Kostroma is one of the famous cultural cities in the so-called golden ring northeast of the Russian capital Moscow. The town was founded in 1152 by Yuri Dolgoruky, but there may very well have been a settlement much earlier on this site. Kostroma was attacked by Mongol armies in 1238, and subsequently the city was established as its own principality, where a brother of Alexander Nevsky became prince. His descendants ruled Kostroma until around 1330, when Ivan I of Moscow bought the city, which with the purchase became part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

As a northern city in the Grand Duchy, Kostroma came to be a place where Moscow’s Grand Dukes went to when the capital was besieged, which happened in 1382, 1408 and 1433, among others. The 16th century was a period of high growth, which not least happened because of the Muscovy Company and trade through the port city of Arkhangelsk.

Around the year 1600, Boris Godunov established several monasteries in the city. During the troubled times of Russia in the early 17th century, Ivan Susanin became a symbol in the fight against Polish and Lithuanian attacks, and the future Tsar Mikhail Romanov stayed in Kostroma’s monasteries when he was offered the Tsar’s throne in 1612.

In the 18th century, Kostroma developed, but most of the city was built of wood, and it was hit by a big fire in 1773. The fire meant that Kostroma had to be rebuilt, and this happened with a new city plan from 1781, shaped like a fan, which spread out from the Volga River and the site where the Kostroma Kremlin formed the core of the old city.

The new town plan and some preserved buildings from the provincial neoclassicism of the time still stand as a good example of 18th-century urban development. Kostroma was continuously expanded with, among other things, commercial and administrative buildings, all of which were located along the streets of the town plan in the fan that still radiates from Susanin Square.

The 19th century also brought industrialization with it, and it was especially the linen industry that grew in Kostroma from the end of the century. In 1887, the railway came to the city, which also boosted economic growth. In 1913, the city was one of the places where celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty on the Russian throne were held, which of course happened with the city’s status as the cradle of the dynasty.

In the subsequent time as part of the Soviet Union, further industrialization took place in the city, which fortunately was spared the devastation caused by the German invasion in large parts of western Russia. Later in the century, tourism grew in the city, which benefited from the preserved core of Kostroma’s rich history.

Today, as a tourist, you can see an exciting city with many sights. Along the banks of the Volga, you can visit the Kostroma Kremlin, which is located on a hill and which forms the historic center of the city from its establishment in 1416. Over time, many of the Kremlin’s buildings have been demolished, and this also happened in the 1920s and 1930s. However, there are plans for the reconstruction of the most important historical buildings, and this applies, for example, to the Cathedral of the Epiphany, which was the facility’s main church.

There were also two other churches in the Kostroma Kremlin, which was surrounded by a wooden wall with numerous towers. After the demolitions, the Kremlin area was laid out as a park, and on the large pedestal, which was built for a Romanov monument, a statue of the head of state Lenin was erected, which still dominates the area.

Close to the Kremlin is Kostroma’s modern center in the form of Susanin Square, from which seven streets radiate as laid out in the 18th-century town plan. There are several interesting buildings around the square such as the low commercial buildings, Gostinyj Dvor and the Central Market, both of which are characteristic with their many arcades.

Next to the Central Market you can see the fire lookout tower from the 1820s, which was built in neoclassicism, and next to the tower building is the elegant old guard building. Borshchov’s House was also built on the square in the 1820s, and the large neoclassical house is one of the most important architectural monuments in the ensemble of the city core. From Susanin Square, you can walk along Prospekt Mira to some of Kostroma’s modern neighborhoods, and in the opposite direction you come down to the promenades along the Volga.

You can also cross the Kostroma River and visit the Ipatiev Monastery, founded in 1330. The monastery became particularly famous in 1613, when the Tsarist Parliament announced on March 14 that Mikhail Romanov was the new Tsar of Russia. At that time, he was in the Ipatiev Monastery. Most of the monastic buildings were built in the 16th-17th centuries, and among them is the Trinity Cathedral, which is beautifully decorated. In the monastery you can also see a reconstructed house that belonged to Mikhail Romanov.

During the Soviet era, the monastery was closed, and in 1934 one of the local churches was demolished. The monastery was used for housing, the barracks and other things, before it was converted into a museum from the 1950s. As part of the museum, wooden houses were also moved from town and country to the area south of the monastery, and they are still there as an exciting open-air museum.