According to PHONEJUST.COM, Uglich is located 70 km northwest of Rostov in the Yaroslavl region. It is one of the cities of the Golden Ring.
The first mention of Uglich in chronicles dates back to 1148, but the legend says that the city was founded by a relative of Princess Olga of Kiev – Jan Pleskovich in 937. In 1218 it became the capital of a specific principality, and in 1238 it was attacked by the Mongol-Tatars. In 1328, the local princes sold their rights to own the city to the Grand Duke of Moscow, and he became part of the Moscow principality. In 1462, Prince Ivan III gave Uglich younger brother – Andrei Bolshoy. During his reign, many stone buildings were built in the city – a palace complex, new Kremlin walls, a cathedral and several monasteries appeared. In Uglich they minted their own coin and chronicled it. In the 16th century, after the death of Ivan the Terrible, his youngest son, Tsarevich Dimitri, was exiled to the city. In 1591, the boy was found dead, and the chief adviser to the tsar, Boris Godunov, was suspected of his death. These circumstances influenced the further course of the history of Russia – the Time of Troubles set in, which led to the ruin and decline of the state. At the beginning of the 17th century the city was destroyed. Only from the second half of the 17th century Uglich started to recover. Tsar Michael ordered to resume stone construction here and allocated significant funds from the treasury for this. At the end of the 18th century, Uglich became a district town of the Yaroslavl province.
Today, thanks to the restoration work of the second half of the 20th century, numerous examples of Russian architecture have been preserved in the city. The main attraction of Uglich is the ensemble of buildings of the ancient Kremlin. Its buildings were erected between the 15th and 19th centuries.
The most outstanding building of the Kremlin and the main temple of the city is the five-domed Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior.. It was erected in 1713 on the site of an old ruined church from the 15th century. Of greatest interest is the interior of the cathedral. It was painted in 1810-1811 by the students of the famous painter from the Vladimir province – Timofey Medvedev. For samples, they took the frescoes of European masters of the late Renaissance and Baroque, for example, the temple fresco “Transfiguration” is a copy of the work of Raphael. In 1860, a six-tiered iconostasis with icons arranged in canonical order was installed in the cathedral. In the northern aisle and on the western porch of the cathedral there is an exposition of ancient Russian art. More than fifty works of icon painting of the 15th – early 18th centuries, of various schools and trends are presented here.
Near the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral there is a bell tower, which was erected in 1730. The former bell tower that stood on this site became known in connection with the events of the late 16th century, when Tsarevich Dimitri, the last of the Rurik dynasty, tragically died. It was her bell that first notified the locals about the incident, after which it was removed and taken out of the city. The top of the 37-meter bell tower is crowned with a gilded dome. In the 20th century, a complete set of bells was restored. In addition, their chimes can be heard every half an hour; these sounds are reproduced by an electric clock installed on the bell tower in 1984.
Not far from the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior is the Cathedral of the Epiphany. It was built at the Epiphany Monastery in 1827. The Epiphany Monastery itself was founded at the end of the 16th century, and later in 1661 it was moved from the Kremlin to the outskirts of the city. It was here that Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, the mother of the murdered Tsarevich Dmitry, was tonsured. The Cathedral of the Epiphany is made in the classical style – it is an elongated building with a gable roof. Almost all of its interior decoration was lost, now there is an art gallery here, where canvases of the 18-19th centuries are exhibited.
Very interesting are the Chambers of the Princes of Uglich, which are one of the most ancient living quarters in Russia.. The chambers are a brick tower-like extension with a porch, which served as the front part of the princely palace. Analogues of such structures began to be built of wood in the 12th century. Only under Prince Andrei the Great they were rebuilt from stone. There are ornaments on the walls of the chambers.
In 1692, by order of Peter I, the church of Tsarevich Dimitri “on the blood” was built on the territory of the Kremlin.. It was founded on the place where in 1591 the son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsarevich Dimitri, tragically died. The outer walls of the church are red, which is reminiscent of the bloody events of the past. They are also reminiscent of the wall paintings of the 17th century, which in chronological order reproduce the story of the death of the prince. The frescoes of the 18th century on the theme of biblical legends, which adorn the refectory, are very beautiful. Today, the church houses an exposition of the Uglich Museum with relics associated with the prince. Here is also the famous bell, which was taken out of the city, after informing the inhabitants of the death of the last Rurikovich. The Cathedral Bridge
stretches from the Uglich Kremlin to the trading square. Since ancient times, wooden bridges have connected fortifications with the outside world. This bridge was the same, rebuilt in stone at the beginning of the 19th century.
In addition to the Kremlin Ensemble, there are many ancient church buildings in Uglich.
On a hill, which in ancient times was called Ognevaya Gora, stands one of the oldest monasteries in Uglich – Alekseevsky Monastery. It was founded in 1371. At the beginning of the 16th century, the monastery was destroyed by the Polish-Lithuanian interventionists, and in memory of those who died on the territory of the monastery in 1628, a three-tented Assumption Church was installed, which was nicknamed “Wonderful” for its beauty. Not far from here stands the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist. (1681) with preserved paintings of the 19th century.
A truly grandiose building in Uglich is the Resurrection Monastery. The time of its foundation is unknown, some historians attribute the appearance of the monastery to the second half of the 13th century. The ancestors of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, were buried here. In 1674-1677, a new grandiose monastery was erected, the ensemble of which included several buildings. Soon all of them were destroyed due to soil erosion. Today, the restored monastery complex includes the Resurrection Cathedral with two side chapels, a belfry and a refectory with a church.
Next to the ensemble of the Resurrection Monastery stands the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist. It was founded at the end of the 17th century at the expense of the merchant Grigory Chepolosov in memory of his dead son. This church is graceful and elegant, its walls are golden in color, and the facades are decorated with tiles. Also of interest in Uglich are the Kazan Church on Assumption Square (the former trading square) (presumably from the 14th-16th centuries), the Korsun Church (1730) at the entrance to the city and the Church of Tsarevich Dimitri “on the field” (1729), which stands in that place, where they said goodbye to the remains of Tsarevich Dimitri, who were taken out of the city.
Divnaya Gora is located 10 km southeast of the city, where the monastery of Divnogorskaya Pustyn stood at the end of the 17th century. Today, this place is the Trinity Church. It contains the remains of paintings from the early 20th century and a carved iconostasis. 11 km from the city, in the village of Uleima, there is the Nikolo-Uleiminsky Monastery, which was founded at the beginning of the 15th century. Stone construction began here in the 17th century. The ensemble of the monastery consists of the St. Nicholas Cathedral (1674), the Vvedenskaya Church, the Trinity Gate Church, the bell tower (1889) and the fence with towers (1713). Also not far from the city is the Church of Michael the Archangel “in the forest”(1787) with a well-preserved interior of the 19th century. Here you can see painted floors, late oil paintings, stucco and numerous icons. Near the walls of the temple there is a mass grave, where hundreds of ministers of this church are buried, who defended it during the Polish-Lithuanian intervention in the early 17th century.
Since 1959, at the State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum has been operating in Uglich. It is located on the territory of the Kremlin, and also has several exhibitions in the city’s ancient church buildings. Among the expositions of the museum, one can single out the “Interior of the Church of Tsarevich Dimitri” on Blood “with a memorial exposition”, “Department of the History of the 16th-18th Centuries” (Chambers of specific princes), “Exhibition of iconography of Tsarevich Dimitri and memorial things” (Chambers of specific princes), “Interior Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior and the Department of Ancient Russian Art” and “Russian Art of the 18th-20th Centuries” (Epiphany Cathedral).
