Dmitrov

In the kremlin of Dmitrov.

Dmitrov (Russian: ) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located 65 km to the north of Moscow. It is located on the Yakhroma River and on the Moscow Canal, which connects the Russian capital with the Volga River.

Dmitrov was founded by Yuri Dolgoruky in 1154 deep in the woods at the site where his son Vsevolod was born. Its name is explained by the fact that Vsevolod's patron saint was Saint Demetrius.

In the 13th century, the town marked a point where converged the borders of Muscovy, Tver, and Pereslavl-Zalessky. The town itself belonged to the princes of Galich-Mersky, located much to the north, until 1364, when it was incorporated into Muscovy. Both Dmitry Donskoy and his grandson Vasily II granted Dmitrov as an appanage to their younger sons, so the town was a capital of a tiny principality.

Cathedral of the Assumption was built in 1509–1523.

The reign of Ivan III's son Yuri Ivanovich (1503–1533) inaugurated the golden age of Dmitrov. It is during his reign that the black-domed Assumption Cathedral in the kremlin and a smaller cathedral of the Borisoglebsky cloister were built. Thereafter, the town passed to Yuri's brother, Andrey of Staritsa. In 1569, it was seized from Vladimir of Staritsa, added to the Oprichnina and consequently declined. The town suffered further damage during the Time of Troubles, when it was ransacked by the Poles.

In 1812, Dmitrov was briefly occupied by the Grand Armée but in 1941 the Wehrmacht soldiers were stopped on the outskirts of the town. The Anarchist prince Peter Kropotkin spent his last years there. In the 1930s, the local kremlin was excavated by Soviet archaeologists. Apart from the Assumption Cathedral, Dmitrov's chief landmarks are the cloisters of Sts. Boris and Gleb and of St. Nicholas on the Peshnosha River, both dating back to the 16th century.

Facts

Geographic location: longitude [56°21′N 37°34′E] altitude above sea level 179 m.
Population: 61,500 (2004 est.); 62,219 (2002 Census).
In a 2005 national competition, Dmitrov was recognized as the best-run town in Russia [link].

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