Verkhoturye is a small town located 300 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg. There you can see the northernmost and only white-stone Kremlin in the Ural built under Peter I, as well as St. Nicholas Monastery, which is a spiritual center of the Ural.
The Verkhoturye ostrog (stockade) was laid down at the top of a rocky hill above the Tura in 1598, during the expedition of Golovin and Voeikov, whom Boris Godunov sent to arrange the road to Siberia discovered by Artemy Babinov.
Until 18 century, this trade route through Verkhoturye was the main road connecting the European part of Russia to Siberia, since it was there that the most convenient passage in the Ural Mountains was located. Verkhoturye ostrog allowed to control this road.
In 1703, by the order of Peter the Great, they began to erect the Verkhoturye Kremlin, and it should be noted that in that time there was in effect a tsar decree prohibiting stone construction. An exception was made for only three cities: St. Petersburg, Tobolsk and Verkhoturye.
The Trinity Cathedral with a high bell tower, built in 1709, has survived to the present day in the Kremlin. It is the oldest stone building in the Ural. The building of the Sovereign Barns houses interesting collections of the Historical and Architectural Reserve.
St. Nicholas Monastery, located near the Kremlin, is the spiritual center of the whole Ural. The relics of Simeon of Verkhoturye, who is the patron saint of the Ural, are kept in the huge Holy Cross Cathedral. The village of Merkushino where the St. Simeon lived is 65 km to the east of Verkhoturye.
