Sviyazhsk
A tiny island town at the meeting of the Volga and Sviyaga rivers, with monasteries and old frescoes.
About
Sviyazhsk is a quiet place of churches, monasteries and wooden houses on a hill surrounded by water. It is small enough to walk around in a couple of hours, and the views over the reservoir are wide and calm.
The Assumption Cathedral holds sixteenth-century frescoes, including an unusual image of St. Christopher with a horse's head. Other churches, a nunnery and small museums fill the island.
Combine it with Kazan on a day trip.
History
Ivan IV had the fort built in 1551 as a staging base for the campaign against Kazan. It was later a monastic centre and regional town. Rising water in the twentieth century turned the hill into an island. The fortress was assembled in about four weeks in 1551 from timber prepared upriver and floated down the Volga. The Assumption Cathedral was built in the 1550s. In the Soviet period the monasteries were closed and the buildings used for other purposes; restoration has been under way since the 1990s.
UNESCO World Heritage: Inscribed 2017.