Serpukhov is a city in the Russian Federation, the district center of the Moscow region, located in the southern part of the Oka-Moskvoretsk Plain, on the Nara River, near its confluence into the Oka River, 99 km south of Moscow. Serpukhov - pier on the Oka, railway station. The population is 129,000 (2001). The main industries: mechanical engineering and metalworking (factories: "Condenser", "Nefteapparatpribor", "Hydrostroydetal", mechanical, tool, forging and press equipment, Serpukhov Automobile Plant, "Refueling equipment"); textile (cotton and paper mill, thin-cloth association, leather factory; cotton, stocking, paper, furniture factories). The city also operates enterprises: "Khimvolokno", production of building materials, food industry.
The territory of modern Serpukhov was inhabited for a very long time, during excavations, traces of Neolithic parking were found here. Serpukhov was first mentioned in the charter of Ivan Kalita in the early 14th century. The name of the city comes from a small river Serpeika, which flows into Nara. In ancient times, the city was surrounded by an earthen rampart, for several centuries it was of great military importance for Moscow Rus. In the 14th century, Vladychny and Vysotsky monasteries were created to strengthen the city. A squad of Prince Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky, who was in ambush, decided the outcome of the Kulikovo battle. Serpukhov was repeatedly subjected to attacks and sieges, seriously suffered as a result of the raid of Tokhtamysh in 1382. Around 1556, on the orders of Ivan the Terrible, a stone Kremlin was erected on the site of an old wooden one, which in 1618 withstood the siege of the Ukrainian Hetman Sagaidachny.
After the expansion of the borders of the Moscow state, Serpukhov loses its military importance and begins to develop as a commercial and industrial city. In the 17th century were widely known Serpukhov merchants Sokolnikov, Serikov, Shilov. Serikov’s linen manufactory supplied goods abroad. By the end of the 18th century, seven sailing factories were operating in Serpukhov. In the 19th century Serpukhov became the center of the textile industry of the Moscow province, paper-rolling, stuffed, hemp and cloth factories were created here, which became the basis for the industry of the modern city.
Attractions
Serpukhov has a large number of historical monuments, among which the most valuable is the complex of the Serpukhov Kremlin, as well as monasteries. The Kremlin Hill is located on a cape formed at the confluence of the Serpeika River in Naru (left bank of Nara). The white-stone Kremlin had a triangular shape, fragments of the walls of the 16th century were preserved from its complex, which were partially dismantled in 1934, when their material was used in the construction of the Moscow Metro. On the territory of the Kremlin, the Trinity Cathedral (1696) with a tent bell tower of the early 18th century has been preserved. To the north of the Kremlin already in the 14th century there was a posad. Among the Posad churches stand out the five-domed Trinity Church (built before 1714) and the Ilyinsky Church of the type of "eight on four" in the Baroque style (1748). To the north of these temples, outside the old posad, are the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross (1745-1755) and the Pechersk Church in the style of classicism (1804-1809). To the south of the Kremlin are the Empire Church of Nikola Bely, completed with a massive dome drum, built in 1835-1857 on the site of a wooden temple, and a small ensemble of the Crucifix Monastery (founded in 1695 as Novozhdestvensky, abolished in 1764), in which the cathedral (1718-1719), a gate church-bell tower in the Baroque style (second half of the 18th century), as well as a fence with columns in the classical style (late 18th century). In the transverse part of Serpukhov, on the right bank of Nara, there are Sretenskaya Church (1700-1702) with decor in the spirit of Moscow architecture of the mid-17th century, St. Nicholas Church (1711) and Pokrovskaya Church (1721).
On the southern outskirts of Serpukhov are Vladychny and Vysotsky monasteries, which played a significant role in the history of the city. The monastery, located on the right bank of Nara, was founded in 1360 by Metropolitan Alexy of Moscow. The monastery operated until 1919, and was revived in 1995 as the Sovereign Convent. From the buildings of the monastery, the five-domed Vvedensky Cathedral of the late 16th - early 17th century, the columnless white-stone chapel of the Three Hierarchs (1695), the refectory with a one-pillar chamber and a tent St. George's Church (1599), the Holy Gate with the Church of Theodotius of Ankira (1599) have been preserved. The complex of the Vladychny Monastery includes walls with four corner towers of the late 16th - mid-16th centuries.
On the left bank of Nara there is the Vysotsky Bogoroditsky Monastery, founded in 1374 with the blessing of Sergius of Radonezh by Prince Vasily Andreevich the Brave. The monastery served as a fortress for a long time, underground passages from it led to the Serpukhov Kremlin and the Vladychny Monastery. In 1571 he suffered from Khan Devlet Giray. In 1390, the first abbot of the monastery, Athanasius, together with Metropolitan Cyprian of Moscow, sent seven icons to the monastery from Constantinople, which constituted the "Vysotsky Order". Today these icons are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum. In the 19th century, the monastery became famous for the icon “Indrinkable Chalice”. The monastery was closed in the 1920s and revived in 1991. The main architectural monuments of the monastery: the Cathedral in honor of the Conception of the Virgin (late 16th century), the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, the Sergius Church of the 17th century, the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin with a refectory (14th-17th centuries), the gate church-bell tower of the Three Hierarchs (1843), the rectory building, cells and services of the 18th-19th centuries.
Among the monuments of civil architecture of Serpukhov, there are many residential buildings of the 18th-19th centuries, among which the Sollogubov estate of the late 18th century, made in the style of classicism, stands out. From an architectural point of view, the shopping area is interesting with the shopping arcades of the first half of the 19th century and the living yard (1845), designed by D. F. Borisov. 15 km north of the city is the estate of Novinka, in which on the orders of its owner B. N. Dolgov in the middle of the 18th century built a stone Kazan church. From another owner - Kheraskova - preserved stone manor house.
18 km north-west of Serpukhov is the village of Rai-Semenovskoye - the former patrimony of the Nashchokins with the estate of A. P. Nashchokin. In the early 19th century, the first resort in the Moscow region was opened here on the basis of irony mineral springs. In Rai-Semenovsky there are preserved the landscape park planned in 1768 and the Spasskaya Church (1765-1783) with a bell tower built by M.F. Kazakov in the style of early classicism. Around the church, M. F. Kazakov built a stone fence in the form of ancient Russian fortress walls with teeth. Artistic value is the interior of the temple with columns of marble, stucco bas-reliefs, bronze jewelry and a unique iconostasis created from golden brown marble. The resort village, located near the estate consisted of three streets, there was a temple, a building with bathrooms, a pharmacy, a greenhouse, a hotel. At the beginning of the 20th century, the estate was sold to the manufacturer Khutarev, and during the years of Soviet power it, together with the resort, fell into desolation. 15 km south-west of Serpukhov is the village of Podmoklovo, in which the landowner’s estate, created in the middle of the 17th century by the owner of the village, Prince N. S. Dolgorukim, has been preserved. Preserved outbuilding in the style of early classicism, the remains of the park and the stone church of the Nativity of the Virgin (1754) with decor in the style of Western Baroque.
Serpukhov and its surroundings are attracted not only by the wealth of architectural and historical monuments, but also by natural conditions. 12 km from the station Serpukhov is located Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve, occupying an area of more than 50 square kilometers. It combines ecosystems of three geographical zones of Russia - taiga, middle strip and southern steppe. The reserve was organized in 1945-1948, more than 900 species of plants grow on its territory, more than 100 species of birds and 50 species of mammals live. Since the late 1940s, the Central Bison Nursery has been working here.
