Wonderful Kitezh-grad. Excursion to Sviyazhsk

Do you know, dear guests of Kazan, that Kitezh-grad covered with fairy tales exists? According to legend, during his trip to Kazan, A.S. Pushkin visited the island-city of Sviyazhsk. When he saw him, he exclaimed, “I have finally found my island.” A huge, beautiful island on a high mountain, rising right in the middle of the great Volga River. The island has an amazing history and this is not found in the whole world.

The island of Sviyazhsk is a real storehouse of historical sites, attracting many tourists over the past few years. The fortress city, the construction of which took only 4 weeks in 1551, served as an outpost to Ivan IV the Terrible during the capture of Kazan. The uniqueness of the island is in the only example of ancient Russian town-planning art on the scale of a one-time laying of wooden buildings and structures. According to the chroniclers, 70 thousand people built the fortress for 24 days. After 1917, Sviyazhsk fell into desolation, church shrines, monuments of history and culture were destroyed and abused. Only in 1960, Sviyazhsk was declared a monument of history and culture of Russia. Why does the island have that name? How did Russian Prince Ivan Vasilyevich manage to build an entire city in 4 weeks? Who is St. Christopher and why is he painted on a fresco with a horse’s head? Was Leon Trotsky in Sviyazhsk and what monument appeared in Sviyazhsk during the Civil War? You will receive answers to these questions during the excursion to the island of Sviyazhsk. You will learn not only about the main milestones of the history of this unique place, but also about its modern state and local residents. The tour lasts 5 hours (including the road).

transportation