Suzdal, Vladimir Oblast, Central Federal District, Russia

🇷🇺 Suzdal (Суздаль) is a town and the administrative centre of Suzdalsky District in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Kamenka River, 26 km (16 mi) north of the city of Vladimir, the administrative centre of the oblast.

Suzdal is one of the oldest Russian towns. In the 12th century it became the capital of the principality, while Moscow was merely one of its subordinate settlements. Currently, Suzdal is the smallest of the Russian Golden Ring towns, but it has more than 40 historically important monuments and 200 architectural sites. Several of them are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

History The town's history dates back to 999 or 1024, and in 1125 Yury Dolgoruky made Suzdal the capital of the Rostov-Suzdal principality. Suzdal served as a capital at the time when Moscow has been described as "still a cluster of cowsheds". In 1157, Andrei Bogolyubsky moved the capital from Suzdal to Vladimir, from which time the principality was known as Vladimir-Suzdal. Suzdal was burned and plundered in 1237 during the Mongol-led invasions, however remained a trade centre after this because of its location in a fertile wheat-growing area. Eventually, it united with Nizhny Novgorod until both were annexed by Moscow in 1392.

After a decline in political importance, the town rose in prominence as a religious centre with development projects funded by Vasily III and Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, wealthy merchants paid for 30 churches, which still stand in the town. At one point, Suzdal had 40 churches per 400 families.

In 1864, local merchants failed to convince the government to build the Trans-Siberian Railway through their town. Instead, it went through Vladimir, 35 km (22 mi) away. In 1967 Suzdal earned a federally protected status, which officially limited development in the area.

In 1943, high-ranking Nazi officers captured at the Battle of Stalingrad were imprisoned within Suzdal's monastery.

Today, the town serves as a tourist centre, as it features many examples of old Russian architecture -mostly churches and monasteries. Despite having nearly ten thousand residents, Suzdal still retains a rural atmosphere with streams and meadows, and chicken and livestock a common sight on the streets, some of which remain unpaved. This juxtaposition of medieval architecture in a pastoral setting has made Suzdal a popular subject for artists.

Geography: Administrative status Within the framework of administrative divisions, Suzdal serves as the administrative centre of Suzdalsky District, to which it is directly subordinated. As a municipal division, the town of Suzdal is incorporated within Suzdalsky Municipal District as Suzdal Urban Settlement.

Economy: Tourist Industry The only industry in the town is tourism. Suzdal avoided the industrialization of the Soviet times and was able to preserve many examples of Russian architecture of the 13th-19th centuries. There are 305 monuments and listed buildings in Suzdal, including 30 churches, 14 bell towers, and 5 monasteries and convents. 79 of them are federally protected buildings and 167 are regionally protected.

In 1992 two of the monuments (Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius and Kremlin with Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral) were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, together with six other White Monuments in this region.

Tourist Industry • The Kremlin is the oldest part of Suzdal, dating from the 10th century. It is a predecessor of the Moscow Kremlin. In the 12th century, it was the base of Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who ruled the north-eastern part of Kievan Rus' and founded an outpost, which is now Moscow. A posad (settlement) to the east became home to the secular population - shopkeepers and craftsmen, while the Kremlin (fortress) proper was the home of the prince, the archbishop, and the high clergy. Within the Kremlin, the Archbishop’s Chambers house the Suzdal History Exhibition, which includes a visit to the 18th-century Cross Hall, which was used for receptions. More exhibits are provided in the 1635 Kremlin bell tower (Звонница) in the yard. • The 1.4-kilometre-long (0.9 mi) earth rampart of the Kremlin encloses a number of houses and churches, including the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral. This cathedral, with its blue and gold domes, was constructed in 1222-1225 by Yury II on the site of an earlier church built around 1102 by Vladimir Monomakh. It was built of light tufa with limestones for details. In 1445 the cathedral collapsed and was rebuilt in 1528-1530 with the upper structure and drums being constructed of new brick. The original 13th-century door from the cathedral is now on exhibition in the Archbishop’s Chambers. • Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius, founded in 1352 to the north of the town centre on the high bank of the Kamenka river. It was built under the order of the Suzdal-Nizhniy Novgorod prince Konstantin. The monastery was planned as a fortress and was originally enclosed by a wooden wall, later destroyed by the Poles. Today's reddish brick walls of the Suzdal monastery were erected over four years, from 1640 to 1644. The fortifications have 12 towers constructed to house artillery power. Later the monastery became a prison, which had a reputation for brutal punishment of prisoners. In 1905 the prison was abolished. • The Wooden Church of St. Nicholas, built in Glotovo in 1766, was moved to Suzdal in 1960 to be part of a Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life. The church is elevated off the ground about a story high from when it was moved across the country. The church is made entirely of wood. • St John the Baptist Church, built in 1720, at the same time as the Wooden Church of St Nicholas. It was constructed with white plastered walls and wooden supports. • St Alexander Convent, built in 1240 by an unknown architect. It is said that the princesses of Suzdal, Mariya and Agrippina, were buried here in the 14th century. • Intercession Convent, founded in 1364. In its centre stands the Cathedral of the Intercession, an add-on built in 1518, financed by Moscow knaz (king) Vasili III. The interior of the cathedral is plain white stone, with no paintings or stained glass. The church houses the burial vaults of 20 nuns of noble birth. An art museum containing works created in the 16th and 17th centuries is connected to the cathedral.

Festivals • Open Russian Festival of Animated Film, held annually in March since 2002, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Culture. • Cucumber Day Festival with folk music performances is celebrated by locals on the second Saturday of July, every year since 2001.

Infrastructure There are four major hotels in Suzdal: • Nikolaevsky Posad (180 rooms) • Pushkarskaya Sloboda (291 rooms) • Heliopark (185 rooms) • GTK Suzdal (705 rooms).

There are also 50 guesthouses with a total number of 700 rooms. Suzdal has approximately 20 hotel rooms per 100 population (comparing to 0.2 rooms for Russia in general, or 1.6 rooms in the US).

Suzdal has 13 restaurants, 10 cafes, 11 bars and 73 souvenir shops.

In 1982 Suzdal became the first Russian town to receive La Pomme d'Or (Golden Apple) - a prize for excellence in the tourism industry, awarded annually by the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET).