The city of Kalyazin in the Tver region is famous for the Kaluazin Bell Tower of the flooded St. Nicholas Cathedral, which rises above the waters of the Volga River 200 meters from the shore. Its height reaches 74.5 meters. This attraction is quite unique, so many tourists come to Kalyazin. Most often the city is visited with a short visit, on the way to Uglich.
The settlement on the site of modern Kalyazin appeared in the 12th century. In 1434, on the lands of the boyar Ivan Kolyaga, the Monk Makariy founded the Trinity Kalyazin Monastery. It was located on the left bank of the Volga. Gradually, the village of Monastyrskaya Sloboda appeared around it. At this point, the Volga makes a very steep bend.
Most cities in this region (Uglich, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Moscow, etc.) have much more convenient transport links with the right bank of the Volga, so the city of Kalyazin began to grow and develop on the right bank of the river. At the same time, Kalyazin remained the patrimony of the Makariev Trinity Monastery. The spiritual influence of the monastery on the surrounding lands was also enormous.
In 1520, stone construction began in the Makariev Kalyazin Monastery. By the end of the 16th century, the monastery had become one of the most powerful fortresses in central Russia. The power of its fortifications was comparable to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Thanks to this, Kalyazin became one of the centers of defense during the Time of Turmoil.
The History of Kalyazin in the Time of Turmoil
In 1609, the city of Kalyazin played a very important role in the struggle of the Russian volunteer corps with Polish troops. In the Makariev Trinity Monastery of Kalyazin there was a camp of the first volunteer corps under the leadership of Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky. His uncle Vasily Shuisky became tsar for four years, but he did not have real power. Numerous Polish detachments were prowling the country, plundering cities.
Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky suppressed Bolotnikov`s peasant uprising in 1606, and then began fighting Polish detachments. In his military camp in the Trinity Monastery of Kalyazin, he gathered a people`s volunteer corps. At that time, the Polish army under the command of Jan Sapieha was besieging the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and the camp of the army of False-Dmitry II was in Tushino.
The army of Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky in Kalyazin was constantly increasing, so Jan Sapieha decided to attack him. On August 18, 1609, the battle of Kalyazin took place, where Skopin-Shuisky defeated the Polish army. It retreated to Dmitrov, but there Skopin-Shuisky defeated the Poles and was able to lift the siege of Moscow. False-Dmitry II fled from Tushino and was soon killed. So Skopin-Shuisky became a national hero. Many boyars and ordinary people wanted to make him tsar. Moreover, he was a relative of the Ruriks and had rights to the throne after the suppression of the main dynasty.
This was not wanted in the environment of his uncle tsar Vasily Shuisky. They feared the popularity of Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky. In 1610, he was invited to Moscow for a feast and the baptism of the son of Prince Vorotynsky. After drinking a glass of wine at this feast, Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky died of poisoning. The Time of Turmoil continued, the Poles and Swedes began an open intervention. Russia was on the verge of disintegration and the second volunteer corps under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky, assembled in Nizhny Novgorod, was able to expel foreign detachments from Russia.
Flooding of Kalyazin in 1940
By the end of the 17th century, Kalyazin on the right bank of the Volga River became a fairly large county town. In 1694, St. Nicholas Cathedral was built on the bank of the river, and in 1800 a bell tower in the classical style with a height of 74.5 meters was erected near it. This bell tower now towers over the waters of the Volga River.
In 1940, the construction of the Uglich HPS was completed. It was the first hydroelectric power station from the Volga Cascade, and the builders were in a hurry to launch it on the eve of the war. The Uglich HPS played a very important role in providing Moscow with electricity during the Battle of Moscow in 1941. 2/3 of the city of Kalyazin fell into the flood zone of the HPS reservoir. The entire historical center of the city of Kalyazin and the entire Monstyrsky Sloboda village with the Trinity Makariev Monastery were under water.
Usually, builders dismantle all buildings in the flood zone, but the water arrived so quickly that they did not have time to disassemble the bell tower of the Nikolsky Cathedral. Since the Volga makes a sharp bend in this place, it was decided to leave it as a landmark for ships. It is located 200 meters from the shore.
Nowadays Kalyazin is a small town in the Tver region. The Kalyazin bell tower became its symbol. A small pedestrian zone of Karl Marx Street with a length of 150 meters has been preserved near the Volga embankment. Here you can see several merchant houses of the 18th century. Nearby you can visit the Ascension Church. There is a monument to Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky nearby.
