Silent Province: Come To The City Island On The Great River

The cultural layer in the town of Ostrov has been counting since 1341, this is exactly how the archaeologists date, the finds at the level of 1.9 m depth show the XIV-XV century, then there were strict records, there are written proofs, come to the Island, you will find very interesting documents in the Historical Museum. A walk along the Island will leave in your memory the most pleasant memories.

In the middle of the river Velikaya on the Hare Island is the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the most interesting among all the temples of the Island - its domes are not covered with gold, they are green. The place under the church was determined where there was once a fortress. Today, restoration work is underway, excavations are also being conducted here. It was not set up traditionally, the altar is turned towards the north. Why is it so chosen the direction of the altar - today difficult to answer, whether in the direction of Pskov, or so ordered himself St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

The first mention of the church dates back to 1764, the church's drum is interesting, on it and now one can read the ornate inscription made on ceramics. The church itself is built of limestone slab. In the bell tower there are 4 bells - 2 large and 2 small ones.

You can still walk along the old gray slabs of the former fortress, the very first building in the Island. Once in the fortress, an important outpost of the Pskov region, during the raids of enemies people hid, today you can come to the church of Nicholas the Wonderworker to ask for help - as the legend says, all the secret honest wishes come true.

Gorgeous suspension bridges

Go through the Great River can be by chain bridges - unique structures. In 1850 the construction of chain bridges across the river Velikaya was started according to the project of Mikhail Yakovlevich Krasnopolsky. These bridges decorate the city today, Pushkin used to pass through them. The island was a fairly developed merchant town in which fairs were held. At first it was planned to build arch bridges here. But the project was too costly, so we decided on the version of Mikhail Krasnopolsky. Each traveler is necessarily photographed against the background of bridges; they serve only as a pedestrian crossing over the Great River; young locks must be attached to the metal crosspieces of the structures during the wedding procession, and the key will be thrown into the river: how many such keys on the bottom of the Velikaya River are impossible to say.

The project of suspended wooden bridges is unique, earlier in Russia such structures were never built. To save bridges, they are not allowed to pass cars, and large masses of people on bridges do not stop. As the chronicles testify, Mikhail Krasnopolsky received the Order of St. Anne for the bridge project .

Strongly damaged during the war, the bridge was completely restored in its original form. It is on this bridge and you can go to the church of St. Nicholas in Gorodische.

Trinity Cathedral in Ostrov

If you go further across the Great River, then you will come to the current temple - the Trinity Cathedral, its bells are daily spreading a crystal ringing over the river. An amazing architectural building with clear lines, with three entrances, a large dome and a bow with a cross. It is visible from all sides, both at the entrance to the city, and from the opposite bank.

The Trinity Cathedral took the place of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. On Velikaya Ulitsa along the river there was the Streletskaya Sloboda, it ousted the "black yards", totaled 100 yards. There were also Mostovaya, Nastoynichy and Pushkarskaya settlements. There stood four mills, interesting buildings with different wheels, the owners - the Pskov Alekseevsky Monastery and the island's St. Nicholas Cathedral. Here, the houses of wealthy people and nobility found their place, bathhouses were located nearby.

In addition to the Pokrovsky Maiden Monastery there was also the Ilyinsky Monastery, which existed until 1764, after its abolition the flour-milling plant appeared on the site of the Steep hill, and the land was plowed up for vegetable gardens. It was at this time that the first mention of the Siman farmers appeared, and they became the future owners of the village of Ekaterinovka.

The original form of the cathedral is slightly changed, two new porches have appeared, the mosaic floor of the Metlakh tile has been removed . The new annexes have columns, wide steps lead inside the cathedral.

Right opposite the Trinity Cathedral are the famous "iron ranks" - the so-called first benches on the right bank of the Velikaya River. This name is still used by the townspeople, although there are no "iron" benches anymore, the gunmen who gave the name to this trading place have disappeared.

Come to a quiet province to relax

For the first time records of the village called the Island can be found in the Russian chronicles, there are records from 1341, in which it is mentioned about a small village in the middle of the river Velikaya, on the very border of the Russian land. The first encounters with the Germans - the year 1348, the battle near the village of the Islands with the Germans and Lithuanians. Year 1406 - the battle with Vitów and the campaign along with the Russian troops on the lands of the Lithuanians.

About the city of the island the most interesting records were left by scribes Grigory Meshchaninov-Morozov and his associate Ivan Drovnin - they were instructed to make a full description of all the towns and villages-suburbs of Pskov, and not only describe the state of settlements, but also compare them with previous ones Records of these places. Records were completed by 1585-1587, they describe in detail both the farm and the buildings of the Island.