Solikamsk

Solikamsk town - Moscow corner. This apt proverb about our ancient city, which was called in ancient times Usolya Kamskoe, or Sol Kamskaya.

This old saying testifies that in appearance (multi-domed and multi-temple), in liveliness, in wealth, our city was not inferior to the capital. If Moscow is the unifying center of the state, Solikamsk is one of the few centers of that time, strengthening the power of the state.

The foundation of Solikamsk dates back to the first quarter of the 15th century, when the merchant people of Kalinnikov, natives of Vologda, moved their salt vatnitsa from the upper reaches of the Borovaya River to the Usolka River. Here was founded in 1430, a settlement called Sol Kamskaya, Usolye Kamskoe, and later Solikamsk. Salt-making for several centuries was the leading branch of the city economy.

The city immediately settled on two banks of Usolka, five kilometers from its confluence in Kama. Residential and public buildings, temples, were located near the salt plants. The city center was constantly formed on the higher left-bank side.

Wide economic development of the region begins after the annexation of Perm to Moscow in 1472. With the opening of the famous Verkhoturskaya (Babinovskaya) road, which was built in 1597 and connected Russia with Siberia and the East, Solikamsk became one of the major cities of the transit route.

In the summer of 1613, the Sol of the Kama Voivodes of the Sovereigns became aware. Solikamsk became the center of the newly formed Solikamsk Voivodeship. Solikamsk voivode was subject to huge spaces: from Pechera in the north to Sylva in the south, from Upper Kama to the Ural Mountains. In 1636 the Cherdyn Voivodeship was abolished. Thus, Solikamsk for almost two centuries (until 1781) became the industrial, administrative, cultural and religious center of the vast region.

Voivodes represented the tsarist power in the region and controlled almost all branches of local government. They judged and punished, watched over the collection of taxes and duties and the safety of this treasury. Voivodes were entrusted with the recruitment of troops, the distribution of grain and money salaries, the distribution of service between “servant people”. They were required to catch thieves and robbers, pursue fugitives, take measures against fires, contagious diseases, forbidden games, seductive spectacles, smuggling; and even monitor the performance of clergy duties and church attendance by parishioners.

Especially for the voivode in Solikamsk was built a large voivodeship estate on the shore of Usolka. The focus of all administrative affairs was the hut, originally wooden, and in 1673, after a great fire, laid stone. The date of the final construction of the ordered hut is considered 1688. It has survived to this day and is known as the House of Voivode.

The history of Solikamsk voivodeship and the affairs of the voivode - servants of the sovereigns - in essence, the history of Russia itself, its formation as a powerful and extensive power.

Our city at the dawn of its formation had an important strategic position, had an actively developing economy.

According to the first, known to us census of Ivan Yakhontov in Solikamsk was in 1579: 190 yards, 16 salt vats, 27 shops, several churches, near the city there were 23 villages, 11 repairs, and 3 loans.

Salt is a great value. The oldest mineral discovered and used by man was salt. Table salt is an indispensable food product. Since ancient times, people have known about the healing properties of salt. So in our northern forests, hunters covered their wounds with bread pulp chewed with salt.

Our city grew on salt at the dawn of the 15th century, the largest industrial enterprise in Solikamsk today lives with salt - OJSC Silvinit, an enterprise for the extraction and processing of potassium, magnesium salts, rock salt.

In 1589 the Solikamsky Monastery was founded (it still works today). In the XVII century there was a convent and 9 churches built in stone.

Each of the 12 stone temples of Solikamsk is a special story. So the complex of the women’s Transfiguration Monastery (XVII century) is a monument of female loyalty. The widow of the merchant Evdokia Shchepotkina let her fortune to build a monastery, where she spent more than 30 years.

The Church of the Wives of Myronosits, the former city cemetery, still presents us with surprise after surprise. She is an example of male devotion. The history of the appearance of this temple is associated with the fate of the Surovtsev family of salt producers.

On the Church of John the Forerunner (early XVIII century) there is a memorial plaque dedicated to the founder of the first botanical garden in Russia, Grigory Demidov. The representative of the famous family of Russian industrialists left a very bright mark in the history of our city and the country. The memory of the famous countryman is kept now operating in Solikamsk arboretum.

Despite the difficult historical fate, numerous fires, the old Solikamsk has retained its unique appearance. According to experts, the central architectural ensemble of the city is unique. It includes the rarest in decorative decoration of the Holy Cross Winter Cathedral, founded in 1698. In 1698, the main temple of the city was consecrated - the five-headed summer Trinity Cathedral with two porches. The cathedral amazes with the monumentality and richness of plastic solutions.

The complex of cathedrals is crowned by the Cathedral bell tower, erected in 1713. It is the largest in the Kama region pillar-shaped structure of the early XVIII century. It has a slope like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

A special place in the central architectural ensemble is occupied by the Epiphany Church, which was built from 1687 to 1695 in the style of Moscow Baroque with all its characteristic manifestations. The church has a magnificent collection of icons of the early XVII – XVIII centuries and a wooden carved iconostasis.

The Voivode’s House is a unique architectural monument of federal significance. The oldest stone building of civil architecture in our region.

The voivode's house was built in 1688. In the thick walls of the House, inside wall passages are laid, loopholes are arranged. So, in danger, the voivodeship residence turned into a fortress. From under the house of the voivode left several underground passages.

In Solikamsk, you can see the rarest monument of Russian industrial wooden architecture - the Ust-Borovsky salt plant. The Museum of the History of Salting "Ust - Borovsk Salt Plant" is a unique monument of industrial wooden architecture, has the status of an object of cultural heritage of federal significance.

Solikamsk has the status of a historical city. In the “stone fairy tale”, created by the hands of Russian masters, the city managed to preserve its name and soul.

O.V. Lebedev