City-island Sviyazhsk

Speaking about the French the beautiful island of Mont Saint-Michel and do not recall that we have in Russia, there are also paintings and no less amazing island-city, it would be very unfair. So now I want to tell you about the city-island Sviyazhsk, as many scientists noticed its similarity to the Mont Saint-Michel in France.

City island Sviyazhsk 2

Honestly I do not know whether to compare correctly, I think, any patriotism is an objective limit. First of all I would like to remind you that much Sviyazhsk years younger than the Mont-Saint-Michel, almost 600 years old. «Our city-island» at the beginning of 1551 Ivan the Terrible founded on the very spot where the river flows into the Volga Sviyaga. Today the city is recognized as the historical and cultural attractions of Tatarstan.

City island Sviyazhsk 3

Every year it is the perfect place visited by more than a hundred tourists and pilgrims from different countries, but certainly not the millions of tourists, as in France. Here on the Mont Saint-Michel monastery was built almost three centuries, but our Sviyazhsk was established just over a month from the parts that have been collected and are fused in Uglich on the Volga in order to build the base of the Russian troops during the capture of Kazan in 1552. In those days Sviyazhsk fortress was impressive Moscow Kremlin.

City island Sviyazhsk 4

So what is the thread binds Sviyazhsk, with no less famous Mont-Saint-Michel, is the fact that it is located a male Monastery of the Assumption, in fact and in Mont-Saint-Michel is a monastery Benedictine, he more later became a penal colony.

City island Sviyazhsk 5

In early 1918, there was rampant «Red Terror», soon on some period the monastery became a child labor colony, then a prison for military and political prisoners, but later turned into a prison psychiatric hospital. Monastery finally withdrew from all its turmoil today. Restoration did for a long time and all the great temples are now in decline. In 2010 we began a large-scale program for the revival of Sviyazhsk, so we had a hope that soon we will own the Mont Saint-Michel.