to Dmitry Konstantinovich, power was seized by his younger brother Boris. Neither the admonitions of the princess mother, nor the demands of Metropolitan Alexy, nor the closure of the Nizhny Novgorod churches as punishment for the disobedient by Sergius of Radonezh, specially sent from Moscow, helped. Only the Suzdal-Moscow regiments led by Dmitry Konstantinovich turned out to be a convincing argument. Boris had no choice but to submit to the force, thanking his older brother for the inheritance allocated to him. In the face of constant threats of Mongol-Tatar raids, peace and cooperation were beneficial to both. In the summer of 1367, the Horde prince Bulak-Temir invaded the southern regions of the Nizhny Novgorod lands right up to the Sundovika River. The united Nizhny Novgorod-Gorodets squad, led by both prince-brothers, managed not only to stop the devastation of the region, but also drove back the Tatars.

In 1370, the townspeople, led by their prince Boris, raided the Bulgarian lands subject to the Horde. Unable to resist the Nizhny Novgorod army, the Bulgar prince Osan tried to pay off with gifts, but was still forced to cede power to a supporter of Russian orientation, Prince Saltan. The Gorodets army also took part in the successful campaign of 1375 against Tver, organized by the Moscow Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich, the future Donskoy.

True, in the current conditions, the opportunity arose for the not ruined Gorodets to somewhat increase its importance as the political and spiritual center of the region, especially since Dmitry Konstantinovich, who had survived such a strong shock, was fading away right before our eyes and, it seemed, his days were numbered. In an effort to intercept the label for the Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal reign from his weak brother, Boris went “to the Horde from his Gorodets.” However, Khan Tokhtamysh was in no hurry. He did not want to take away the label from the living Dmitry Konstantinovich and only after his death on July 6, 1383, he transferred “the reign of Nizhny Novgorod to Prince Boris.” After which the Gorodets inheritance became the object of the struggle of the princely sons Dmitry and Boris Konstantinovich.

In 1388, the son of Dmitry Konstantinovich Vasily managed to beg Gorodets as his inheritance from the Horde, which displeased Boris, and this, in turn, led to the appearance of the Gorodets army, reinforced by the squads of Mozhaisk, Zvenigorod and Volok. Having surrounded Nizhny Novgorod, the combined troops of Dmitry Konstantinovich’s sons Vasily and Semyon did not allow residents and merchants into the city for five days. Thus, Gorodets received some administrative independence. But not for long. Soon it was ceded to Moscow's worst enemy, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Tverskoy. In an effort to contrast Gorodets with Nizhny Novgorod, which since 1392 became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Mikhail Alexandrovich tried in every possible way to raise its authority: he erected the main city St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral of stone, for the illumination of which on November 8, 1398 the Tver Bishop Arseny was sent here. But after the death of Mikhail Alexandrovich in 1399, Gorodets, according to a spiritual will, passed first to his son Ivan, and then through an exchange into the estate of Dmitry Donskoy’s friend and comrade-in-arms, Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky (1353-1410), whose whole life was devoted to the rise of Moscow and the fight against its enemies .

Gorodets of that time was not only an important military-strategic point, but also a major cultural center of North-Eastern Rus'. We can assume that Gorodets had its own chronicle in the 14th century, and in Moscow, together with the famous painters Theophanes the Greek and Andrei Rublev, who painted the Kremlin Annunciation Cathedral in 1405, Prokhor from Gorodets, who stood on a par with the most famous icon painters of Rus', was named which not only ancient Gorodets, but our entire country can be proud of.

It is difficult to predict the possible nature of the further historical development of Gorodets in the 15th century, if not for the invasion of the army of the Horde khan Edigei. In 1408, the city was burned to the ground by the Tatar Khan Edigei, who was heading to Moscow from Kazan. The defeat was so great that for almost 150 years Gorodets remained desolate: it was then called “Empty Gorodets”. And in 1536 the Kazan Tatars attacked.

Gorodets in the 17th-19th centuries

In 1612, Gorodets residents, together with the Nizhny Novgorod militia under the leadership of Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, participated in the cleansing of Moscow from Polish invaders.

Tsar Peter I in 1722, traveling to Astrakhan to lay the sea route there, visited Gorodets and the former Fedorovsky Monastery. Back in the 17th – 18th centuries, Nizhny Novgorod, Balakhna and Gorodets became the center of shipbuilding. The emergence of shipbuilding dates back to 1722. Gorodets carpenters were so famous for their art that Peter I called them to build warships in the village of Preobrazhenskoye. Peter I involved Gorodets shipbuilders in the creation of the Russian fleet that participated in the campaigns against Azov

Catherine the Great in 1767, while traveling along the Volga on the Tver galley from Kazan to Yaroslavl, visited Gorodets on May 19.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Gorodets is presented in the form of a red French shield. It represents protection from enemies.

In the red field there is a golden boat, indicating the development of shipbuilding. The background represents the prosperity of the city. The floating craft is depicted on a blue wave, indicating a connection with the Volga River and the Gorky Hydroelectric Power Station. The comb is directed to the viewer's left and is edged with silver.

The author of heraldry is N. Lobanov. The artistic composition is included in the State Heraldic Register of the Russian Federation under No. 693. Approved by the decision of the Zemsky Assembly of the Gorodetsky District dated July 31, 2000 No. 57/49.

Archaeological excavations on the territory of Gorodets

Already the initial archaeological research of 1960 and 1962 by A.F. Medvedev showed that the territory of the Gorodets settlement was, soon after the founding of the city, built up along the paved streets very densely with semi-dugouts, buried up to one and a half meters into the mainland, and had four pillars in the corners that served as support for wooden walls and roofs. The stove was erected in the entryway of the vestibule, thus being located outside the upper room, and only the mouth of the stove opened into the living part of the semi-dugout. Near the dwelling there were latrines and places of production, primarily blacksmithing, weapons, and clay.

The discovery by archaeologists of several writings (metal rods with a sharp end) indicates the literacy of the population, who wrote their messages on birch bark or waxed tablets. The discovery of a gilded helmet, as well as swords, battle axes, and boot knives speaks not only of the constant presence of a military garrison here, but also of fierce battles during the defense of the city, primarily from the Mongol-Tatars.

Thanks to economic and trade ties with the most remote regions of Ancient Rus', Gorodets developed so rapidly that by the beginning of the 13th century, one hundred residential buildings had exceeded the ramparts of the settlement. To the developed territory of Gorodets (63.5 hectares) they added another settlement (17 hectares) from the northeast and immediately began to embank the third line of defense of the city. But they did not have time to build the fortifications of the settlement. Some more important and urgent work (most likely the founding of Nizhny Novgorod and the creation of a wood-earth fortress there after the agreement between the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Yuri Vsevolodovich and the Bulgars in Gorodets in 1220) distracted the builders. The Tatar-Mongol invasion that soon broke out forever abandoned the implementation of this project.

The discovery of amber jewelry in archaeological excavations speaks of business connections between Gorodets and the Baltic states, slate whorls indicate ongoing trade contacts with Kiev and Ovruch, Central Asian and Golden Horde glazed ceramics indicate the delivery of goods to Gorodets (oil in jugs, as well as wines, dried fruits) from Khiva and Bukhara. In general, ancient Gorodets lived a full-blooded life, but the Mongol-Tatars destroyed what seemed to be a firmly established structure and questioned the very existence of the rapidly developing city.

Architectural monuments

Fedorovsky Monastery

According to legend, it arose at the beginning of the 14th century. In the middle of the 16th century, at the expense of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, in honor of the birth of his son, Tsarevich Fedor, the Fedorov Cathedral was erected here.

In 1667 the monastery was converted into a convent. Soon, by royal decree, it was turned into a place of forced imprisonment of women for a variety of crimes. Among his prisoners are supporters of Princess Sofia Alekseevna, the wife of the Prosecutor General of the Senate P.I. Yaguzhinsky and others. At the same time, nuns lived in the monastery, not only did they not lose contact with the outside world, but also maintained relations with the court. Among them, a special place is occupied by the pupil of Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna - Natalya Vzimkova, whose relationship with the family of Peter I is still shrouded in mystery. At this time, the monastery was repeatedly visited by Tsar Peter I and members of his family. Several thousand rubles were donated by the sister of Peter I, Princess Natalya Alekseevna. With these funds, the Kazan and Vvedenskaya churches were built at the beginning of the 18th century.

Currently, the monastery buildings have been transferred to the St. Nicholas Convent.

While traveling around Gorodets, you should definitely visit the temple, which contains an extraordinary natural miracle - a cross in a tree.

Michael the Archangel Church

It was cut down shortly after the founding of Gorodets. The first documented news about it dates back to the beginning of the 14th century. Michael the Archangel Church continues to this day.

Trinity - Nikolsky Pogost (Cathedral)

Mention of the still wooden Church of the Life-Giving Trinity is found in the Scribe Book of 1627. The exact date of construction of the St. Nicholas Stone Cathedral Church has not been revealed. The temple was rebuilt in stone around the 1680-1690s. The cathedral complex, located in the center of the city, on the most beautiful place on the steep bank, served people with spiritual consolation for many years, until it was closed in the 1930s.

Church of the Vladimir Mother of God

Built in the 17th century. Its compositional role in the development of Gorodets was especially important, but years passed, and without proper supervision the building lost its parts, turning from a monument of cultural history into a pile of bricks. And, despite the sufficient preservation of the main quadrangle of the building, most residents do not even know about the presence of the monument in their city.

Spasskaya Church

Its construction was completed on November 3, 1754. Burnt down on July 22, 1838.

Dormition Edinoverie Church

On May 12, 1831, work began on the construction of the church. No matter how the schismatics opposed the activities of the United Faith Assumption Church, but, as can be seen from the reports, it was a success.

• From a series of poems by Maria Popova. "Gorodets"

Development of folk arts and crafts

Gorodets is the birthplace of a wide variety of crafts. It seemed that there was no activity in Rus' that the townspeople would not have mastered. Moreover, they mastered it in their own way, raising the craft to a high art.

Gorodets carpenters built barges, barges, and belyans, decorating their sides with intricate blind carvings. Gradually, wood carving was introduced into peasant architecture, and this increased the importance of decorative art in rural life. In many villages of the Gorodets region, almost all the houses were decorated with deep carvings, as if hung with thin lace. Cabinets, icon cases, tables, benches, household utensils and peasant tools were carved.

But the most significant type of folk art, after Gorodets carving, is deservedly considered to be the original Gorodets painting, amazing in its artistic merits, reflecting the powerful creative forces of the people. The free, flexible and strong brushstroke of Gorodets painting gives a lively and moving ornamentation and is not only a colorful, but also a compositional element. Her favorite motif is a flower, bright and cheerful.

On the basis of this folk, original art of Gorodets painting, ancient Russian painting, icon painting, which is an artistic example of world art, arose and grew in our area for a long time. And in this regard, the activity of a major artist of ancient Rus', an associate of the great Andrei Rublev, Prokhor from Gorodets, stands out clearly. In the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin there is an inscription under one icon: “Prokhor from Gorodets.” The same name is mentioned in the Trinity Chronicle for 1405. Temples of the Gorodets land.

Gorodets left us a rich artistic heritage: this is wood carving, the so-called “deaf house carving”, and the bottoms of spinning wheels inlaid with bog oak are real masterpieces of folk art, this is amazing Gorodets painting, these are carved gingerbread boards

Gorodets was also famous for such crafts as gold embroidery, pottery, wicker weaving, lace making, linen weaving, and gingerbread baking.

Economy and culture[ | ]

Gorodets painting.

Industry[ | ]

Traditional branches of local industry are shipbuilding (shipyard, ship repair plant), woodworking, arts and crafts (Gorodets painting and embroidery factories, an enterprise for baking printed gingerbread), as well as processing of agricultural products (milk, RaiPo, Bakery IP Kruglov V.A. and etc.). The first cruise ship in the history of modern Russia, the Sura, was built in the city[33]. In recent years, the production of automotive components (electrical wiring) has developed. One of the oldest enterprises of the All-Russian Society of the Blind (Avtokomplekt LLC) produces cleaning brushes that are sold throughout Russia and even in some CIS countries.

Education[ | ]

Kindergartens No. 4, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 24, 29, 46, 49.

Schools No. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, Evening comprehensive school No. 1, Gorodets specialized (correctional) boarding school of the 5th type, Gorodets specialized (correctional) boarding school of the 8th type

GAPOU "Gorodetsky Provincial College"

Children's music school, Children's art school

Museums[ | ]

The city of craftsmen
Gorodets is known not only as the oldest city in the Nizhny Novgorod region, a center of folk crafts (wood carving, painting), but also as a museum city. It is the only city in the region that has a Museum Quarter in its historical part. The central place in it is occupied by the local history museum - one of the first regional museums in the Nizhny Novgorod region (along with Vetluzhsky), founded in 1918. Since 1920, it has occupied the mansion of merchant I.P. Oblaev Jr. on the street. Lenina, 11 (formerly Kupecheskaya). The museum's collection includes about 16 thousand items of storage of the main fund. His collection of archaeological antiquities from the 12th to 14th centuries, including a princely helmet from the 13th to 14th centuries decorated with silver and gold, as well as a hanging lead seal of Prince Alexander Nevsky, is of national importance. In April 1991, the All-Russian conference “Gorodets Readings” was held for the first time at the museum, which later became a traditional regional scientific forum with the participation of leading archaeologists, historians, archivists, and specialists in the protection of ancient monuments, and since 2016 the museum has been a co-organizer and venue for the traditional seminar “Archaeology of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region and adjacent territories”[34][35]. On the basis of the local history museum, the Gorodets Historical and Art Museum Complex was created in 2007, which includes several more museums located next to it and on neighboring ones - Andrei Rublev Street, Revolution Embankment and Aleksandrovskaya Embankment:

• Children's Museum on Kupecheskaya
• Museum "Gorodets Gingerbread": opened on July 26, 2008 in the main house of the former mansion of merchant S. F. Tryapkin, which is a monument of architecture and urban planning of federal significance. The building is located at the very beginning of the museum quarter, at the intersection of Lenin and Kirov streets. The museum tells about the history of gingerbread making and modern gingerbread production. The Gorodets Gingerbread Museum is the second (after a similar museum in Tula) dedicated to the history of the sweet industry.
• Museum "House of Countess Panina"
• Museum "Russian Samovar Tower": opened on September 8, 2007 in the Grishaev estate, which is an architectural monument of the 19th century. The basis of the museum’s collection was the private collection of the head of the Zemsky Assembly of the Gorodetsky municipal district, Nikolai Fedorovich Polyakov. The collection includes more than 400 samovars and is considered [ by whom?
  ] the largest in Russia. In September 2022, N. F. Polyakov’s samovar collection was donated to the city[36].
• City of masters
• Museum "Gallery of Good"

In 2016, the private museum “Gorodets on the Volga” was opened, the exhibition of which includes a collection of ancient coins, items of clothing and everyday life of officials of the pre-revolutionary era, and a collection of paintings by contemporary artists[37].

Gingerbread[ | ]

Forms of Gorodets printed gingerbreads
Gorodets has long been famous for printed gingerbreads. Contrary to the widespread opinion in local history literature about the local gingerbread business back in the 17th century, documentary evidence of gingerbread making in the village of Gorodets, Balakhninsky district, dates back to the end of the 18th century. Judging by the reviews of contemporaries, the gingerbread industry at that time was already quite large. The earliest known gingerbread boards of Gorodets craftsmen also date back to the last quarter of the 18th century (kept in the collection of the State Historical Museum). The development of the gingerbread business in Gorodets was facilitated by the large trade in bread at the local bazaar, as well as the proximity of the Nizhny Novgorod fair, from where gingerbreads were distributed throughout the Volga region and went to the Urals, Don, and Central Asia. The heyday of Gorodets’ “sweet trade” occurred at the end of the 19th century. At that time, more than 30 varieties of gingerbread were baked here (some weighed up to one and a half pounds), and 15 gingerbread establishments operated. Most of the gingerbread makers were Old Believers. The most famous dynasties of gingerbread masters are the Bakharevs, Belyaevs, Glazunovs, Lemekhovs, Shcherbakovs.

During the years of Soviet power, the gingerbread industry declined sharply. In 1930, the Red Gingerbread Artel was created, which was later transformed into the Gorodets Food Processing Plant. Preserving the traditions of the old masters, the food processing plant baked printed gingerbread “Sterlyadki” weighing 5 kg. The author of the printed board for it was a descendant of the famous dynasty of gingerbread masters - carver Georgy (Egor) Illarionovich Bakharev.

In the 1970s, a new stage in the development of gingerbread business began in Gorodets. This was the great merit of the director of the food processing plant, Nina Petrovna Shishkina. Under her leadership, an original recipe for a printed gingerbread called “Gorodets Souvenir” was created, and new printed boards were ordered from the talented wood carving master Valery Georgievich Zelenin.

Currently, the main producers of printed gingerbread are Anna Grigorievna Voronina’s enterprise “Gorodetsky Gingerbread” [38] (former team of the Gorodets food processing plant) and OJSC “Gorodetsky Confectioner” (also known under the brand “LuVeNa - Love, Faith, Hope”). Printed boards are cut by local craftsmen Valery Zelenin, Sergey Sokolov, Victor Galibin. The largest printed gingerbread in Gorodets is baked annually for the regional festival “Folk Craftsmen Brotherhood”. It weighs 20 kg and is made from a board by the famous Gorodets carver Andrei Kolov, intended for casting a cast-iron panel to decorate the museum quarter. The giant gingerbread consists of four parts, baked separately and held together with sugar icing.

Sports[ | ]

The following sports are actively developing in the city: football, cross-country skiing, combat sports (boxing, karate, kickboxing, sambo), and athletics.

The first sports team in Gorodets appeared in 1912 - it was a team of amateur football players. In winter, team members “stood” on skates, skating on the city skating rink (Ceremonov Swamp) or on the Volga. On February 2, 1914, the town residents undertook a unique speed skating marathon from Gorodets to Nizhny Novgorod and back. The athletes covered a distance of almost 60 km on the ice of the river twice in a day (both times spending 3.5 hours on it).

During the years of Soviet power, sports societies were created in the city, including the most numerous and titled - Spartak. Famous athletes and athletes of the 1930s and 1940s were Viktor Andrianovich Krylov (director of the Spartak stadium), Irina Sergeevna Insarskaya (physical education teacher in city schools, Gorodets record holder in many sports, participant in the 1947 All-Russian Spartakiad in Moscow).

A native of the city, USSR champion in speed skating in the sprint all-around, Tatyana Denisova, now also works as a physical education teacher at school No. 2. A student (since 1974) of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Bayanov, she trained on the seasonally filled ice of the Spartak stadium. Currently a member of the Saiga running club.

The most titled athlete in Gorodets is skier Alexey Kuznetsov, bronze medalist at the Squaw Valley Olympics (California, 1960). He was a member of the ski team of the Timiryazev collective farm in the Gorodetsky district and always played for the Urozhay sports society. After finishing his career, the athletes worked as a coach. In memory of the outstanding athlete, a ski race is held annually in Gorodets.

A well-known student of the Gorodets boxing school is Andrei Gogolev, Honored Master of Sports, three-time champion of Russia (1996, 1997 and 1998), world champion in 2001 (his mentor is I.V. Golubkov, Honored Trainer of Russia).

Sports sections operate at the Gorodets stadium "Spartak", a sports and recreation center on the street. Krupinov, in city schools. The local football team plays in the Nizhny Novgorod region championship.

In January 1997, the Saiga running club was founded in the city. KLB members take part in track and field runs and cross-country skiing. Twice Gorodets marathon runners made multi-day runs from Moscow to Gorodets, dedicated to the 850th anniversary of these cities (in 1997 and 2002, respectively). Every year, members of the Saiga club participate in daily propaganda runs: on the eve of Defender of the Fatherland Day - the Smirkinsky Run in memory of internationalist soldiers (40 km along the Gorodets - Sokolskoye highway), and on May 8 and 9 - the Torch of Peace, a relay race in Kovernino , Semyonov, Linda and back to Gorodets.

Since 2002, the traditional athletics marathon “Maly Kitezh” has been held in the city in the summer. About a hundred runners from different cities of Russia (Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanovo, Kirov, Moscow, Izhevsk, Ryazan and others) will start there.

The oldest and, perhaps, the most popular sports competition in Gorodets is the annual track and field relay race for the prizes of the Gorodets Herald newspaper. It has been held since 1934, with stages of the relay passing through the central streets of the city.

Famous townspeople

City residents are proud of their glorious fellow countrymen:

• Ivan Gavrilovich Blinov is an artist and calligrapher, he wrote many books in Old Russian handwriting and created many paintings.

• A.A. Smirnov is a writer who began his literary career in Gorodets.

• V. Yakhontov is an actor, a master of artistic reading. His childhood and youth were spent in Gorodets.

• V.F. Vasiliev - Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

• A.S.Vedernikov is a famous Soviet artist.

• A.V. Vorozheikin - twice Hero of the Soviet Union.