10 points
6 km
3.5 hours
Historical Background
This is an open-air museum of wooden architecture. In the mid-20th century a Russian village was re-created at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma rivers. Until the 18th century most buildings in Rus were wooden, so the museum's exhibits are real wooden buildings from the Kostroma region and neighboring lands. Kostromskaya Sloboda lets you soak up the atmosphere of village lanes of centuries past. Visitors can see for themselves the heights that wooden house building reached in the 16th to 18th centuries. Besides peasant cottages of the period, there are two chapels and three churches. The most valuable exhibit is the ancient wooden Church of the Synaxis of the Theotokos from the village of Kholm. Built in 1552, it is the oldest wooden church in the region.