Catherine the Great: Approval of the plan of the city of Kostroma

On March 17, 1781, Catherine II approved the plan for the city of Kostroma and other cities of the Kostroma governorship.

The Empress got up early that morning as usual. She drank her toughest coffin, and then worked with papers. Before her lay a heap of blueprints with plans of cities. Among them were ancient, like Galich and Kostroma, and newly established by her order, like Makarev, Vetluga, Varnavin.

She seemed all-powerful. Lines of uneven and disorderly streets blocked grids consisting of regular segments and rectangles. By her will, chaos had to turn into space. It turned out that the hills and ravines did not want to obey the highest will. Therefore, the “fan” version of the semicircular layout is still read best in Kostroma, although it is also put in the basis of Makariev, Buya, Kady and Soligalich.

Kostromichi, captured by the young Empress in 1767, named in her honor the main square of Ekaterinoslavskaya. The central street that departed from her received the name of the patron saint of her son, the rest of her grandchildren. But the plan that Catherine II signed that morning had no names.

The streets of Kostroma today run in all directions according to the plan of the XVIII century, when people believed in the omnipotence of reason.

About the approval of Catherine the Great “fan” plan of Kostroma is told on the red route of author’s excursions"Kostroma at 15:15."And on a VR tour. "Flight over Kostroma"You can see how the city built according to this plan looks from a bird's eye view.

According to the materials of the scientific consultant of the project “Kostroma at 15:15” candidate of cultural studies Larisa Sizintseva.