The Znamenskaya Tower in Yaroslavl is located in the historical center of the city and always arouses interest among tourists with its unusual appearance. A twin structure, parts of which have different purposes, built in different centuries, are of varying degrees of architectural value, federal and regional.
Moreover, it harmoniously blended into the modern city, and adorns Volkov Square.
City gate
In the Middle Ages, this place was an urban outskirts. To protect the posad, as was customary in the 13th century in Russia, the city was surrounded by an embankment rampart. By the 16th century, the posad was surrounded by a fortified wall on which wooden towers were erected. In 1658, during a severe fire, the fortress burned to the ground. And with it 1, 500 residential buildings, 3 monasteries, 29 churches, bridges, shopping arcades and workshops.
The city was left without protection, and Moscow authorities attached great importance to Yaroslavl. By decree of Elena Glinsky, the mother of young Ivan IV, a moat filled with water was dug in front of the rampart, and the walls and watchtowers were built of stone. Now it was possible to get into the city only through the entrance gate, and there were four of them. The main ones were those located in the Znamenskaya Tower of Yaroslavl. Here began the road to Uglich.
In total, powerful defensive structures now totaled 16 stone towers, from which the borders of the city were monitored. The military garrison at the fortifications was ready to resist the enemy. Today, only two have survived: Znamenskaya (formerly Vlasyevskaya) and Volzhskaya (Arsenalnaya), which stands at Strelka, on the banks of the Volga.
Znamenskaya, or Vlasyevskaya tower of Yaroslavl
In those years, near the fortress tower was a church, consecrated in the name of St. Blasius. The tower got the same name.
The powerful building had a watchtower with a bell on top. Structurally, it was complicated by the presence of a zababa, a narrow corridor with turns, to slow down the enemy attack. Walls up to six meters thick seem impregnable even today. The facade of the tower is cut by narrow loopholes for shooters; the baskets were intended for dousing attackers with boiling resin. Entrance gates, if necessary, were blocked by forged bars.
The icon of the Savior was painted on the western wall of the tower, and on the eastern wall of the Mother of God the “Sign”, which soon became known as miraculous. She defended the city from enemies and blessed travelers. To preserve the icon, a wooden chapel was added to the tower wall, which during the reign of Catherine the Great became stone. The Znamensky Chapel, expanding and changing, became the Znamensky Church, passing on its name to the fortress Vlasyevskaya tower of Yaroslavl. In the photo of the old city you can see the main city gate.
Watchtower in peacetime
Sixteen powerful, stone towers built to defend the city from the enemy were never used for their intended purpose. Since their construction, not a single enemy detachment has approached the walls of the fortress. But the history of the Znamenskaya tower of Yaroslavl continued. It served as a gateway to the city for a rather long period.
During the reign of Emperor Peter I, a customs post was located here. Sovereign people - kissers - levied duties on incoming and entering travelers. Kissers are servicemen who, upon assuming office, took the oath of allegiance and disinterestedness and kissed the cross.
During the time of Peter's reforms, they had one more duty: collecting fines. This applied to city guests and locals. By decree of the tsar, wearing old Russian, not German clothes, or a long beard was punished. But the beard could be “redeemed” by paying 5 rubles to the treasury (for comparison: a cash cow cost 1.5 rubles). In 1711, the treasury of Yaroslavl thus replenished 360 rubles. A paying bearded man hung a metal plate with a tax notice on his neck, and he could walk the streets calmly. The rest were forcibly sent to the barber.
To demolish or not to demolish
In peacetime, the city grew rich and expanded its borders. By the XVIII century, the Znamenskaya tower of the city of Yaroslavl was far from the outskirts and lost its original meaning. A powerful watchtower in the middle of one of the central squares was not used. And at the end of the 18th century, Governor General A.P. Melgunov ordered to disassemble it, and send the brick to the construction of the objects necessary for the city. It is good that the local merchants, headed by A. A. Barsov, “bought” the fortress, transferring to Melgunov 15 thousand new bricks. So the tower remained standing.
Her fate was decided once again, when in 1818-1820 the project of the theater building was approved and its location on the ground. Governor-General S.K. Vyazemsky and the Moscow architects proposed to demolish a useless building in order to increase the area in front of the cultural institution for a beautiful view of the place "and for the congress more convenient." For the safety of the tower advocated civil governor G. G. Politkovsky and local authorities. They were able to convince the opposite side of the need to preserve the Znamenskaya Tower of Yaroslavl as a monument of antiquity. The earthen ramparts were nevertheless torn, the moat was filled up.
City center development
The vacant place near the tower immediately began to be built up. A stone two-story house of Count I.P. Saltykov was attached to its southeastern facade, and to the northwestern wall was Gubov's house with a tavern, bench, and horse carriage. The construction around the fortress was very active, there were different-style and multi-storey buildings: hotels, shops, hairdressers, workshops.
Found application and the old fortress. In 1883, it was turned into a water tower, placing a large storage tank at the top, covered by a decorative turret. So the construction became part of the water supply system. The first city water supply could provide water to only 500 houses out of seven thousand. But that was only the beginning.
The Znamenskaya Tower of Yaroslavl stood surrounded by buildings for various purposes until 1980, when two houses collapsed at once: the former Kokuev hotel and the three-story “Polyakov’s House”. Experts attribute this fact to poor-quality backfill of the defensive ditch, but the ancient monument "freed" from part of the outbuildings.
The tower in Soviet times
The ancient, once formidable fortress once again served the city, turning into a cinema. The cinema of the repeated film “Ray” was very small, but many townspeople who went there as children still remember it. And at that time, a grocery store, a cafe "Moscow" and a library were adjacent to the Znamenskaya Tower of Yaroslavl.
Temple in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God "Sign"
In 1861, instead of a chapel, at the expense of the local merchant families of the Olovyanishnikovs, Shapulin, Sobolevs, a stone church was erected adjacent to the tower with one wall. After 30 years, the building was rebuilt with the money of the parishioners, increasing its size. According to the project of architect Nikiforov, one chapter with a gilded dome was erected at the church. The renewed Znamensky temple was re-consecrated in 1897. On the facade was restored the icon of the Savior.
The church was closed in 1932, frescoes were knocked down from the walls, church property was transferred to another parish.
