“And now our time has come,
We’re going straight east
Past the Island of Buyan,
To the glorious Saltan...” (word for word translation)
Have you ever wondered where the Buyan Island from Alexander Pushkin’s poem, The Tale Of Tsar Saltan, is located? In fact, this is the historical town of Sviyazhsk. When the poet saw the island, he thought that that was exactly the Buyan Island he imagined. The town on the island is located not far from Kazan, so the town of Sviyazhsk is a must-visit for tourists arriving in the capital of Tatarstan, the tour takes one day and it is worth it.
The history of Sviyazhsk Island is amazing. It began with the unsuccessful military campaigns undertaken by Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible against Kazan in the 16th century. The tsar fought for the Volga River, an important transport and trade corridor at that time, and the adjacent area. The Russian army held its winter military campaign for first time, but the ice on the Volga River was thin, and the soldiers fell into the river. The second campaign to attack Kazan was held in summer. The way from Moscow at that time took two months and the soldiers got tired. Returning from the second unsuccessful military campaign, Ivan the Terrible stopped on a hill surrounded by several rivers, directly opposite Kazan. It was then that a clever and cunning plan came to him. He sent his governor up the Volga River to Uglich to build a wooden town. The logs for the future town were made within three months. Each log was marked and numbered, and in the spring, when the ice melted on the Volga River, the logs for the whole town was dropped down the river. As a result, a Russian town was built in just four weeks next to the place where Tatar Khan was; the town had 2.5 kilometers of walls, 18 watchtowers, seven gateways and houses for riflemen. By the way, six meters of the top of the hill were simply cut down with axes to build the town of Sviyazhsk. The local peoples realized that the Russian army’s intentions were serious, and in fact, they swore allegiance to Ivan the Terrible without fighting back. This is how the town of Sviyazhsk was founded. The town on the island was named after the Sviyaga River it was on. There are two versions of the origin of its name. According to the first version, the word is translated from the Turkic language as ‘flowing or winding water’. And according to another one, ‘Sviyaga’ means a ‘wild duck’ in the Old Russian language, and the name of one of the wild duck species is ‘sviyaz’ (widgeon). It’s clear that both names are suitable. The Sviyaga River really goes around the island - it winds - and there are a lot of wild ducks in the area.
The development of this small town reflects the history of our entire country. During the time of tsar Ivan the Terrible, Sviyazhsk was a prosperous peninsula with a population of 4,000 people and numerous churches. Later on, the town played a decisive role during the revolution of 1917. A small old mansion from the 18th century has been preserved on Troitskaya Street. During the Civil War in the early 20th century, the headquarters of the Red Army division was located in the town of Sviyazhsk. During the Red Army’s retreat from Kazan, Lev Trotsky arrived in Sviyazhsk and applied the ‘deviation’ plan for the first time. It ment that every 10th person was shot. It made all the rest soldiers be ‘active’ in the battle. The Red Army did not abandon Kazan to the enemy, and at the same time, did not open the way to Moscow for the enemy.
After the construction of a hydroelectric power station higher up the Volga River in 1956, the water level in the river became higher, and Sviyazhsk turned from a peninsula into an island. It was almost impossible to get to the town. Since the island did not have its own cemetery, the residents of the town joked that they could only die in winter when the Sviyaga and the Volga rivers were frozen, or in summer when the river was calm. The island was isolated, so all the remaining monasteries in Sviyazhsk were closed during the Soviet times, they housed prisons, boarding schools and psychiatric hospitals that should be located as far away from civilization as possible. By the way, world-famous writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky spent several days in Sviyazhsk during his ‘journey held in irons’ in the mid-19th century, and Vladimir Mikhailovich Golitsyn, the descendant of a noble family, also was exiled to this town in 1941. The town on the island became a tourist attraction only in 2009 and it is visited now by more than three million travelers every year.
The first question is how to get to the amazing town on the island? Sviyazhsk is 58 kilometers away from Kazan and it takes just one hour to get there by car; today, the island is connected to the mainland by a highway. The journey by bus takes 1.5 hours and the ticket costs 150 rubles. Tourists can also get there by train, the journey takes about an hour and the ticket costs 88 rubles. However, it is best to get to Sviyazhsk ‘by water’, enjoying the views of the Volga and the Sviyaga rivers. The regular boat runs twice a day, the journey to Sviyazhsk takes two hours and the ticket costs 150 rubles. The way to the island by high-speed Meteor hydrofoil boat takes 50 minutes and costs 900 rubles. There is also a ferry service and it takes half an hour to get to the island and costs 300 rubles per car.
Why is the town on the island so popular, even with foreign tourists, and what are the tourism attractions in the town? There is the Assumption Monastery in Sviyazhsk that has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017. The monastery was awarded this title for three reasons. Firstly, it shows the geopolitical movement of the Christianity to the East. Secondly, its cathedrals were slightly modified during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, additional buildings were constructed and now, they reflect many styles of architecture, from the Old Russian to the Renaissance ones. Thirdly, frescoes from the 16th century, including very rare ones, have been preserved in the Assumption Cathedral, which happened by chance. During the Soviet years when the Assumption Monastery was either a prison or a psychiatric hospital, there was a warehouse in the cathedral building. It was rarely used, so the temperature was almost like in a museum building. For example, the only image of St. Christopher with the head of a horse can be seen in this cathedral. Later on, St. Christopher was painted exclusively with the head of a dog, and all the ‘horses’ were destroyed. In the format of an ancient comic book, the frescoes depicted the complete story of the creation of the world. There is also information about how God ‘created’ the world, about the ‘surgical operation’ on Adam’s rib and the appearance of Eve, about the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Paradise, and the miracle of the Mother of God. For the first time, a living person, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, was depicted next to the saints - it was in the Assumption Cathedral - and this was not typical of that time.
By the way, today the Assumption Cathedral is open to visitors only in summer and in certain hours not to expose the rare paintings to excess humidity and cold. However, at any time of the year, unique frescoes are displayed at the Sviyazhsk Art Gallery. At the museum, visitors can see them in more detail and watch a film about them. On the territory of the cathedral complex, the Sviyazhsk Dormition Monastery is located and operates again.
There is a large wooden cross in the center of Sviyazhsk. Ivan the Terrible prayed in one of the churches in this town before his military campaign to Kazan. From the wooden town on the island, only one church has survived - the Trinity Church. On its walls, visitors can see the notches used to mark the logs when the wooden town of Sviyazhsk was under construction. The stone Church of the Mother of God called The Joy of All Who Sorrow made in the Byzantine style is located nearby. It was built in 1905 when many things, including the churches, were destroyed around due to revolutionary events. The church was built on the initiative of Mother Apphia who donated 14,000 rubles from her own money she inherited, and she also collected charitable funds of 100,000 rubles for the church construction. This is a complicated story, like everything that happened in the country in those years.
After visiting the holy places, of course, tourists get hungry. On the island, there are several cafes in Sviyazhsk where tourists can enjoy tasting the traditional Russian and Tatar cuisines. We strongly advise to taste some ‘borshch (beetroot soup) in bread’ offered by the Skazka (Fairy-Tale) cafe. A very hearty meal costs 300 rubles. Also, be sure to take a walk to the Lazy Torzhok entertainment center (a real open-air museum with re-enactment for the island’s history) where tourists can get some training in shooting a bow and crossbow, buy unusual souvenirs and throw a coin into a water tank to definitely return to Sviyazhsk. At the Russian Post office, they can also send greeting cards from Sviyazhsk. And of course, it’s a pleasure to taste Sviyazhsk donuts with apple jam and black tea for dessert at the Lazy Torzhok.
Tourists can see more attractions on the opposite bank of the river. The Temple of All Religions is the first thing the tourist see when approaching Kazan. The idea of the designer, healer Ildar Khanov, was that the unusual project could combine all the religious beliefs in the world, both bygone and existing ones. In one building, people can see the Egyptian sphinxes, the God Ra, and elegant multi-colored cupolas - onion domes - of the Russian orthodox churches, and sharp minarets of mosques, and heavenward towers of the Catholic cathedrals.
