Valday

Historical sketch

It was first mentioned in 1495 as the village of Valdai settlement; later the village of Valdai. Until 1654, the palace village, which was later given to the Iberian monastery (called Bogoroditsky), which owned it until 1764. Name by location at Lake Valdai, and hydronym for the area Valdai hill.

Since 1770 the city of Novgorod province.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries. a significant trade and craft center on the most important Russian highway Moscow - St. Petersburg. Blacksmithing and foundry, the manufacture of famous Valdai bells were developed. At the bell-mowery of the Usachev brothers cast bells, which were supplied to many churches in Russia. Yam race, haulage, maintenance of inns developed.

In the city: plants - "Jupiter", mechanical, metal products. Food industry enterprises.

In Valdai district grow potatoes, grain crops. Breed cattle, pigs, poultry.

Deposits of clay, rubble.

The Catherine Church (1793, partially modified by the project of Arch. N. A. Lvov) has been preserved in the style of classicism, which served as the palace church of the Pathway Palace of Catherine II. In the rebuilt buildings of the palace since 1918, the Local Lore Museum is located.

On the Ryabin Island of Valdai Lake there is the Iberian Monastery (founded by Patriarch Nikon in the 17th century). In the center of the monastery stands the monumental building of the five-domed, surrounded by a low gallery of the Assumption Cathedral (1655-56, Arch. Averky Mokeyev). The refectory was also preserved (1655-58, arch). Mokeyev; restructuring of the 18th century, the bell tower (17th century, rebuilt in the 19th century), cells (late 17th century), a stone fence (most of the 1780s) with two corner towers and the gate church of Michael the Archangel (17th century).