History of Suzdal. XVII century.

    XVII century started for Suzdal with Polish-Lithuanian destruction. It left a visible mark on a town image. In 1607 Lzhedmitry II located next to Moscow in Tushino (it was called Tushinsky yard). He failed in taking Moscow by storm and Polish-Lithuanian forces made a depredation of neighbouring towns.
    In 1608 after a brief siege, Polish-Lithuanian forces took Suzdal and after a total depredation burned it. In 1611 they destroyed the city once again. Traces of those tragic events remained in a face of the town and in the memory of citizens for a very long period of time. Suzdal took an active part in a struggle against Polish invasion for a freedom of Moscow state: in 1612 Dmitry Pozharsky, a prince of Suzdal with his fence helped Moscow citizens.
    In the first quarter of XVII century Suzdal faces bad harvests and as a consequence, peasants mutinies. In 1634 Crimean Tatars came for Suzdal. After that a monumental construction in Suzdal began again. But XVII century had been the most unlucky period for Suzdal: in 1644 the town was given away as a dowry to Danish prince Waldemar, the future husband of princess Irina, the daughter of Russian tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. A conflagration of 1646 destroyed the whole Posad and pox of 1654 annihilated almost half the population of the town.
    After all those misfortunes of the first half of XVII century, Suzdal came alive again. But only rich monasteries could allow themselves a stone construction obviously - the Convent of the Intercession of the Mother of God, the Monastery of our Saviour and St. Euthimius. Other monasteries hardly repaired their buildings. Step by step monasteries grew rich, they developed construction of churches. Famous builder Nikiphor Beklemishev was sent to Suzdal from Moscow. He raised new walls with towels around the Kremlin. Local architects Gryaznov, Mamin and Shmackov became outstanding masters of their time.

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