Suzdal in winter
suzdal The ancient city is a museum, reserve, treasury of national culture.
1024 – the first mention of Suzdal in the annals, the city is included in the famous tourist route Golden Ring of Russia.
Many travelers come to Suzdal in winter - the city is clean, snow-white, very beautiful. Golden domes of churches and cathedrals sparkle in the sun, bells ring melodiously.
People from different cities of Russia and other countries come here for a special atmosphere of peace and tranquility.
In Suzdal, more than two hundred architectural monuments have been preserved, which are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The heart of the ancient city is the Suzdal Kremlin with an impressive architectural ensemble: the Christmas Cathedral, the Chambers of Bishops, the St. Nicholas Church.
The Museum of wooden architecture and peasant life (opened in the 60s of the twentieth century) is an open-air complex with cult and residential wooden buildings of the XVIII-XIX centuries, which were brought from different parts of the Vladimir region.
In the Museum "Schurovo settlement" you can feel like a resident of Ancient Russia - learn to shoot a bow and wield a sword, bake bread in an old Russian oven, and if you are lucky - get to the historical reconstruction of the battle. Very young visitors will be interested in the contact zoo.
Getting acquainted with the monuments of Russian architecture continues in the monasteries of Spaso-Evfimiev (during the Soviet era, it had a colony and a museum), Pokrovsky (the former place of imprisonment of famous princesses and queens), Rizopolozhensky (an ancient monastery on Suzdal land) and Alexandrovsky (there is a legend that its founder is Alexander Nevsky), which are within walking distance from each other.
If you go to the Trading Square, at the Museum of Wooden Architecture and the Spaso-Eufimiev Monastery, homemade bells, birch bark and clay products, boots and kokoshniks are sold in souvenir tents. In urban pottery workshops, you can take part in master classes on independent manufacture of a pot or porch.
Other interesting master classes that are offered to tourists: birch bark weaving, painting nesting dolls, making doll amulets, artistic forging in the forge, painting frescoes, baking pretzels.
You can admire the winter snow-white city from the observation decks at the bell towers of the Rizopolozhensky Monastery, the Resurrection Church, the Vasilievsky Monastery or the Kremlin ramparts, or go to the observation deck to the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, from which you can see the Kamenka River and the amazing panorama of the Pokrovsky Monastery.
Another option of interesting excursions is to walk around the filming places - "Balsaminov's Marriage", "Blizzard", "The Royal Bride", "Tsar", "Yaroslav Dombrovskiy", "Peter the Great".
In order to develop a good appetite, you can ride from the slides on ice; in sleds drawn by horses with bells; the royal carriage; on cheesecakes that are tied to quad bikes; become a husky driver or go to the rink.
And when the soul sings, and demands songs and dances, we go to listen to Suzdal folklore ensembles, and marvel at the masterful play on the saw and axe, as on musical intruments.
You can dine in Suzdal in restaurants with a national flavor: guests will be invited to eat food in the boyar chambers, serving dishes will be in the Russian style, waiters in folk costumes. The average check for lunch is from 1 thousand rubles. In traditional cafes and diners, where the people of Suzdal go, lunch will cost 300-500 rubles.
In cold weather, you can warm up with the famous Suzdal mead, “drinking honey”. The main ingredients of the drink: water, honey, yeast, sugar. In the hall for tastings of the Shopping rows, you can try this drink, and there to eat more thoroughly.
There are drinks with varying amounts of sugar (8-10%) and strength (5-16%), there are non-alcoholic options. Mead is cooked with ginger, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, herbs (juniper, mint, raspberries, linden, strawberries, kalina, rose hips, pine buds, donut, St. John's wort, oregano). Popular varieties: five-alty, semi-polty, Cossack, Strelets, two-hryvnia, oprichny.
Suzdal is famous for cucumbers! In July, the holiday of this healthy vegetable takes place, and in winter you can buy and try appetizing homemade blanks.
Another popular treat that is fed to guests of the city - pies - from rye flour, kulebyaks with vizig, chicken, mushrooms. An excellent option for a gala dinner in the restaurant - stuffed sterlet in the royal style, royal pike, baked milk piglets. Restaurants serve dishes from boar, pheasant, quail, elk.
It should be borne in mind that in winter in Suzdal is windy: the city is located almost in a clean field, and it is impossible to build tall houses in it, so the winds are expansive here.
The average air temperature in December is 7.6 C, January - 10.2 C, February - 9.6 C. We dress warmly! Nice down jacket, hat and scarf, waterproof shoes. Children should take a complete change of outerwear.
Suzdal for the New Year holidays is a very popular tourist destination, so you need to book places in hotels, tables in restaurants, and book excursions in advance.
It is convenient to get to Suzdal from Moscow – by personal car (the road will take about three hours), a bus with a transfer in Vladimir (the road is about 4 hours), a train to Vladimir (the road is 3.5 hours) and high-speed trains “Swallow” and “Swift” (1 hour, 40 minutes).