The city of Yelabuga is located on the banks of the Kama River, 200 kilometers east of Kazan. It is one of the oldest cities in the Volga region. The fortress of the Volga Bulgarians on the Kama River was founded at the very beginning of the 11th century, at the same time as Kazan. The 19th century merchant town buildings, as well as places associated with the great Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, have been preserved in the historical center of Yelabuga.
The historical center of Yelabuga is located near Kazanskaya and Bolshaya Pokrovskaya streets. The attractions in this place are within walking distance of each other. There are several museums in this place, as well as two of the most beautiful parks in Yelabuga. Shishkinskie Ponds Park is located in a lowland, near the bank of the Toima River. Alexander Park is located above it on a high bank.
The city of Yelabuga is inextricably linked with the fate of Marina Tsvetaeva. She spent the last 10 days of her life here in evacuation, arriving with her son George. Tsvetaeva was severely depressed psychologically, and her whole family ended up in NKVD prisons. Because of this, she committed suicide on August 31, 1941 in the house of the blacksmith Brodelshchikov. Now the Marina Tsvetaeva Museum is open in this house, and in Yelabuga there are several other places associated with the life and work of the great poet of the Silver Age.
The history of Yelabuga
The historical center of Yelabuga is located on the high bank where the Toima River flows into the Kama. At the beginning of the 11th century, the Emir of Volga Bulgaria, Ibrahim I bin Muhammad, founded a mosque fortress, which became an outpost of their state on the Kama River. One of the northern routes of the Great Silk Road was located here.
This place is so strategically convenient for controlling trade routes that the first settlement appeared here much earlier. The excavations carried out in the Ananyinsky burial ground by Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin (the father of the artist Ivan Shishkin) prove that there was a settlement of the Finno-Ugric tribe of the Neolithic era (7th century BC).
During the heyday of Volga Bulgaria, a settlement was formed around the fortress on the high bank of the Kama River, which was called Alabuga. Now this place is called the Devil`s Hillfort, because according to legend, an oracle dragon lived here. The fortress itself was a quadrangular fort-mosque. The length of its walls reached 21 meters. The corner towers were built of stone and the walls of wooden logs.
Simultaneously with Alabuga, at the very beginning of the 11th century (1005-1007 years), Kazan was founded. It became a fortress that controlled the trade waterway along the Volga. The capital of Volga Bulgaria in those years was the city of Bolgar, founded in the 10th century. It was located on the banks of the Volga River, 180 km south of Kazan. In 1236, the lands of Volga Bulgaria and its capital, the city of Bolgar, were captured by the Mongol Khan Batu during his campaign on Russian lands. He destroyed the fortresses of Volga Bulgaria and the Alabuga fortress fell into disrepair.
After the conquest of Kazan in 1552, Ivan the Terrible traveled along the Kama River to the city of Solikamsk. On the way, he fell ill and set up camp on a high bank, next to the Devil`s Hillfort. After his recovery, he ordered the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary to be founded on this site and presented it with an Icon of the Three Saints. Now the Intercession Cathedral is located on the site of this church, and the village on the banks of the Toima River was called Trekhsvyatskoye (Three Saints).
In 1614, monk Ion Zeleny founded an Orthodox monastery on the site of the former fortress, but it was closed in the 18th century. Local residents dismantled three towers for building materials, but the ruins of the largest Southern Tower remained. Now they are the main historical landmark of Yelabuga.
The village of Trekhsvyatskoye was developing very actively. In 1780, it received the status of a town, which was named Yelabuga. In the 19th century, Yelabuga became a major trading city, where handicrafts were actively developing. This formed the appearance of the merchant city, which has survived to the present day.
The sights of Yelabuga
The most interesting historical landmark of Yelabuga is the Devil`s Hillfort. At this place there was an Alabuga Fortress of the 11th century, the era of Volga Bulgaria. The South Tower of this fortress has been preserved, and the territory itself has been reconstructed. The atmosphere of an ancient settlement has been recreated here. Near the entrance to the Devil`s Settlement is the Jamig Mosque, the main Muslim temple of the city.
The historical center of Yelabuga is located at the foot of the Devil`s Hillfort, where the village of Trekhsvyatskoye was. Shishkinskie Ponds Park is located in a lowland on the banks of the Toima River. The Embankment Street passes above it, where you can visit the Ivan Shishkin House Museum. The great Russian artist was born there in 1832. Nearby there is a Museum of Applied Arts and a Gallery of Rare Collections, as well as the Cathedral of the Savior.
Alexander Park was opened near the city center in 1856. It was created as an English landscape park and in some places, it looks more like a forest. At the entrance to the park there is the Trinity Cemetery, which the city administration has declared a city attraction. 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. Nadezhda Durova became the prototype of the heroine of Eldar Ryazanov`s film "The Hussar Ballad". The Nadezhda Durova Museum was created in the house where she lived.
Yelabuga is inextricably linked with the name of Marina Tsvetaeva, the great poet of the Silver Age. The Marina Tsvetaeva Museum in Yelabuga is located in the small wooden house of the blacksmith Brodelshchikov, where she spent the last 10 days of her life, from August 21 to 31, 1941. It was a period of utter despair, as her husband and daughter ended up in NKVD prisons. Because of this, Marina Tsvetaeva committed suicide.
In addition to the museum in the house of the blacksmith Brodelshchikov, there is a Literary Museum of Marina Tsvetaeva in Yelabuga, where you can get acquainted with her work. The Peter and Paul Cemetery houses the grave of Marin Tsvetaeva, and her funeral service was held in the Pokrovsky Cathedral in 1990, when Patriarch Alexy II allowed it to be done.
