One fine day we went to see the city Kineshma. This is a short phototravel post about new place I visited.

Kineshma is a city on the Volga.

It is located 400 km from Moscow. Before my native Kostroma there are about 100 km.
The city of Kineshma was nicknamed "Volga Switzerland". This is not accidental. The nature of this region, a large river and green forests are in no way inferior to Switzerland, only the mountains are missing.

The city of Kineshma is not at all large and lies away from the main roads. Once we decided to specially go to it, that would expand the geography of our travels with a small radius.
There are two roads from Kostroma to Kineshma. One leads through the Kostroma region, the other through Ivanovskaya. Both roads are of normal quality.

One and a half hours of the road - and we drove into a small provincial town with a funny name Kineshma.

The history of Kineshma begins in the III-II millennium BC. from the settlement in the Upper Volga region of the Finno-Ugrian tribe Meria. Merjan give the name of this area - Kineshma, which means "dark, deep water" or "quiet, convenient harbor".

The first written references to Kineshma refer to 1504. Moscow prince Ivan III in a special spiritual letter granted Kineshma to Prince F.I. Belsky.
Five centuries have passed, and the name of the part of the city - Belovskaya - has been preserved. In the 16th century, Kineshma was at various times a sovereign patrimony, and a private domain.

The period of great heroic battles Kineshma survived in the early XVII century. Kineshma militia under the leadership of the governor Fyodor Bobarykin contributed to the defense of Rus in 1609 during the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. In memory of this heroic period of Kineshma's history two stone chapels were built on the site of mass graves. They have survived to our time.
I took some info from here
and from here

In the autumn of 1608 Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian detachments of the mercenary Hetman Sapieha seized part of the Russian land and forced to swear allegiance to the "Tushino thief" - False Dmitry II.
Already in December 1608, an uprising broke out, which in Yuryevets was headed by the nobleman Fyodor the Red, in Reshma - the peasant Grigory Napsha, in Kholui - merchant Ilya Dengin.
Kineshma rose up with voivode Fyodor Bobarykin, Ples, Myt and other settlements.
The united forces moved to the fortress of Luhov, took it and took possession of the arsenal. Then they went to Shuya, where they first came to victory, but then they were completely defeated by the Tushino voevoda Pleshcheyev.
Shuya was burned out with people who were hiding in their homes. The people's militia was advancing, then it was compelled to retreat to Yuryevets. In the edge of disorder the troops of Lisovsky and Sapieha, well armed, strong in battle in the open area. They were notorious robbers, who had nothing for their souls but lust for wealth. They plundered cities, ruined churches, burned villages with residents, sparing neither old people nor babies.
A turning point in the people's liberation struggle, we can rightfully consider the battle, held in May 1609 in the city of Kineshma. The huge army of thousands of interventionists led by Lisovsky and Pleshcheyev went to the fiefdom of Prince Shuisky - Kineshma. It was the eve of the festive day of the Ascension of Christ, all the townspeople went to church in festive clothes, the market bustled with a bazaar. Voevoda Fedor Vasilyevich Bobarykin received news of the approaching enemy army, violating the order, he left his fortress and led his squad to the Luhovskaya highway, where a terrible battle was fought - 200-300 people against several thousand interventionists. Not waiting for help, Bobarykin heroically died in the first battle. Remnants of the militia gave the second battle, trying to stop the enemies on the bank of the Kineshma River. The townspeople who hid in the cathedral, the foxes burned. Now Kineshma piously honors the memory of the heroes: on the battlefields are installed the crosses, chapels and the monument to the hero Voevod F.V. Bobarykin.

The battle was lost, but for the first time in history the enemies were seriously repulsed from the weakly armed peasants and townspeople and lost a large number of their soldiers.

Amazing events 500 years ago still remember people. Honor the fallen heroes, bring flowers to the monument. And since the memory is alive, our country is alive even in small provincial cities.

On the photo there is a chapel on the trading square of the city. The chapel was built in 1744 at the expense of the citizens. In this chapel the "ancient massive crucifixion" was established. Two commemorative plaques were erected on the wall of the chapel, and above the gates of the chapel a black iron board was nailed, on which the following letters were inscribed in gold letters: "In 1609 under Fyodor Boborykin's governor Kineshma was devastated by Poles under the command of Lisovsky. This chapel is arranged over the citizens and villagers who were beaten in battle. " On the other it was written: "This chapel annually on May 25, according to the bequests of its ancestors, a requiem is performed for the killed citizens and settlers."

And we passed through the center of the city. High embankment with a view of the Volga River. Old churches and old houses of the city give you a sense of the breath of history. Many and wooden houses with beautiful platbands. Wooden architecture is the wealth of our land.
In addition to monuments of architecture, there are monuments to people. The monument to Lenin must necessarily be in any Russian city. And let it be. It is necessary to treat history with care. If put, then it must stand.
After a walk around the city we went on. We were waiting for the town of Yuryevets. This is an even smaller town. And also very interesting.

On the way back we again rode through Kineshma. It was already night and a yellow moon was rising over the city. I could not stand it and despite the fact that I was in a hurry, took out a tripod and made several frames of the night Kineshma. Very beautiful.