#yurevets

[mostly-history]

Yurevets (Ivanovo Oblast, Russia):

View from Fortress Hill, north along Soviet Street.  On the left is the Cathedral of Entry of Christ into Jerusalem and the Bell Tower of St. George; on the right is Church of the Purification, near the Volga River.

Pre-revolutionary high school on Soviet Street 97.

Dormition Cathedral (north-west view).

Cathedral of Entry of Christ into Jerusalem (north-west view).

Bell tower and the Church of St. George.

House on Lenin Street 55.

Church of Nativity of Christ (south-west view).

Cathedral Square, with the Bell Tower of St. George and Cathedral of Entry of Christ into Jerusalem.  (North view from Fortress Hill.)

Yurevets Povolzhsky (on the Volga) was founded in 1225 by Yuri II of Vladimir, son of Vsevolod the Big Nest (the last major ruler of Vladimir before the Mongol invasion of 1237).  Legend says that while journeying from Yaroslavl to Vladimir, Yuri camped here and had a vision of an icon of St. George.  Because of this, he built a log fort and a wooden church dedicated to St. George.  However, it was likely a practical decision to fortify a strategic river bend, as Yurevets is located where the Volga flows eastwards before turning sharply to the south towards Nizhny Novgorod.  The landscape is dominated by forested bluffs and ravines that descend to the main part of Yurevets along the river.

The settlement suffered from the Mongol invasion in the winter of 1237 – 1238, and Yuri died in March 1238 during the Battle on the Seet River.  However, under the authority of regional princes, the town gradually recovered.

In 1452, Yurevets was absorbed into the territory of Grand Prince Vasily II of Moscow.  The town was often attacked by Tatar raiders from the south, but this ended in 1552 when Ivan the Terrible conquered Kazan.  Yurevets was briefly granted to Kaibul, a Tatar prince from Astrakhan, as a favour from Ivan.

During the Time of Troubles (1598 – 1613), Yurevets organized a people's army led by Fyodor Grigorevich Krasny, a local nobleman.  In 1613, Fyodor witnessed the enthronement of Michael Romanov, the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty.

In 1651, Avvakum Petrov was the main priest in Yurevets for a short period of time.  He was uncompromising in his interpretation of proper behaviour, which led to several weeks of confrontation with parishioners.  He then left Yurevets for Moscow, where he led the opposition to Patriarch Nikon's reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church (part of the Schism of the Old Believers).

Alexander Mindovsky was a peasant who bought his freedom in 1820 and became a textile magnate.  He established the Yurevets Linen Factory in the 1870s, and his family rose to prominence in Moscow as a result.

Yurevets is well-known for its impressive churches.  The Cathedrals of the Entry into Jerusalem were built in the early 1700s, and the Dormition Cathedral in the mid-1800s.  The Bell Tower of St. George (also built in the mid-1800s) is one of the tallest bell towers on the Volga River.  It has five tiers, and contains a small church dedicated to St. George.  The cathedrals were badly damaged during the Soviet era, but the bell tower is still the town's dominant landmark.

Hydroelectric projects that came to fruition after WW2 caused a significant increase in the water level of the Volga.  When the Gorkovskoye Reservoir was completed in 1957, parts of the Volga near Yurevets widened to nearly 14.5km.  This threatened the small town of Yurevets, whose population had declined over the past 50 years to just over 8000 people.  However, a large levee was built to save much of the historic region at the edge of the river.

[themuseumwithoutwalls]

MWW Artwork of the Day (11/15/21) Konstantin Kryzhitsky (Ukrainian, 1858-1911) Woodland Landscape (c. 1898) Oil on canvas, 90 x 143 cm. Private Collection

Kryzhitsky was famed for his monumental landscapes which drew together the varied lands, dramatic skies and expansive vistas of Russia, Scandinavia and the Baltics. The rolling hills and rich, impenetrable woodland depicted in the this painting are nevertheless reminiscent of the lush environs of Zvenigorod, a fashionable town just outside Moscow. It is worth pointing out the faint outlines of domes and towers dotted along the skyline, pentimenti from an earlier composition underneath which bear a strong resemblance to 19th century views of the Volga town of Yurevets. The tree-stumps which can be seen in the foreground of the composition serve as a reminder of the limited impact of human interference on this magnificently impenetrable and never-ending forest.

More of this artist's work appears in this MWW gallery/album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3195416347230379&type=3

[russiansoulvintage]

V. Yukin "Spring City Yurevets" Print, Postcard -- 1983 by RussianSoulVintage

[jasonayak]

Andrei Tarkovsky with his mother Maria, Vishnyakova,Yurevetes (1933)

[mostly-history]

Yurevets (Ivanovo Oblast, March 2013).