The Trinity Cemetery is located near the entrance to the Alexander Garden. It was founded in 1770. In those years, this place was located outside the city border. Notable residents of Yelabuga were buried here for several centuries. To this day, it has reached desolation, however, the city authorities are working to restore it. In 2010, the Trinity Cemetery was awarded the status of a historical monument of the city.
In front of the entrance to the Trinity Cemetery in 1993, an equestrian monument to Nadezhda Durova, who is called the cavalryman-girl, was erected. It shows her in a Hussar uniform. Nadezhda Durova was born in 1783, and died in Yelabuga in 1866 at the age of 83. She had dreamed of military service since childhood. Disguised as a man, she joined the Cossack regiment of the Imperial army under the name Alexander Alexandrov.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, she took part in combat operations as part of the Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment. In 1816, Nadezhda Durova retired and lived in Yelabuga since 1831. Here she wrote the book "Notes of a cavalryman-girl". She was highly appreciated by Alexander Pushkin, and Durova corresponded with him. She became the prototype of the hero of Eldar Ryazanov`s film "The Hussar Ballad".
The memorial grave of Nadezhda Durova is the main attraction of the Trinity Cemetery in Yelabuga. There is also a tombstone over the grave of Archpriest Pavel Dernov, who was shot by the Bolsheviks. The ruins of the Trinity Church are preserved nearby.
Most of the graves at the Trinity Cemetery have not been preserved. The territory of the cemetery is small, so people were buried very densely here. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were about three thousand tombstones in the cemetery. Now local historians are restoring the graves of famous citizens of Yelabuga.
