The famous Ekaterininsky highway begins from Moscow Profsoyuznaya Street, bypassing the Moscow Ring Road, in other words, the Old Kaluga Road, and a little to the side, the Moscow-Belarus federal highway (A101). Throughout it is history itself, cities such as Roslavl, Yukhnov, Kaluga, Medyn, Maloyaroslavets, Obninsk, Balabanovo, Troitsk, as well as many small settlements, no less glorious and even more rooted in ancient times.
Start
The Catherine tract existed from the end of the fourteenth century, but was known as the Old Kaluga Road, since the reign of Catherine will happen much later. Muscovites traveled to Kaluga along it, and Kaluga residents to Moscow. The dangerous road was at that time, unprotected. It was the Catherine’s tract that led Moscow various invaders from the south and west, all the most devastating raids were made from this side.
Finally, in the 1370s, a new defensive line arose on the approaches to the capital, which could reliably obscure this area, the city of Kaluga. And then Catherine’s tract blossomed, like a river with lilies, in small villages along both its banks.
Neighborhood
The nature here is picturesque! That is why this area fell in love with the most prominent people in Moscow. Starting from the seventeenth century, princes and boyars chose land for the family estate where the Catherine tract passed. Both nobles and wealthy merchants were built, as well as a learned estate. As they say now, prominent figures of science, culture, art left their traces here, not excluding representatives of the creative intelligentsia.
It must be admitted that in Soviet times, interest in the beauties of the Kaluga land did not fade. Until now, the old Catherine’s tract is a favorite place for fun "pokatushek" curious cyclists of a young age. The history of this marvelous land also attracts older people who get to local attractions by jeeps.
Maloyaroslavets
For many centuries, the land here saw all the wars that the country had to go through, and was ravaged more than others. Nevertheless, where the Catherine tract passed, there were many amazing old manors, estates, temples, monasteries. For example, the gates of the female St. Nicholas Chernoostrovsky monastery in Maloyaroslavets store traces of gun salvos of the Napoleonic army.
This is such a clear sign for unbelievers! Fragments of cores and buckshots densely passed over the entire surface of the gates, right up to the image of Christ, and only His face miraculously remained unharmed. Huge potholes are visible now. And Christ is still looking at the world - both gently and discerningly.
Valuevo and Krasnoe
Many historical monuments of Russia were preserved by the Catherine tract! The Moscow region and Kaluga were incredibly rich in sights. You can judge by the remaining how much. For example, the estate of Valuevo, built in the seventeenth century. The architecture is of stunning beauty, it is not for nothing that princes and courtiers, counts and gofmarshals lived here at different times: Meshchersky, Tolstoy, Shepelev and Musina-Pushkins.
No less beautiful is the Krasnoye estate, founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This village, even without a manor, was donated to Tsarevich Alexander, then the Saltykovs settled here, and in 1812 it was here that Mikhail Kutuzov radically changed the situation of the war. It is only twenty five kilometers from Moscow.
We go further
Nearby, also twenty-five kilometers away, is the place of Alexandrovo settlement, where the estate of the famous Morozovs was (remember the eyes of the noblewoman from the painting by Surikov), it has been mentioned in monuments since 1607. Here, already in the second half of the eighteenth century, another manor grew up - Schapovo, which was founded by the Grushevsky brothers.
And a little later a Decembrist nest appeared here - the estate was owned by Muravyov-Apostol, whose three sons went to Senate Square. Then there lived the famous hero of World War II Arseniev, and since 1890 - the manufacturer Shchapov. After two kilometers, a stop will be needed again. Catherine’s tract - a route with surprises.
More famous estates
Manor Polivanovo is also famous for its seventeenth-century architecture, which was later significantly improved by Count Razumovsky. Thirty-seven kilometers from Moscow is Dubrovitsy. This is not only an architectural masterpiece, but also a landscape one. An ensemble of stunning beauty. This area has been known in documents since 1182, when Prince Gleb Turovsky ruled it. And the estate was mentioned for the first time in 1627. The founder was named boyar Ivan Morozov. At different times, the princes Golitsyn and Potemkin-Tauride lived here.
Nearby, two kilometers away, Mikhailovsky is a manor founded by General Krechetnikov in 1776. The village was called Krasheninnikovo. Further, this place was owned by Count Sheremetyev, who did a lot to restore the dilapidated buildings. And finally, thirty-eight kilometers from Moscow, the famous Voronovo estate, burned in 1812, so that the French would not get it. Earlier, in 1775, Catherine the Great herself visited this place, and why the Old Kaluga Road began to be called differently. Such is the history of the Catherine tract.
Today
The land of the Old Kaluga Road probably remembers everything that happened along the way, and from time to time even our contemporaries make it clear that not all its riddles are solved and not all secrets are revealed. Not one story of eyewitnesses exists on the Internet that this road seems to glow from the inside on moonless nights. As if hinting at the number of not inveterate, or even unburied restless souls that remained on its sidelines. By the way, it’s not so easy to discover this old road. Countless lanes, the main Kaluga highway passes away, and no one has been using it for many years.
Birches
You can find her by special signs. The end of the eighteenth century was the beginning of a huge construction, including road construction. Catherine the Great issued a special decree, thanks to which all major roads were accompanied by birch alleys on both sides. Great decree! Not afraid of either heat or snow drifts to travelers.
The birches for the Catherine tract were selected special - with dark bark, huge hollows and powerful curved branches, of which one hundred and twenty species was chosen just that. For the most part, the first trees have long died, but there is a clearing that has not been overgrown, and may never be overgrown. The road has been so trampled for many centuries that nothing grows on it. And the grooves along the curbs along the road flow, clearly preserving the distance.
Kaluga highway and the surroundings of the old road
This route runs somewhat away from the Catherine tract, leaving behind only a direction that is guessed by the even rows of grown trees and is remembered with a song that was not sung by the head of Hercules from the Golden Calf. And the Kaluga highway is a beautiful four-lane highway, well-lit and cherished by road repairmen. The landscapes around are purely Moscow Region: impassable forests - sometimes coniferous, then mixed - interspersed with light birch groves.
Then suddenly the most picturesque plains and hills arise, escorting the traveler to the river valleys, of which there are quite a lot. There are no reservoirs only. And the rivers are wonderful, each in its own way: Nara, Kremenka, Polyanitsa, Desna … In addition to them there are many ponds and lakes with fish, both large and smaller. There is no railway nearby, and therefore there are quite a few places that civilization is only slightly affected. Large-scale industry in this area is also absent, environmentally friendly, and the social environment historically has developed uniformly. But, as noted by those who have been there, the infrastructure is well developed everywhere.
Matches and discrepancies
The Catherine tract coincides with the new highway to the Big Ring Railway, not far from the settlement of Lviv. The most interesting thing is that the Kaluga highway does not lead to Kaluga at all, but to Belarus.
It happened so because at Crosses it crossed the road from Podolsk to the west - the former Warsaw road. When the railway ring was built, the role of the Kiev highway increased significantly, and therefore the section of the old road from Kresty to Kaluga itself gradually ceased to exist.
