History of Suzdal. XVIII century.
In 1708 Peter I the Great
issued a decree about a separation of Russia for 8 parts – Gubernias.
Suzdal became a district town
belonged to Moscow Gubernia. In a year Moscow Gubernia was divided into 9
provinces and Suzdal became a center of separate province.
In 1714 the first school was
opened, in 1723 an ecclesiastical seminary started its performance and one of
its graduate was a famous Russian chemist D.I.Vinogradov, inventor of Russian
porcelain.
The beginning of XVIII century was
hard for Suzdal. The Northern War and S-Petersburg construction, started by
Peter the Great led the town to new troubles: people and capital were needed.
Suzdal monasteries had to give their peasants for works in the dockyards of
Voronezh; to Moscow and S-Petersburg. In 1719 a vast conflagration happened in
the town and a plague annihilated once again the half of population.
In spite of everything people from
Posad reconstructed their part of the town, Posad was expanded. Stone houses for
merchants were built instead of wooden ones. XVIII century is also known as a
new way of town architecture – construction of twin churches – summer-time and
winter-time churches next to each other. That time monasteries’ construction was
decreased, but town churches became stone, they could have a difference in
beauty with monasteries’ churches.
In 1767 a prison for political
criminals was opened in the Monastery of our Saviour and St. Euthimius.
In 1776, after forming Vladimir
Gubernia, Suzdal became a district town of it and got a new arm – white falcon
on a blue field. A bishop left Suzdal for Vladimir, a building of bishopric was
given to an ecclesiastical seminary. A hostel for seminarians, who studied for a
government count, was placed there. Other buildings became places of living for
teachers, bishopric storehouses and ambries were given to Suzdal merchants for
storing of goods.
In 1788 in the time of Catherine II
the Great, a new general plan of Suzdal was designed. It contained regular
rectangular quarters and straight streets. But old planning was stable enough
and only a central street was prolonged and borders of the town were extended.
After reconstruction the borders included not only old central part, but also
monasteries and trade suburbs. A new straight street was built – Vasilyevskaya,
after a name of a monastery.
In XVIII Annaniy Fedorov wrote his
famous book – “Historical collection about Suzhdal town” – added later with
information of other local historians.
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