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Highlights
- Troitse-Sergieva Lavra
- Alexandrov Art Museum
- Literary Art Museum of Tzvetaeva
- Alexandrov Drama Theater
Halfway between Troitse-Sergieva Lavra and Pereslavl-Zalessky there was a settlement known as Great Sloboda or Old Sloboda. At the beginning of the sixteenth century a new settlement appeared next to the old one and was called a New Sloboda or Alexandrovskaya Sloboda.
The Great Sloboda was first mentioned in history in 1339; later, for 17 years it was the unofficial capital of Russia – unofficial, because Russian czar Ivan Grozny (Ivan the Terrible) ruled the country from here from 1564 to 1581, while Moscow was still the actual capital. According to legend, Ivan Grozny killed his son Ivan here in a fit of anger. Later, following the carriage with the body of his son, he left Alexandrovskaya Sloboda for good. With the tsar gone, life in Sloboda understandably became quieter. In 1778 Alexandrovskaya Sloboda was given the status of a city.
Alexandrov is the city of the first soviet televison set, and a very popular brand of Russian telephones, Record, is still produced here. Alexandrov is in the very center of Golden ring and it is definitely worth visiting as well as the other cities.
Photo from Lori photobank
Essential Information for Visitors
Take a train from Yaroslavsky railway station to Alexandrov. It departs every hour (2 hour journey). Or you can take a bus to Vladimir and there change to another bus to Alexandrov (5 departures a day).
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