The Godunovs, the Romanovs and Susanin

10 points6 km3.5 hours

Kostroma is a place with a rich history. The town is linked to the Godunovs, the Romanov royal dynasty and Ivan Susanin. Be sure to see the historic center and the ancient churches and monasteries. Kostroma is a town of Russia's Golden Ring with its own local flavor.

Route author

Susanin Team

Things to do

📜 Learn the city's history
🏰🕵️‍♂️ Discover a legend
🏛️🕰️ Compare the eras

Route points (10)

Central Park in Kostroma

Point on route “The Godunovs, the Romanovs and Susanin”

Point 10

Central Park

🌿 Public garden or park

Historical Background

Today it's an ordinary park, a lovely place for locals and visitors to relax. But this is where the Kostroma Kremlin once stood. The exact founding dates of Kostroma and its kremlin are unknown, but historians believe a kremlin already stood here by the early 1240s. The town suffered in the feuds among the heirs of Grand Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest. Prince Yaroslav, Vsevolod's third son, rebuilt the town and built a church dedicated to the holy great martyr Theodore Stratelates inside the fortress.

A Difficult Fate

In 1413 a great fire swept the town, burning the kremlin too. On the orders of the Moscow prince the kremlin was rebuilt on a neighboring hill, but that didn't save the fortress. In 1773 another great fire damaged the kremlin as well. After that the moats were filled in and the fortifications dismantled. The site's historic appearance was finally destroyed in 1934, when the Bolsheviks demolished the kremlin's cathedral complex. Nothing remains of the defenses today except the eastern part of the rampart.

Restoration

In 2016 work began in Kostroma to rebuild the lost buildings on the grounds of today's Central Park. The project is based on archival documents.