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Today, Uglich is a quiet town, and something of a backwater, and visitors usually discover it when they take a boat trip down the Volga. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, and the first stop downriver from Moscow. The first glimpse of the city from the boat, with buildings like the old Resurrection Cathedral and the Church of St John the Baptist coming into view through the trees on a cliff, is captivating.
During the Time of Troubles, the city was plundered and burned many times, and in Soviet times, Uglich's outskirts were flooded to create a reservoir, but enough of the city's historic buildings survive to give this city a real flavour of Old Russia.
Uglich is one of Russia's oldest cities. Local tradition dates its origins to 937 when it was said to have been founded by Prince Ivan Pleskovitch, but the earliest documents date from 1148. Over the next few centuries, the town prospered - until the time of Dmitry's murder in 1591. After the death, official investigators concluded that it was 'an accident' and ordered that the 'tongue' of the cathedral bell that had tolled the news of Dmitry's death be cut out and the bell 'exiled'! This did nothing to stop the bloody events that followed, so vividly described in Pushkin's famous drama 'Boris Godunov', turned into an opera by Mussorgsky.
The gem of Uglich is its kremlin, which used to be a fortified fortress and suffered attacks from everyone from Mongol-Tatars to Lithuanians. Within its walls, you can see the Prince's Chambers where young Prince Dmitry lived, and the blue-domed Church of Dmitriya-na-Krovi (St Dmitry on the Blood) build on the place where the dead tsarevich was found. And you can see the famous bell, which was eventually brought back from its 'exile' in Siberia. Also worth visiting inside kremlin is the stately Spaso-Preobrazhenski Cathedral decorated with white carved stone, and, next to it, the many stepped 110 ft tall belltower. The tower dates from 1730 but the digital clock inside was installed in 1984.
Among the other highlights of Uglich are the Alekseevsky Monastery and nearby a true jewel of Russian medieval architecture: the Divnaya (Marvelous) Assumption Church, so called because of its unusual triple tent shaped towers, that make it look as if it is floating in the air. Closer to the river bank there is a Resurrection Monastery which contains a great cathedral, refectory (monks' dining room), belltower and a summer church.
Another fascinating place in the city is the Museum of City Life which displays exhibits of ancient everyday artifacts like costumes and musical instruments. And you might be pleasantly surprised to visit the Vodka Museum, where you may learn about the history of Russia's most famous drink and even try a few glasses (samples are included in the admission fee)!
Russia Cruises that stop in Uglich
Uglich
For foreigners, Uglich is an undiscovered gem - a quaint little town on a sharp bend in the Volga, beautifully situated above the river and full of medieval buildings. For Russians, it played a key role in history. It was here that Ivan the Terrible's young son Dmitry, the last of the Rurik royal family, was murdered by, it was suspected, the tsar's adviser Boris Godunov, throwing Russia into an age of terrible conflict, Smutnoye Vremiya (The Time of Troubles).Today, Uglich is a quiet town, and something of a backwater, and visitors usually discover it when they take a boat trip down the Volga. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, and the first stop downriver from Moscow. The first glimpse of the city from the boat, with buildings like the old Resurrection Cathedral and the Church of St John the Baptist coming into view through the trees on a cliff, is captivating.
During the Time of Troubles, the city was plundered and burned many times, and in Soviet times, Uglich's outskirts were flooded to create a reservoir, but enough of the city's historic buildings survive to give this city a real flavour of Old Russia.
Uglich is one of Russia's oldest cities. Local tradition dates its origins to 937 when it was said to have been founded by Prince Ivan Pleskovitch, but the earliest documents date from 1148. Over the next few centuries, the town prospered - until the time of Dmitry's murder in 1591. After the death, official investigators concluded that it was 'an accident' and ordered that the 'tongue' of the cathedral bell that had tolled the news of Dmitry's death be cut out and the bell 'exiled'! This did nothing to stop the bloody events that followed, so vividly described in Pushkin's famous drama 'Boris Godunov', turned into an opera by Mussorgsky.
The gem of Uglich is its kremlin, which used to be a fortified fortress and suffered attacks from everyone from Mongol-Tatars to Lithuanians. Within its walls, you can see the Prince's Chambers where young Prince Dmitry lived, and the blue-domed Church of Dmitriya-na-Krovi (St Dmitry on the Blood) build on the place where the dead tsarevich was found. And you can see the famous bell, which was eventually brought back from its 'exile' in Siberia. Also worth visiting inside kremlin is the stately Spaso-Preobrazhenski Cathedral decorated with white carved stone, and, next to it, the many stepped 110 ft tall belltower. The tower dates from 1730 but the digital clock inside was installed in 1984.
Among the other highlights of Uglich are the Alekseevsky Monastery and nearby a true jewel of Russian medieval architecture: the Divnaya (Marvelous) Assumption Church, so called because of its unusual triple tent shaped towers, that make it look as if it is floating in the air. Closer to the river bank there is a Resurrection Monastery which contains a great cathedral, refectory (monks' dining room), belltower and a summer church.
Another fascinating place in the city is the Museum of City Life which displays exhibits of ancient everyday artifacts like costumes and musical instruments. And you might be pleasantly surprised to visit the Vodka Museum, where you may learn about the history of Russia's most famous drink and even try a few glasses (samples are included in the admission fee)!
Russia Cruises that stop in Uglich
