What to visit in Semenov, Nizhny Novgorod region

On the banks of the Sanokhta River in the Nizhny Novgorod region stands the city of Semenov. It is often proudly called “little Paris”. The settlement received this nickname due to its layout. The town was rebuilt during the time of Catherine II, according to a plan created in the best traditions of French town planning. Semenov was given city status in 1779. Today's Semenov is a city of regional significance with great tourism potential; it is home to a variety of historical, cultural and modern attractions.

What to see in Semenov – TOP-3

The main value for a tourist arriving in Semenov is the main museum center, the painting factory and the pedestrian Lenin Street. We recommend visiting these sights in 1 day of your trip.

Museum-tourist

• Address: st. Chkalova, 18V.

The wooden toy Matryoshka and the famous Khokhloma painting can easily be considered symbols of Russian folk culture. For the city of Semenov, they became a kind of “trick” that determined its tourism potential. It is the city of Semenov that is often called the “homeland” of both nesting dolls and Khokhloma.

Strictly historically, this is not entirely true, but the settlement became an important center for the development of the legendary craft. “Khokhloma painting” settled here almost immediately after the formation of the city - at the end of the 18th century.

A rich local tradition was formed here, the “calling card” of which was the painted Semyonovskaya matryoshka doll, which combined two recognizable images of Russian culture. The museum-tourist has been operating since 2009; many examples of painted Khokhloma products are presented here.

The collection includes examples of painting from the 19th – early 20th centuries. and majestic modern exhibits created in our day. These are spoons, dishes, pieces of furniture and of course nesting dolls of different sizes. The “royal room” is considered the pearl of the exhibition, striking in its splendor. Painting master classes are offered to those interested.

Factory "Semyonovskaya painting"

• Address: st. Chernyshevsky, 1.

The painted traditions of the city are continued by the Semenovskaya Painting factory, founded in Soviet times, in 1932, and still operating successfully. The company went down in history as the site of production of the world's largest nesting doll, which included 72 dolls. The products of Semenovskaya Painting are exported to different parts of the world; from the 1960s to the present day it is considered the largest and most famous in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Tours are held around the factory, visitors are introduced to the features of production, technology, the main stages of creating a painting, and are told about the history and features of the craft. Products painted with Khokhloma can be purchased in souvenir shops, including at the enterprise and in the museum center. As reviews say, this will be the best memory of visiting the city of Semenov.

Lenin Street

• Address: Lenin street.

One of the central streets of the city has been turned into a pedestrian zone, a walk along which will allow you to feel the historical flavor of the city, the features of the so-called “semantic development” of the Catherine era.

The street is small, only 200 meters, but it is where the brightest architectural and historical sights and the most beautiful buildings of the city are concentrated.

Wooden houses with rich carved decorations have become a recognizable feature of the city’s architectural appearance; they can be found, among other things, on the main pedestrian street, now named after V.I. Lenin.

Detailed map of Semenovsky district

Semenovsky district

- an administrative unit of the Nizhny Novgorod region with a population of 53,700 people (data for 2000). In terms of territory occupied (389,100 hectares), the district is the largest in the region. Geographically, it is located in the northeast of the region and belongs to the Kerzhenets River basin. The Semenovsky District neighbors the lands of the Voskresensky, Krasnobakovsky, Varnavinsky, Koverninsky and Borsky districts. In total, 195 settlements have been formed on its territory, which together make up 19 municipalities. The city of Semenov is the center of the district administration.

The Semenovsky region begins its history in the 9th century, when the Mari, Meshchera, Slavs and Mordovians first appeared here. From the second half of the 17th century, ancient villages began to be built, which can still be seen today: the villages of Ozero, Pokrovskoye, Larionovo, Zinovevo, Ronzhino. At the beginning of the 18th century, on the site of the modern district center, a tiny settlement appeared, consisting of two courtyards. Already by 1717, Pochinok received the status of a village, and the Church of the Presentation of the Lord appeared here. In 1779, Catherine the Second gave the village the status of a county town with its own coat of arms.

The Semyonovsky lands preserve a unique Khokhloma culture, rooted in Old Believers. Many wooden crafts painted with Khokhloma have been distributed all over the world. The most famous are the lestovki (rosary beads), which were made in this form only here, and were sent in those distant times even to Turkey and Austria. They were made in huge quantities: more than 60,000 pieces per year. Felting also developed in the region.

Large areas are occupied by forests: about 285,800 hectares. Forestry is carried out by several large farms - Semenovskoye, Koverninskoye and Verkhne-Unzhenskoye. In the area there is a natural monument - the Kerzhensky Nature Reserve, which has state status. Its functions are to preserve the biological diversity of flora and fauna of the southern taiga of the Volga basin.

In total, there are more than 25 natural monuments on the Semyonovsky lands: a tract of pyramidal juniper and plus pine trees. There are many swamps that serve to maintain the full flow of the region’s waterways. Many medicinal plants and berries grow here. Spiritual shrines are represented by the Trinity Church, the chapel and tomb of Father Paphnutius, the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross and the Spiritual Skete (the grave of Father Sophontius).

The main museums of the city of Semenov

When traveling around Semenov, in addition to, other museums are also a must-see - historical, folk, crafts and nesting dolls.

Historical and Art Museum

• Address: st. Vaneeva, 5.

The main museum of the city dates back to 1934; the artist Georgy Matveev is considered its founder. Nowadays, the location of the museum’s exhibition halls is the historical building of the merchant Sharygin’s mansion, built in the 19th century. The historical part tells about the city, its way of life, culture, and famous natives.

“Merchant's Room” will introduce you to the life of townspeople in the pre-revolutionary era. One of the important topics for the history and culture of the city is the Old Believers. One of the museum halls is dedicated to him. Attention is paid to the local literary tradition in the museum; ancient books and editions of works by Semyonovsky writers are presented in the corresponding hall.

The theme of Soviet everyday life is also reflected in the museum. Of greatest interest is the large artistic section, which reveals the traditions of the main city crafts - Khokhloma painting and wood carving. The exhibition features works by local carvers, wooden toys, and, of course, Semyonov nesting dolls.

Museum of Folk Life "House of Semyon the Spooner"

• Address: st. Chkalova, 18/1.

A wooden spoon is an obligatory attribute of Russian life and one of the most popular items for painting under Khokhloma. Since 2013, the “House of Semyon Lozhkar” museum has been operating on the territory of the factory in the city of Semenov.

The name refers to the legend about the spoon maker Semyon, who together with his family was engaged in the production and painting of an indispensable element of kitchen utensils. The museum is not just about spoons. There are a huge number of them here, almost seven hundred varieties, but attention is also paid to the life of the artisan of past centuries. The museum recreates the atmosphere of a wealthy home and displays various everyday items.

There is also an interactive component here, everyone can feel themselves in the role of a peasant artisan, join in the mandatory household activities and try to learn the “Semyonovskaya Quadrille” dance.

Museum of Matryoshka and Traditional Toys

• Address: Chernyshevsky street.

The “main character” of this museum is one of the symbols of the city – the matryoshka doll. It is known that this wooden toy was invented not in Semenov, but in Sergiev Posad. The museum’s exposition tells about the peculiarities of the production and painting of nesting dolls in the production traditions of the two cities, presents the history of the “invention”, the exhibits allow you to trace the evolution of the appearance and “pedigree” of the nesting doll. The museum will also tell you about other traditional children's toys, including rattles, pyramids and much more.

Private Museum of Folk Crafts

• Address: st. Gagarina, 68.

The wooden two-story mansion, built in 1890, once belonged to the third guild merchant Parfen Stroinsky. Nowadays, the building with its remarkable openwork carvings is home to a private museum, which was located here in 2014. Its theme is the craft history of Semenov.

Antique products of shoemakers and blacksmiths, embroidery samples, household items from different eras - all this can be seen in the most interesting exhibition. An educational tour will complement what you see. They say that local guides are able to talk about simple things in a non-trivial way.

Topic: Sights of the Nizhny Novgorod region

History of the city of Semenov.

If near the Volga meadow bank, against which Nizhny Novgorod rose on the mountains on the opposite side of the river, it was quite lively and repairs arose after repairs, like the small Nikolskaya settlement, which later became the city of Bor, then in the depths of the forest Trans-Volga region for a long time everything remained in a primitive state. And it is surprising that on the map of Russia, drawn up at the beginning of the seventeenth century according to the drawing of Tsarevich Fyodor Borisovich Godunov, among the clearly marked Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Balakhna, Yuryevets, the village of Khokhloma, which stood on the Vedomosti River, a small tributary of the Uzola, appeared somewhat to the side. There was no mention of Semenov at that time.

Yes, an exceptional case. And, as it now appears, this worldwide popularity is not at all accidental. Semyonov gained wide popularity on the steep wave of church schism. But this happened much later. Desolate uninhabited places, the drowsy Belaya Sanokhta river flowing into Kerzhenets, the lack of roads, all this made it possible to fearlessly lead a schismatic monastery life in the so-called Monastery or, in other words, the Semibratsky Valley with its center in Semenov.

The first mention of Semenov dates back to 1645, which is indicated in the payment document, where the peasant Nikiforka Shchetinin is indicated as the arrears, “from the village of Semenovsky in Elizarievsky groomed, which was on the quitrent of the boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov,” who did not pay for hay mowing. By the way, the Elizarievsky grooming area occupied a considerable space between the left bank of the Volga opposite the village of Rabotki and the Sanakhta River. The wide floodplain of Sanakhta was very convenient for mowing. Alas, the question of who founded the village remains unclear. Obviously, this was not the landowner Elizariy Zhedrinsky, after whom the groom was called, but one of the settlers working for him. Apparently, first of all, we must keep in mind the beekeepers who paid their master “honey dues.” Beekeeping in the Trans-Volga forests was very common. Among the first beekeepers of the Elizarievsky groomer, two Semyons are known who settled in a remote place. It can be assumed that one of them, and, quite possibly, one of their children - the Semenovichs, Serezhka or Druzhinka, named his small village on the left bank of the Sanokhta Semenovsky. There is also a guess: the founder is a certain peasant Semyon, whose son Ivashka was subject to taxation for honey and half a marten, which is noted on the payment document of 1608. No matter how the events related to the emergence and name of the new settlement occurred, it is clear that this could have happened in the first half of the seventeenth century, even before the schism, before its fatal disastrous aggravation, when, due to the intervention of the authorities, persecutors and persecuted appeared among one people destroying themselves .

By the way, the inquisitive local historian Arseny Mayorov cites in his book “Semyonov. Legends. Legends. History" eight versions of legends about the emergence of Semenov. These are the legends about Semyon - a spooner, a beekeeper, an archer, a schismatic, a rebel-Razinite, who escaped in the Trans-Volga wilds after the defeat of Stenka Razin’s gangs, a Solovetsky monk, a townsman centurion from Novgorod, and, finally, about the merchant Afanasy Pavlovich Nosov, who allegedly possessed the secret of the appearance repaired Semyonovsky and built a beautiful mansion with a balcony, and next to it an Old Believer church, exactly on the spot where the very first hut stood, heated with a black stove and covered with straw. By the beginning of the 18th century Pochinok, Semenovsky was already quite populous with its profitable bazaar, emerging crafts and, of course, a concentration of adherents of the old faith, who even held “cathedrals” in Pochinok and near it, where many zealots of Avvakum’s commandments from different monasteries gathered. In the village at that time there were official huts, bread stores, an office of skete administrative affairs, and at the beginning of the new century, the famous persecutor of the Old Believers, Pitirim, who was in the rank of abbot, was concerned about the speedy construction of an Orthodox church “for the sake of better conversion of schismatics” to the true faith. At his persistent insistence, the Church of the Presentation of the Lord was built in Semyonov.

The number of inhabitants was constantly growing, and Pochinok became a large trading village, where favorable conditions existed for a wide variety of activities that contributed to the development of the forest region. Moreover, the center of gravity of the Old Believers was imperceptibly developing here, persistently inculcating the high culture of handwritten books, the indestructible Russian way of life, the testaments of our great-grandfathers and ancient icon painting. And it must be said that the intransigence and often sacrifice of the Old Believers contributed to the fact that, despite all the oppression, they did not lose their influence either in Semyonov or in the entire Kerzhatsky region. And life went on as usual, constantly changing one innovation for another. As Ivan Aleksandrovich Milotvorsky noted in his work, “the village of Semenovo belonged to the department of the Main Palace Chancellery and the Board of Economy. At that time, the Palace Department included peasants - palace peasants, sovereign peasants, stable peasants, falcon peasants, pomytchik peasants and appanage peasants. The sovereign's palace lands and volosts were mentioned back in the 15th century. They were subordinated first to the Order of the Grand Palace, and then, from 1705, to the Office of Palace Affairs. The peasants were directly supervised by clerks, and later by managers. In 1774, clerks were replaced by elders and elected officials, subordinate to the Administrative Offices. Paul I, in concern for funds for members of the imperial family, established Appanage Departments, and the palace peasants began to be called appanage. They lived better than the landowners, but still not as well as the state-owned ones, due to the arbitrariness of clerks and managers. The appanage peasants paid a certain quitrent, most of which were not burdensome.” Therefore, the Semyonovtsy, far away and as if on the outskirts, did not bear the burden of general enslavement, and the spirit of freedom did not leave many of them, thereby preserving dignity and the need for truth among the forest people, excluding, of course, the demoniacal scribblers.

If it were not for the enduring oppression of the Old Believers, not the persecution of them, not the stigmatization, life in Semyonov and the surrounding area could be considered quite bearable. But even now we remember how in 1737 all the monasteries were closed by the militant Pitirim, and their inhabitants were expelled. Such cruelty not only caused rejection of the authorities and the ruling church, but forced them to resist them and even rebel against them. No, there was no peace in the Kerzhen forests, hidden, gloomy, wary. A deceptive silence reigned everywhere, teaching you to keep your mouth shut. And much remained hidden and inaccessible. According to the list of the Balakhninsky district of the Kerzhen volost of the village of Semenova for 1742, the parish of the village consisted of itself and 17 adjacent villages. Directly in the village there were 48 households with a population of 440 men and women; in all the villages - Dyakovo, Nosovo, Sodomovo, Koloskovo, Olenevo, Medvedevo, Zuevo, Deyanovo, Filippovo, Shadrino and others - there were 170 households. In total, that means 218 households with an adult population of more than a thousand people. In the same “confessional” list compiled exactly ten years later, the total number of households was already 276, and adult residents 1362. The growth is obvious. Despite any cataclysms, Semenov had a prospect. And this testified that in Kerzhenets they believed in their perseverance and their truth.

It is not by chance that cities arise, and it is not by chance that Semyonov arose. In the midst of the wilderness, with a difficult fate and bitter losses, he grew and gained strength in order to declare himself as great ascetics and workers, bright minds and native talents, warriors and passion-bearers in the name of love and beauty, the Russian confessional word and the blessed Fatherland. Empress Catherine II, of course, was aware of what the village of Semenovo was like in the Trans-Volga wilderness. It hardly stood out as something remarkable from the many other Russian villages, whose life was miserable and painful in poverty and strained labor, where the peasants could not become burghers, no matter how hard the authorities tried to carry out such a transformation. Yet there was one significant difference. Semyonovo attracted a fair number of active people, largely wandering and fugitive, troublemakers and heretics, including many Old Believers. Only five years have passed since the execution of the main rebel Emelka Pugachev, who shed a lot of noble blood and mercilessly dealt with everyone who blocked his path, took place in Moscow, on Bolotnaya Square. Entire provinces were gripped by unrest, ominous fires blazed everywhere and massacres took place. But on the canvas banners of the Pugachevites there was depicted an eight-pointed schismatic cross, and on the Volga, and especially beyond the Volga in the Kerzhatsk urems, there was hidden a crowd of the villain’s secret accomplices - rebellious elders like the wise broadcaster Pachomius and other hidden people who never tired of talking about the punishment of the Lord for the power-hungry oppressors. In his manifesto, the robber Emelka, who pretended to be Tsar Peter Fedorovich, that is, the murdered husband of Catherine herself, promised great benefits to the homespun people. No, the wise Catherine did not at all strive, although she called herself a follower of the stern Peter I, to reprisals against the Old Believers, to whom she granted full civil rights along with freedom of religion, and did not open the monasteries, but thought that even in the most remote Russian outback there must be a direct influence of the sovereign on everything that happens there, that the sovereign’s vigilant eye is needed everywhere, and there must also be an incentive for comprehensive development and general prosperity. Otherwise, it will be impossible to tie ends meet in a huge empire. No, it was not fear of the new Pugachevs, but genuine concern for Russia, for the Russian people, whose language and customs she took to heart, faith in the glorious future of the power, to which Europe was already fawning and the potential capabilities of which could shake any politician, guided Catherine Great, who took up the overdue administrative reform. Semenov was supposed to become one of the small, but, like all the others, necessary links that, in the overall connection, would form a reliable basis for a progressive state structure without, ultimately, feudal shackles. Catherine's historical decree number 207 was signed in St. Petersburg on September 5, 1779. So, in the fall of 1779, Semenov officially began to be called a city. But, strictly speaking, it had yet to become a real city. The first step was to plan the chaotically located county center. The city was presented in the drawing in the form of a regular quadrangle with five squares. Places were provided for government buildings, for a temple on Market Square, which was to become Cathedral Square, and for various public institutions. It was also supposed to surround the city with an earthen rampart and a ditch - the danger of robbery after the recent Pugachev riot could not be ruled out. Semyonov received his coat of arms. The coat of arms depicted a provincial deer and in a golden field a conical stack of logs or, as it was explained, a “bonfire”, folded into a pyramid of hewn trunks, meaning that a “great amount” of timber was being harvested in the surrounding areas. Things went as they should with the coat of arms, but there was a hitch with Semenov’s perestroika. Firstly, a fire interfered, burning half the city, and, secondly, when Catherine the Great was replaced on the throne by her son Paul I, he did not accept all of his mother’s ideas for execution, considering them hasty or incongruous. According to the personal imperial decree of May 20, 1798, which arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, it was necessary “in the cities of the local province, which have not yet been built according to the highest tested plans, not to force them to build according to them, but to allow them to be built at will in their former places, taking into account local situation and with the wealth and benefits of the philistine, and at the same time, do not force anyone to a stone building.” Thus, Catherine’s plan, which was not fully implemented, was supplemented by Pavlov’s permission to act in accordance with common sense. By the way, the energetic Andrei Lavrentievich Lvov, who at that time occupied the place of Nizhny Novgorod governor, managed to achieve the highest permission to have local Old Believers houses of worship and priests, which was legalized in a special decree and which Old Believers took advantage of not only in the entire district, but also in other provinces. What was Semenov like at the beginning of the 19th century? Probably the same as many other county towns. Impassable mud in spring and autumn, snow drifts in winter, dust in summer in windy weather, settling on roofs, courtyards, vegetable gardens and roadside thistles. And smokey huts covered with graying thatch with cloudy windows. And rotten wooden walkways on the streets. And blank rickety fences. An inn, stables, barns, hay sheds, a windmill in the outskirts, a fire tower. And on late, cold evenings there was nothing, only the barking of dogs and someone’s drunken swearing at the tavern and the robber whistle of a cheerful gang of revelers. Devout people have lit lamps in front of their icon cases and a long whisper of prayer, and a ladder in their hardened, worn-out hands, and martyred, and even stern eyes that saw a lot of hard work and little festive fun, on Easter, on Trinity and on the Honey Savior . The Semenovsky mayor was concerned about the appearance of fugitive soldiers and peasants in the area, who were causing a lot of trouble. The Viceroyal Administration from Nizhny asked “whether in the Semyonovsk district, when selling drinks from the owners or housekeepers, there was any laziness or negligence, and moreover, whether there was any impurity in the drinking water or measurement...” The new administration had to take care of the structure of the treasury and the police zemstvo court, prison hut, salt barns and be burdened with many other tasks that were carried out neither shaky nor smoothly, bogged down in delays and red tape, where the important was mixed with the little things, and in the offices of not only Semyonov - seminarians who did not They were very concerned about their service, but were prone to drunkenness, but it was not possible to replace them due to almost universal illiteracy. There was a lot missing in Semenov: a magistrate, a district court, noble guardianship. And it took more years and years for the city to cease to be like a village, although it did not change its old way of life in everything, preserving the most cherished things that allowed it to be called the Old Believer capital. Inertia still affected the attitude towards any, even definitely useful and necessary innovations. Surprisingly, of all the district cities of the Nizhny Novgorod province, only Semenovskaya and even Knyagininskaya city dumas did not express consent to open public schools, believing that they could do without them. Semyonovsky adherents of patriarchal life found only destruction in the official teaching. The influence of Old Believer mentors was also felt here. That is why the Semyonov Duma members did not dare to contradict them. Milotvorsky, in his narration of the history of Semenov, cites the following argument from opponents of all schools that, they say, “there they will teach books that are printed against their faith instead of “for centuries and centuries,” thereby violating the sacredness contained in ancient tomes. However, home-grown teachers could not convince the high authorities and> according to the circular, on October 14, 1808, in the presence of the Minister of Public Education, Runovsky, the school was opened. Alas, few children attended it. In 1825, for example, only twenty-five people were engaged. And only five were transferred from first to second grade. This beginning did not promise a successful continuation. However, life did not stand still. By the way, it wouldn’t hurt to emphasize once again that the Old Believers treated the old printed book with the greatest respect. And many boys were taught to read and write at home. Many children learned the basics at monasteries and churches, and even in the monasteries there was someone to teach children to read. It is known that it was just beyond the Volga near the Mokhovy Mountains during the Troubles of the early 17th century that Nikita Fofanov, a student of the Russian pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov, having moved here from Moscow captured by enemies, resumed printing. To do this, a skilled craftsman hand-made a printing press, boards for engravings and cast type, thereby creating his own special “Nizhny Novgorod” font. Thanks to this remarkable craftsman, book printing in Rus' was not interrupted, and new “Psalters” and “Books of Hours” appeared in churches, made in that disastrous, cool time when it was being decided whether or not to exist on the Russian land and the Orthodox faith on it. It is quite possible that the printer was blessed for this act by the abbot of the Pechersk Monastery of Feodosia and the townsman Kuzma Minin. Until now, next to the Mokhovy Mountains, the Fofanova Mountains rise, named so in honor, for the glory and in memory of the selfless ascetic. And yet, there were a lot of dark people left in the district, and it was difficult to cope with all the affairs and problems here, because it was not possible to travel around the entire district; it spread so widely in all directions from the center with its roadlessness, wilderness and lostness. Just imagine, it included 14, mostly large, volosts: northern - Khokhloma. Chistopolskaya, Khvostikovskaya, Bogoyavlenskaya, Shaldezhskaya, Khakhalskaya; southwestern — — Zinyakovo-Smolkovskaya, Drozdovskaya, Kantaurovskaya; southern - Borskaya, Vladimirskaya, Rozhnovskaya; southeastern - Yurasovskaya, Belkino-Mezhuykovskaya. This, if we turn to modern times, is the entire Borsky district, part of the Koverninsky and Gorodetsky districts, and in the north - the border directly with the Kostroma province. Where can one embrace the immensity, see everything and take everything into account? But I had to. One of the authorities' primary concerns was the construction of a stone church in the district center. Without him, a city is not a city. In 1819, the construction of the three-altar Ascension Cathedral was completed. Erected in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, an impressive temple with whitewashed stone fence posts and a white bell tower connected to it by a covered single-tier passage immediately changed the nondescript appearance of the city, dominating it and thereby ennobling it. Built a century ago (in 1717), the wooden Church of the Presentation of the Lord, which was cared for by the frantic Pitirim, was dismantled and rebuilt away from the center on the field, which is why it began to be called the floor church, and it was consecrated as the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Next to it over time a cemetery appeared. But at the beginning of the 20th century, the church was moved again, finding a place for it in Soldatskaya Sloboda. It was not touched during the years of revolutionary euphoria, nor during the civil war, nor in the shocking 30s, and yet the traveling church was needed in the fateful 40s, when it was dismantled again, using still strong logs to build a club at the Export artel ", which produced Khokhloma products. Other metamorphoses also occurred. In a book about Semenov, inquisitive local historian Arseny Mayorov says that there were rumors among the people about the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas the Pleasant. Allegedly, when the stone cathedral was built, this image was moved there from the “Pitirimovskaya” church, but again it is unknown how it ended up in the old place. The next morning he was returned to the cathedral and again he appeared where they were used to seeing him before. This miracle happened several times until the icon was left alone. The stone Church of All Saints is seen by everyone who gets off the train or bus. The All Saints Three-Altar Church was opened in 1863. Under Soviet rule, it was converted into a water tower, and the cemetery next to it behind an iron fence was razed to the ground. Unfortunately, the young generation of cheerful Mankurts did not honor their ancestors very much. It is now that we have come to our senses and realized how great our guilt is before those who, despite all their discord and schisms, still understood what the abomination of unconsciousness is. And then blasphemy was sometimes taken almost as valor. And so, the cemetery was turned into a dance floor, where couples waltzed to the music of a brass band. There is no dance floor now. It’s quiet here among the greenery on the overgrown paths. There is something to think about and someone to feel sorry for. Truly this is a park of the living and the dead, as the Semyonov old-timers call it. I remember that in the Church of All Saints they held a funeral service for the wonderful poet Vladimir Mironov, who passed away early. And, it’s true, many of his fans then realized, remembering with kindness the lyricist who did not spare his heart, that all losses are irrevocable, but the memory must remain clear. In the middle of the 19th century, in that part of Semenov that was called Zamostnaya or Purekhskaya Settlement, another church was consecrated - a Edinoverie church, with icons of the Kazan Mother of God. Its construction was started by one of the most influential townspeople, fellow believer Gabriel Semenovich Rekshinsky. Across the road from the temple, he built a house for parishioners who shared his views, which the devout Old Believers did not approve of. And if the enterprising Rekshinsky did not have the will and character, he would have had to give up. But no, he didn’t give up; the wooden church has long been ruined and collapsed, the bells from it are lost somewhere, but the house still stands, reminding of past blessings. Rekshinsky himself was buried in the cemetery next to the church. The last mayor, Fyodor Timofeevich Shlyapnikov, also found peace there, as Arseny Mayorov again told. At the beginning of the 20th century, Emperor Nicholas II granted freedom of religion to the people, and the Semyonov merchant Afanasy Pavlovich Nosov decided to start building an Old Believer church with his own donations and those of his parishioners. The Church of St. Nicholas was built in 1912, after the death of Afanasy Pavlovich. The new authorities began to crack down on any faith, recognizing only their own, where there was no place for God. The bell of the Ascension Cathedral struck for the last time in 1934, and only now Semenov can again hear the bells of the surviving churches. They call for love and unity before the incorruptible shrines of the Fatherland, before God. But let’s return to the streets of old Semenov, where their own, not as hasty and hectic life as it is now, still continues. Patriarchal morals, regularity, decorous conversations over the samovar, thick lilacs in the front gardens, secret prayers in front of hereditary icons, sedate behavior and parental prudence and severity reign there, which was so expressively described by a prose writer who was in love with the Russian province, who visited the Semenovsky district and was well known in pre-revolutionary Russia. and playwright Evgeny Nikolaevich Chirikov. The writer, of course, did not have Semenov specifically in mind, but the district towns that he knew did not differ in appearance, nor did life in them. But Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov-Pechersky, also a wonderful writer, was probably out of sorts, describing the everyday situation of his native Semyonov, well known to him from childhood: “The wide streets of the city, not paved anywhere, were covered with deep sand. There were no cabs in the city, the sound of wheels could not be heard, and this gave a strange impression, as if the city was immersed in an eternal sleep. But, of course, it only seemed that the city was constantly in slumber and that time passed through it, leaving no traces and without making any significant changes. It’s just that not all noisy events occupied the attention of the townspeople, because in life there are many things that will sound like the bells of a passing troika and die out forever among the continuous forests. Meanwhile, respect and love did not leave people, weddings were celebrated, children were growing up, soldiers were returning from service, the Volga was just around the corner, bringing songs and longing for the expanse here, which was called freedom, the men plowed their podzols, erected new log houses, walked on patronal holidays, they believed that the new day would be better than the old one, but they observed everyday life, without which life would lose meaning, and these were the main, albeit familiar, affairs and events, which reflected the purpose and necessity that determined the people's destiny. Happiness does not lie in the big, which ultimately becomes small, but in the small, which becomes big if you try hard enough. This is exactly what Chirikov was thinking about when he found himself in the Russian outback and wandering through its remote corners. “... This is where one could feel the power of the Russian space, with its forests, rivers, lakes, snow, ravines, floods and vastness, in which the human will dissolves, and life flows in fantastic dreams and visions! Epic tales were still sung there, storytellers and storytellers lived there. It truly smelled of the old “holy Russia ...” Well, how can I not become an optimist and not exclaim: everything in the world is done for the better! ” Fate seemed to deliberately threw in all directions and ordered: look and now study not printed reasoning, but according to the book of life itself! As for Semenov, they spoke about him more than once, according to the testimony of Milvere, as a small, gray and at the place of location among the forests are unenviable and provincial. But this town was still represented by all the persecuted promised chosen land, “some kind of free city like what Geneva is drawn. Zurich and others for the political exiles of the city of Europe. ” It was here that the spirit of the people's, the national original, no matter how hard the clouds were preserved. In 1868, Semenov Tien-Shansky reported in his geographer-statistical dictionary just that a particularly unremarkable town was 68 miles from N. Novgorod along the postal road to Vyatka, the number of residents in it 276, noble people 192, merchants 74, Meshchang 1955. Rogovitsev 307, Raskolikov 386, Catholics 8, Jews 7, Mohammedan 12. Houses 495 (8 stone), shops 68, county and parish schools, public library, city hospital ... Of course, statistics are of interest and helps the imagination not to go out for the imagination The framework, however, the accuracy of data is the reality of the plane, not volume. For example, such data are also interesting that in the county at the beginning of the last century there were 15 Zemsky postal stations - Semenovskaya, Tarasikhinskaya, Utkinskaya, Borskaya, Rozhnovskaya, Yurasov, Khakhal, Shaldezh, Bogorivanskaya, Khokhlomskaya, Fundric, Chistopolskaya, Zubovskaya, Yezhovskaya, Zinyakovskaya, Zinyakovskaya that 20 horses were contained at the main Semenov station, 12 covered and without a top of the tarantass were intended for a summer ride, and for winter - 15 covered and without the top of the dietary wagons, two skewers, but there were 9 coachmen. Do not compare the previous roads with modern asphalt tracks, by which you can often see the flows of cars. And do not spend 25 and a half pounds of oats on a horse per day, troubles about the stocks of horseshoes, hay, straw, wheeled ointment, arcs, bells, clamps, content with shops and gas stations. Yes, much slower, more softer, more measured, life moved. Nevertheless, in it, in that life, there were advantages, saving our ancestors from the top and negligence, selfish acquaintances and hasty decisions, and moreover, from the cockroaches of fussiness and high -parity judgment. Then they acted much more than the bowl, by conscience, answering their heads, and not with curtains. It is not without reason that the Semenov new buildings that have risen like a rank, but the alpine cozy houses in the old part of the city, which remains in themselves, retain the warmth and comfort of many years of durability. They have Semenov’s soul, provincial immediacy and expensive signs of what is called household. Geranium in the windows, winged shutters, a deaf and slotted carving, cozy pure wings, curly greens above the fences of the front gardens - comfortable and gratifying from everything that opens not only to the eye, but also to the heart. And how good the stone mansions are in Semenov, each of which looks at the trump card, and in each one - its own to become, its own attractiveness, I even want to say - LOCK. And here, too, it was also not without the soul, because everything was created not by the standard, but by the way, in the singular, a free manner, in proportion to the space, so as not to cut down the light and be seen to anyone. The streets are like lines of messages from one time to another. At first they were Sergievskaya, Barnanin, Lower Bazarny, Lower Noslobodskaya, Malaya Yama ... And then all the way - K. Radek, Sverdlov, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Bebel ... and losing, nevertheless, the protected Semenov did not lose his appearance with alien names imposed on him. They did not take root here and could hardly take root that the transient slogans and calls were akin to: the long -suffering square with a demolished temple was first renamed the October Revolution Square, and then Lenin, Chipnaya Square turned into the Square of Karl Libknecht, Kazanskaya Street received the name of the Republic Street. Soviets, Sretenskaya became Soviet, and Nizhny Novgorod - Roses Luxembourg ... Apparently, a new wave of renaming is coming. Is it necessary for the old one who did not lose either in the storm or in the lull of his root basis Semenov? Yes, different times happened, different names flickered, but the key to durability was not monuments on the pedestal, but the pedestal itself.

Churches of Semenov: which temples are worth visiting

Historically, in the religious culture of the city of Semenov, traditional post-reform Orthodoxy coexisted with the Old Believer cult, which was reflected in the sights of the city, becoming its interesting feature.

Old Believer Church of St. Nicholas of Christ

• Address: st. Volodarsky, 12A.

The Old Believer tradition includes the Church of St. Nicholas or St. Nicholas Church. The elegant building in the pseudo-Russian architectural style appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century; the completion date of construction is indicated as 1916.

A single-domed church with a hipped bell tower was erected on the site of a previously existing wooden church dating back to the beginning of the 18th century.

The construction was financed by the merchant Nosov. After opening, the temple did not operate for long. During Soviet times, namely in 1938, the temple was closed. The period of “idleness” lasted 51 years, in 1989 restoration began, the temple returned to religious life.

All Saints Church

• Address: Gagarin street.

The Church of All Saints in Semenov is a brick building belonging to the Russian-Byzantine architectural style. Erected on the site of an old cemetery in 1863. The single-domed temple, built according to the “quadrangle” principle common in temple architecture, has two aisles, connected to a bell tower and a refectory. Topped with an onion dome. After its closure and a period of religious oblivion during the Soviet era, the religious building was used as a water pumping station. Became active again in the 1990s.

Old Believer Monastery New Sharpan

• Coordinates on the map: 56.852496, 44.416107.

Since the 18th century, on the Kerzhenets River there was an Old Believer monastery of Sharpan, the main shrine of which was the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, considered by zealots of the old faith to be Miracle-working. According to legend, she ensured the prosperous existence of the monastery.

In 1849, the icon was taken away by the writer A.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, in the same year the monastery was plundered. After these events, representatives of the community went to the burial place of the nun Fevronia, founding a successor monastery there. The monastery was dubbed “New Sharpan”. The schema-nice led a hermit life, honoring the traditions of their faith.

There is evidence that by 1917 there was only one nun left in the monastery named Dorothea, but officially it existed until 1928. Nowadays, the New Sharpan monastery attracts many tourists interested in history and culture, and for adherents of the Old Believers, the preserved grave of Fevronia remains a place of worship.

Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Medvedevo

• Address: Semenovsky urban district, Medvedevo village.

In the village of Medvedevo, Semenovsky district, there is a Trinity Church, built in 1925. The modest white stone building with a rounded dome is complemented by a massive and majestic red brick bell tower, which is a striking architectural dominant. The temple was closed during Soviet times. Nowadays, it is again active and belongs to the Nizhny Novgorod diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Holy spring Osinkovsky

• GPS coordinates: 56.738734, 44.307376.

Not far from the village of Osinki, Semenovsky district, a holy spring flows, which is not only a natural, but also a cult and historical object. Once upon a time there was a large and prosperous Old Believer monastery in these places. At the beginning of the 17th century, in the era of Peter the Great, under the threat of ruin, its inhabitants committed a ritual of self-immolation.

On the site of the cells, a well-maintained cemetery has been organized, the graves are marked with crosses. The Osinkovsky well, as it is called in a number of historical documents, is a symbol and mute witness of the Old Believer history of the place. Today it is well maintained; a wooden chapel has been erected over the source.

woodcarvers, and literary and local history - with a large exhibition dedicated to the work and life of Boris Kornilov. The city is served by six bus lines. (Source: N.V. Morokhin “Geographical Dictionary of Local Lore”, Nizhny Novgorod, 1993).

Historical monuments: postal station (second half of the 19th century, Lunacharsky St., 1A); Romanovsky City Primary School (1913, at the intersection of Pionerskaya Street and 3 Communists Street); public building (late 19th century, Sverdlova St., 1 A); parochial school (second half of the 19th century, at the intersection of Lenin Square and Vaneev Street); the house in which the first district committee of the RCP (b) was located (1918, Lenin St., 12); the building where the Semenovsky Museum of Arts and Crafts was located, founded by the artist G.P. Matveev (since 1937, Matveeva St., 4); the school building where the poet B.P. Kornilov studied (1918-1924, Respubliki Sovetov Street, 1a); the house in which the first district congress of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies took place (January 1918, Rosa Luxemburg St., 9); mass grave of young communists who died in the fight against white bandits (1919); grave of Kirill Savelyevich Kochetkov (1923-1998), full holder of the Order of Glory; grave of Feofan Fedorovich Taranov (1924-1987), holder of the Order of Glory of Three Degrees, city cemetery (XVIII - XX centuries). Documents on acceptance for state protection No. 48, No. 159, No. 110, No. 559, No. 471, No. 87, No. 38.

Monuments of urban planning and architecture: the house of P. Sharygin (beginning of the 20th century, Vaneev St., 5 A); residential building with overhead sawn carving (late 19th century, Vaneeva St., 14 A);

St. Nicholas (Old Believer) Church (late 19th century, Volodarsky St., 10);

All Saints Church complex: All Saints Church, fence with gates (second half of the 19th century, Gagarin Street);

city ​​estate: main house, outbuilding with commercial premises (late 19th century - early 20th century, Gagarin St., 32 A, Matveeva St., 32 G); city ​​estate: main house, outbuilding (late 19th century, Gagarin St., 44 B, 46 A); house of V. Pirozhnikov (late 19th century, Gagarin St., 52 A); I. Khanykin’s estate: main house, outbuilding (late 19th – early 20th centuries, Lenin St., 7 A, 9 A); Vitushkin's estate: main house, outbuilding, services, brick gates (second half of the 19th century, Lenin St., 21, 23 A); house of A.R. Safonov (1839, at the intersection of R. Luxemburg Street and Gagarin Street, 8/37); A. Nosov's estate: main house, trading wing (late 19th – early 20th centuries, at the intersection of III International and Volodarsky streets, 20/12); estate: residential building (wooden), covered utility yard (wooden), gate (wooden) (1879, Volodarsky St., 12); wooden residential building (1900s, Krasnoarmeyskaya St., 1); estate: wooden residential building, wooden covered utility yard (late 19th century, Three Communists Street, 78); wooden public wells (1920s, Three Communists Street). Documents on acceptance for state protection No. 48, No. 159, No. 559.

The Central Archives of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (TSANO) preserved the 1880 project for the construction of a stone chapel in Semyonov:

Monument of art - bust of twice hero of Socialist Labor V.V. Kuznetsov. Bronze, granite. Sculptor L.E.Kerbel, architect S.N.Khadzhibaronov. The dating of the monument is 1982. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 559.

On October 31, 2008, a monument to the “Victims of Political Repression” was erected in the station park in the city of Semenov. The places of mass graves of victims of political repression in Semyonov have not been specifically identified.

According to the data published in the booklet “Memorable Signs to the Victims of Political Repression in the Nizhny Novgorod Region” (compiled by N.O. Yudina), the initiator of the installation of the memorial sign was Semyonovsky local historian Karp Vasilyevich Efimov, who was supported by the district Council of Veterans, Zemsky Assembly of the Semyonovsky district, L.A. Nevelskya, entrepreneurs V.I. Safonov and A.G. Letush, cleric of the Church of All Saints Fr. Nikolai Nazarov, Fr. Dmitry Ivin. At the opening of the monument, Deputy of the Zemsky District Assembly, Chairman of the Commission for Social Protection of the Population A.A. Dobrokhotov said: “It is difficult to count all the victims of repression, because not only political opponents, but also hungry people were imprisoned in camps for secretly collected spikelets on a poorly harvested collective farm field . And this stone is not only a memory of the victims who disappeared into oblivion, but also a warning against a repetition of the tragedy.” The 9 volumes of the “Book of Memory of Victims of Political Repression in the Nizhny Novgorod Region” contain 1,159 names and surnames of Semenovites who suffered from repression. Among the natives of Semyonovsky district, accused of false denunciation, is the Soviet poet and public figure, Komsomol member, songwriter, author of the famous “Song of the Counter”, Boris Kornilov (1907 - 1938), who spent his childhood and youth in Semyonov. He was shot on February 20, 1938. Posthumously rehabilitated on January 5, 1957 “for lack of evidence of a crime.”

Arefievo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to data provided to the project by Andrey Pavlov, in the village there is a carved stone pillar of worship, similar to the object in the village of Tatarka in the Semenovsky urban district and a number of similar human-made natural boulders in the villages of the Koverninsky district (see the villages of Berezovka and Tarasovo) and the Semenovsky urban district ( in addition to Tatarka and Arefevo, see the villages of Bolshaya Pogorelka, Gari, Krasnye Usady, Mikhailovo, Ogibnoe).

Epiphany is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the order of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated April 24, 2000 No. 5-OD “On classifying religious objects as objects of historical and cultural heritage,” the rural Trinity Church was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage. The date of the object is 1807. According to the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Order 5-OD lost force on October 20, 2014 by Order No. 159. More details can be found in the special publication by Galina Filimonova “Rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod Region from Order No. 5-OD.”

Bolshaya Pogorelka is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to data provided to the project by Andrey Pavlov, in the village there is a carved stone pillar of worship, similar to the object in the village of Tatarka in the Semenovsky urban district and a number of similar human-made natural boulders in the villages of the Koverninsky district (see the villages of Berezovka and Tarasovo) and the Semenovsky urban district ( in addition to Tatarka and Bolshaya Pogorelka, see the villages of Arefevo, Gari, Krasnye Usady, Mikhailovo, Ogibnoe).

Bolshoye Vasilyevo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). A historical monument is the chapel with the tomb of Father Paphnutius. The dating of the object is the 18th century. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 219.

Bolshoye Olenevo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to data provided to the project by Anton Afanasyev, the village was founded on the site of the former Olenevsky monastery, which arose here before the schism, back in the 15th century. Olenevsky monastery is the only old monastery, on the site of which people still live, but not in the monastery, but in the resulting village.

Bydreevka is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Monument of urban planning and architecture - Holy Cross Church. The date of the object is 1828. Document on the acquisition of status - order dated May 12, 1999 No. 4-OD. According to data provided to the project by Natalya Listvina and Stepan Efimov, the village of Bydreevka is at least 300 years old. According to legend, the temple was erected at the beginning of the 18th century on the resting place of Macarius of Zheltovodsk during his wanderings. As in many villages, the church was originally wooden, fell into disrepair, was demolished and a stone church was erected. In 1937, the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, like most churches in Russia, was closed. To prevent the building from being empty, a starch factory was placed in it. The cemetery located near the temple was trampled. After the plant closed, concrete was stored in the premises. The restoration of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross began in 2008 by the nuns of the Holy Cross Monastery in Nizhny Novgorod, who raised the temple from the ruins. In 2012, a misfortune happened: in late autumn, the house where the sisters lived burned down. They, like the church, were restored by the whole world - villagers, schoolchildren, and students from the technical school helped. V.G. Korolenko began his journey around Kerzhenets from Bydreevka. The village is mentioned in the story “The Reception” (the work “About Desert Places”).

Gari is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to data provided to the project by Andrey Pavlov, in the village there is a carved stone pillar of worship, similar to the object in the village of Tatarka in the Semenovsky urban district and a number of similar human-made natural boulders in the villages of the Koverninsky district (see the villages of Berezovka and Tarasovo) and the Semenovsky urban district ( in addition to Tatarka and Gar, see the villages of Arefevo, Bolshaya Pogorelka, Krasnye Usady, Mikhailovo, Ogibnoe).

Deyanovo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the “State Lists of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod Region”, there is a historical monument in the village - the grave of Father Sophontiy (Dukhovsky Skete) (the dating of the object is the beginning of the 18th century, document on acceptance for state protection No. 180). According to the data provided to the project by Anton Afanasyev, nothing remains of the spiritual monastery, and a new memorial cross has been installed in the place where Sofontius once lived.

Elfimovo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the “State Lists of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod Region”, in the village there is a historical monument - Komarovsky monastery (northwestern monastery cemetery, southern monastery cemetery, grave of “Mother Manefa”, monastery ponds, barn, northeastern monastery cemetery, grave of Jonah Kurnosov, dating of the object - XVIII century - early XX century, document on acceptance for state protection No. 180). According to data provided to the project by Ant Afanasyev, the Komarovsky monastery, described in Melnikov-Pechersky’s book “In the Forests,” was founded at the end of the 17th century by a certain Komar (hence the name), was destroyed during the Pitirim devastation, but under Catherine was rebuilt and received fame after the Moscow plague of 1771, when people came here who made it famous throughout Russia: Jonah Snub-Nosed and Manefa Staraya (according to historian Olga Smirnova, the real name of the founder of the Komarovsky skete Manefa Staraya, according to some sources - Princess Bolkhovskaya, according to others - Osokina ). Once upon a time it was the largest monastery in the Nizhny Novgorod Trans-Volga region: there were about 50 monasteries in which more than 2,000 people lived. Now all that remains of it is a cemetery on the bank of a stream.

Ilyino-Zaborskoye is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the order of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated April 24, 2000 No. 5-OD “On classifying religious objects as objects of historical and cultural heritage,” the bell tower of the Tikhvin Church was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage. The date of the object is 1802. According to the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Order 5-OD lost force on October 20, 2014 by Order No. 159. More details can be found in the special publication by Galina Filimonova “Rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod Region from Order No. 5-OD.”

Kerzhenets is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). A monument of urban planning and architecture - the passenger terminal of the Kerzhenets railway station. Architect A.V. Shchusev. The dating of the object is the beginning of the 20th century. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 286.

Kerzhensky monastery is a monastery of Edinoverie, on the site of which the Kerzhensky Annunciation Monastery was opened (near the village of Khakhaly; “Address-calendar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese” for 1904 indicates that in the village of Khakhaly itself there was a wooden church built in 1898 in honor of the Intercession Mother of God). The CANO preserved projects “for the construction of a stone church in the Edinoverie Kerzhensky monastery” (1853, see the first two images below) and “the facade and plan for the construction of a stone church in the name of the Holy Trinity in the Kerzhensky Annunciation Monastery” (1863, see two latest images below):

Korelskoye is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). A historical monument is the cemetery of the Odintsovo monastery and the well of Mother Margarita (the dating of the object is the 18th century, document on acceptance for state protection No. 219). According to data provided to the project by Anton Afanasyev, the small Odintsovo monastery (9 monasteries) was founded in the 18th century. Due to its proximity to Semenov, peasants often came here to perform rituals, mainly during the burial of the dead. After the fire of 1840, almost all the hermitages moved to the Gordeevsky monastery and to the neighboring villages of Odintsa and Korelskoye (the Korelsky monastery was nearby). There were no settlements left on the site of the monastery itself, but residents of local villages gathered to worship the grave of St. Margaret, nun of the Odintsovo cells, and her well with holy water. According to legend, Mother Margaret ascended to the spot where the well was formed.

Krasnye Usady is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to data provided to the project by Andrey Pavlov, in the village there is a carved stone pillar of worship, similar to the object in the village of Tatarka in the Semenovsky urban district and a number of similar human-made natural boulders in the villages of the Koverninsky district (see the villages of Berezovka and Tarasovo) and the Semenovsky urban district ( in addition to Tatarka and Krasnye Usad, see the villages of Arefevo, Bolshaya Pogorelka, Gari, Mikhailovo, Ogibnoye).

Kulagino is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Between the villages of Kulagino and Sharino there is a historical monument - the monastery of Father Serapion: a chapel with the tomb of Father Serapion, a cemetery. The dating of the object is the 18th century. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 219.

Larionovo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Historical monuments: the grave of the monk Daniel “and with him two thousand brothers and sisters burnt”, the grave of the monk Triphilia, the grave of the monk Joseph, the grave of the monk Thekla, the grave of Lutia, the grave of the monastic Agathia, Praskovea and the monk Nicodemus (“magpie graves”), monastery “ Seven maidens." The dating of the object is the 18th century. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 180.

Lykovo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the order of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated April 24, 2000 No. 5-OD “On classifying religious objects as objects of historical and cultural heritage,” the rural St. Nicholas Church was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage. The date of the object is 1896. According to the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Order 5-OD lost force on October 20, 2014 by Order No. 159. More details can be found in the special publication by Galina Filimonova “Rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod Region from Order No. 5-OD.”

Malaya Dubrava is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Koneva's wooden barn, built in the second half of the 19th century, was moved from the village to the regional center to the Shchelokovsky farm in Soviet times - to the museum of architecture and life of the peoples of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region. The Konevoy barn is a monument of urban planning and architecture of federal significance, document on acceptance for state protection No. 176.

Maloe Zinovevo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the “State Lists of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod Region”, in the village there is a historical monument - the Novy Sharpan monastery (a miraculous pine tree, the grave of “Mother Fevronia”, the monastery “clean” pond; the dating of the object is the 1860s; a document on acceptance for state protection No. 180). According to data provided to the project by Anton Afanasyev, this monastery was founded at the grave of St. Fevronia in the middle of the 19th century after the “dispossession” of Old Sharpan, one of the first monasteries on Kerzhenets. The monastery was closed in 1928.

Not far from Maly Zinoviev there is the grave of Father Trefilius, where, according to the tradition of the Old Believers, a century-old pine tree grows. Nearby is a holy spring, where Father Trefilius lived.

Mamakino is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Archaeological monuments: mound group Mamakino (7 mounds) (XIII century), site Mamakino-1 (IV millennium BC), site Mamakino-2 (second half of the 4th millennium BC). Document on acceptance for state protection No. 394.

Medvedevo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Monument of urban planning and architecture - Trinity Church. The date of the object is 1825. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 286.

Mikhailovo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to data provided to the project by Andrey Pavlov, in the village there is a carved stone pillar of worship, similar to the object in the village of Tatarka in the Semenovsky urban district and a number of similar human-made natural boulders in the villages of the Koverninsky district (see the villages of Berezovka and Tarasovo) and the Semenovsky urban district ( in addition to Tatarka and Mikhailovo, see the villages of Arefevo, Bolshaya Pogorelka, Gari, Krasnye Usady, Ogibnoe).

Ovsyanka is a village in Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the order of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated April 24, 2000 No. 5-OD “On classifying religious objects as objects of historical and cultural heritage,” the rural Church of the Intercession was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage. The date of the object is 1845. According to the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Order 5-OD lost force on October 20, 2014 by Order No. 159. More details can be found in the special publication by Galina Filimonova “Rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod Region from Order No. 5-OD.” According to data provided to the project by Natalya Listvina and Stepan Efimov, the church in Ovsyanka, built at the expense of the nobleman Sergei Aleksandrovich Norov, had three altars: in honor of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, Nicholas the Wonderworker and Sergius of Radonezh (previously the temple was much larger: where the road to Novodmitrievka, there were church walls that were partially dismantled). The landowner Norov's name was Sergei (perhaps he erected one of the thrones in honor of his heavenly patron). Sergei Alexandrovich owned lands in many parts of Russia, but never lived in Ovsyanka. It is known that his sons took part in the Patriotic War of 1812 and in the Decembrist uprising. Norov built several churches in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the last in 1845 was a church in Ovsyanka, which then belonged to the Kostroma province. Later, the descendants of Sergei Alexandrovich organized a parochial school in the village, where children from the surrounding villages attended. Everything collapsed after the revolution. In Soviet times, a birch processing workshop was organized in the temple, making wooden rims for sieves and legs for televisions. A water tank was installed in the bell tower to supply water to the workshop. After the change of the chairman of the collective farm, the workshop ceased to exist, and since then the church has been abandoned.

Ogibnoe is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Based on the materials of the book by Antonina Mazerina and Maria Orekhova “For good people a feast for the eyes: house carvings of the Kostroma region” in 1870, one of the houses of the artel of the famous carpenter-carver Emelyan Stepanovich Zirinov (1812 - 1892), a native of the village of Yablonnoye, in our time, was built in the village part of the Sokolsky urban district of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

According to data provided to the project by Andrey Pavlov, in the village there is a carved stone pillar of worship, similar to the object in the village of Tatarka in the Semenovsky urban district and a number of similar human-made natural boulders in the villages of the Koverninsky district (see the villages of Berezovka and Tarasovo) and the Semenovsky urban district ( in addition to Tatarka and Ogibny, see the villages of Arefyevo, Bolshaya Pogorelka, Gari, Krasnye Usady and Mikhailovo).

Osinki is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the order of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated April 24, 2000 No. 5-OD “On classifying religious objects as objects of historical and cultural heritage,” the complex of the Osinovsky Holy Cross Monastery (Church of the Exaltation of the Cross) was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage. 1879), Tikhvin Church (1855). The TsANO preserved the “Project for the construction of a wooden church on a stone foundation in the name of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross” (1877):

According to the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Order 5-OD lost force on October 20, 2014 by Order No. 159. More details can be found in the special publication by Galina Filimonova “Rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod Region from Order No. 5-OD.”

In Osinki there is a historical monument - “a holy well and the graves of those burned” near the village of Osinki (the dating of the object is the 18th century, document on acceptance for state protection No. 180). According to data provided to the project by Ant Afanasyev, the monks of the Osinkovsky monastery, not wanting to submit to Peter’s destroyers, burned themselves in dugouts. In the place of the cells where the monks burned, five golbets were dug in and are being carefully looked after. There is also a well inside the chapel, where everyone can get water (there is a boardwalk leading to the chapel itself).

Perelaz is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). In 1708, a wooden single-altar church in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected in Perelaz (now lost).

The wooden house of M.P. Pashkova, built in Perelaz in the middle of the 19th century, in Soviet times was moved from the village to the regional center to the Shchelokovsky farm - to the museum of architecture and life of the peoples of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region.

The house of M.P. Pashkova is a monument of urban planning and architecture of federal significance, documents on acceptance for state protection No. 559, No. 330.

Pokrovskoye is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the order of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated April 24, 2000 No. 5-OD “On classifying religious objects as objects of historical and cultural heritage,” the rural Church of the Intercession was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage. The date of the object is 1851. According to the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Order 5-OD lost force on October 20, 2014 by Order No. 159. More details can be found in the special publication by Galina Filimonova “Rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod Region from Order No. 5-OD.”

Pyatnitskoye is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the order of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated April 24, 2000 No. 5-OD “On classifying religious objects as objects of historical and cultural heritage,” the Pyatnitskaya Church was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage. “State lists of historical and cultural monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod region” indicate the beginning of the 20th century as the dating of the object. However, judging by the documents stored in TsANO, in 1863 a dome was added to the rural wooden church that already existed at that time:

According to the Department of State Protection of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Order 5-OD lost force on October 20, 2014 by Order No. 159. More details can be found in the special publication by Galina Filimonova “Rural churches of the Nizhny Novgorod Region from Order No. 5-OD.”

Rozhdestvenskoye is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Historical monument - Empty (old) Sharpan monastery. The date of the object is 1657. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 180.

Gardening partnership "Dream-1" of the Gorky Railway in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). A historical monument is the grave of Father Arseny. The date of the object is 1682. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 219.

Svetloye is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Judging by the “State Lists of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod Region”, the village has a monument of urban planning and architecture - the Vladimir Church. The dating of the object is 1879 (1909 – 1911). Document on acceptance for state protection No. 471.

Svyatitsy is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to the “Address-calendar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese” for 1904, at that time there was a wooden church in Svyatitsy, built in 1879 in the name of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. In Svetly (this is the village next to Svyatitsy) there was no church in 1904. The TsANO preserved the “Project for the construction of a wooden church on a stone foundation in the village of Svyatitsy” from 1879:

Sukhobezvodnoye is a village in the Semyonovsky urban district. It arose in the 1930s in connection with the expansion of logging in the Unzhensky forced labor camp (UNZHLAG). The UNZHLAG administration was located in Sukhobezvodny. According to data provided to the project by Vera Morozova, a black granite monument was erected in the village to the Finns who died in UNZHLAG.

Tatarka is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district), in which there is a local relic - a worship pillar made of a large boulder stone of basalt rock.

Trefilikha is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Historical monument - Mother Fotigna's monastery: chapel with Fotigna's tomb, cemetery, well. The dating of the object is the 18th century. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 219.

Trunovo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Historical monument - Smolyany monastery. The date of the object is 1656. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 180.

Ulanger is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). According to data provided to the project by Anton Afanasyev, the Ulanger monastery was founded on the Kozlenets River in the 80s of the 18th century with the active participation of the Galician landowner Feodosia Fedorovna Sukhonina and the noblewoman Akulina Stepanovna Svechina. The monastery was built to replace the “old Ulanger”, located in the Makaryevsky district of the Kostroma province and burned by lightning on Epiphany Christmas Eve. Until the middle of the 19th century, a three-meter wooden cross was revered in Ulanger, according to legend, placed at the place chosen by the noblewoman. The Ulanger monastery was considered a boyar monastery: representatives of noble families settled in it (at different times there were from 12 to 20 monasteries for women and men in the monastery), and in the 19th century people from the merchant class and their households began to inhabit it. Widowed merchants headed the monasteries and accepted the schema, their servants were tonsured into the monastic rank. In 1838, the Ulanger monastery was renamed a village. Until the ruin, two noblewomen lived here, then its inhabitants moved to the villages of Ivanovskoye and Fundrikovo, where all the valuable books and icons were transported. On February 28, 1858, the Ulanger monastery was finally destroyed, the prayer room was turned into a residential hut, in which one fellow believer lived. In the southern part of the village, 20-25 m from the road in a western direction, there grows an old pine tree, considered sacred by local residents.

Fedoseevo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district) 10 km north of the regional center. It is famous for its production of wooden peasant children's toys.

Fedoseevskoye forestry (block No. 70) in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). Historical monuments: the skete cemetery with the grave of Mother Anfisa (“Anfisin’s Graves”), the cemetery of Dorofein Skete (“Dorofein’s Graves”). The dating of the object is the first third of the 18th century. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 219.

Fundrikovo is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). It arose on the site of the Fundrikovsky monastery, founded in the 18th century. According to data provided to the project by Anton Afanasyev, the Svechin nobles, who owned the local lands and peasants, owned a monastery with a chapel in the monastery. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was inherited from the daughter of the landowner Svechin - Pavla Andreevna - the founder of the Ulanger monastery, noblewoman Fedosya Fedorovna Sukhonina, who moved to Fundrikovo. In 1826 there were two monasteries here. The monastery was officially closed in 1852.

Sharpano is a village in the Semenovsky urban district (formerly Semenovsky district). A historical monument is the monastery of Father Nikandriy: a chapel with the tomb of Father Nikandriy, a cemetery, a well. The dating of the object is the first third of the 18th century. Document on acceptance for state protection No. 219.

Semenovskaya urban architecture

In the city and its surroundings there are a number of interesting architectural sites - estates, mansions and just buildings that are now occupied by government agencies.

Estate G.A. Vitushkina

• Address: st. Lenina, 20.

A well-known city dweller, owner of a spoon production workshop, Grigory Vitushkin, lived in a red-brick two-story mansion, which he built with his own funds at the end of the 19th century.

Standing out for its plastic architectural forms with a richly decorated facade, arched windows and entrance gates, the building has become one of the dominant features in the historical appearance of Lenin Street.

Estate of I. Khanykin

• Address: Lenin street, 5.

An architectural monument of the late 19th century is the building of the city military registration and enlistment office, also located in the pedestrian zone on Lenin Street. The red-painted two-story house with white decorative elements is a typical example of a merchant mansion of its time. It belonged to the manufacturer Ivan Khanykin.

Mansion A.P. Nosova

Adherent of the Old Believers A.P. Nosov, who donated the stone St. Nicholas Church to the city, was a merchant of the second guild, managed to make a name and fortune for himself in the production of spoons. Next to the church, on the street now named after Volodarsky, stands his mansion - a two-story building with a “turret”. The house, built in 1870 and reconstructed at the beginning of the 19th century, is now protected by the state as an architectural monument.

Romanov School

• Address: st. 3 Communists, 31.

In 1913, when the reigning Romanov dynasty celebrated its 300th anniversary, an elementary school was opened in the city of Semenov, located in a specially built building. On the occasion of the anniversary event, the educational institution became known as the Romanov School.

After the revolution, it was transformed into a regular secondary school. Her student was the famous poet Boris Kornilov. Over more than a century of history, the building has been rebuilt several times, while remaining an architectural and historical landmark that has retained in its appearance the “general spirit” of the beginning of the last century.

House with applied carvings

• Address: st. Vaneeva, 14.

The city of Semenov is famous for its wood carving skills; this tradition is reflected in the city architecture. Lace trims and elegant wooden decor with ornaments decorated a residential wooden house on Vaneev Street. The building has a rich history.

The house once belonged to a merchant who sold spoons, later it was a printing house and a meeting place for the “revolutionary cell”, and after the revolution it was given over to housing and still performs this function, being recognized as an object of cultural heritage. For a short time in 1922-1923, the family of Boris Kornilov lived here.

Interesting monuments in Semenov

Of course, Semyonov is not without monuments and memorials, where you can go to take memorable photographs.

Monument to Boris Kornilov

• Address: Boris Kornilov Square.

A native of Semenov became famous as a poet and lyricist, fell under the “machine of repression” and was shot at the age of 31, and was rehabilitated in the 50s. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, which Boris Kornilov could have celebrated in 1967, his memory in his homeland was immortalized with a monument. The sculptural image of the poet was created by the Moscow author Anatoly Bichukov, People's Artist of the RSFSR.

War Memorial

• Address: Semyonov Station street.

Another work by sculptor A. Bichukov can be seen in Semenov on Chernyshevsky Street in Victory Park. A bronze figure of a soldier stands on a marble pedestal reminiscent of the Soviet flag. This is a military memorial dedicated to the memory of Semenovites who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. It was installed in 1985.

Monument to Internationalist Warriors

• Address: Zavodskaya street.

There are monuments to victims of local military conflicts, often called “monuments to internationalist soldiers,” in many Russian cities. In Semenov it is a composition of two black granite steles and a bell. The monument was erected in 2012 on Chernyshevsky Street. Every year on February 15, city residents lay flowers here.

Bust of Vasily Kuznetsov

• Address: Lenin Square.

A diplomat and politician of the Soviet era, twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, Vasily Vasilyevich Kuznetsov was born in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The monument to the statesman, erected in Semenov in 1982, is a bronze bust on a granite pedestal. This is the work of famous masters Leonid Kerbel and Sergei Khadzhibaronov.

Monument to Three Communists

• Address: Lenin street.

In 1979, when the city of Semenov celebrated its 200th anniversary, a sculptural composition consisting of three male figures was installed on October Revolution Square. Their prototypes were real people, ordinary workers who were ardent supporters of the Communist Party. History has preserved their surnames: I. Kozlov, A. Delfontsov and N. Zavyalov. In their person, the city paid tribute to all the “fighters for Soviet power” who died in revolutionary fervor.

Monument to V.I. Lenin

• Address: Lenin Square.

The symbol of the socialist era is the monument to V.I. Lenin, installed in the city center on the square of the same name in 1952. The author of the monument is the famous sculptor M.V. Tomsky. The figure of the leader is made of white stone and mounted on a pedestal of polished pink granite.

Natural attractions and recreation areas

The most famous places in Semenov where you can get closer to nature are the river and the biosphere reserve. For recreation, there are camp sites here.

Sanokhta River

• Coordinates: 56.779876, 44.488651.

A small river, Sanokhta, flows through the city. Semenovsky urban district is the only municipal entity on the banks of the 29-kilometer artery. In the center of the city the river forms a dam. Sanokhta attracts lovers of water tourism, fishing and recreation by the water.

Recreation center "Berry Village"

• Address: Semenovsky urban district, Merinovo village.

Seven kilometers from Semenov, among picturesque nature, is located the “Berry Village”, a recreation center with its own flavor, where tourists are offered comfortable accommodation in a Russian hut, cottage, mansion or hut. The base has all the conditions for active recreation and sports, and there is a multifunctional gym.

In winter, popular entertainment for this time of year is provided - ice skating, skiing, and cheesecake skiing. You can relax and unwind in a Russian bathhouse. On the territory of the recreation center there is also a place for cultural leisure and contact with local traditions. There is a museum here.

Kerzhensky Biosphere Reserve

• Address: Oktyabrskaya street, 17, Rustai village.

The Kerzhensky integrated biosphere reserve was created in 1993 on the banks of the Kerzhenets River. You can admire the pristine nature of the reserve only with a tour or by prior arrangement with the administration of the reserve, as there are strict restrictions for tourists here. In the village An ecological center of the reserve has been opened in Rustai, where lectures are given and excursions are organized.

Story

Since the 9th century, the first settlements of the Mari, Mordovians, Meshchera and Slavs tribes appeared on the territory of the Semenovsky district.

Coat of arms

From the middle of the 17th century. settlements appeared that have survived to this day, these are the village of Ozero, the village of Pokrovskoye, the village of Larionovo, the village of Zinovevo, the village of Ronzhino, etc. At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. on the site of the modern city of Semenov, a one- or two-yard repair arose. In 1717 Semenovo became a village, because Through the efforts of Nizhny Novgorod Bishop Pitirim, the Church of the Presentation of the Lord was built here. By decree of Catherine II of September 5, 1779, the village of Semenovo becomes a district town, which is assigned its own coat of arms: “In the upper part of the shield is the coat of arms of Nizhny Novgorod, in the lower part is a fire in a golden field, folded into a pyramid of logs...”

Outside the city there are many historical places associated with the Old Believers. Since the middle of the 17th century, Old Believer monasteries appeared on the banks of the Kerzhenets River. Semenovsky district, known as one of the largest centers of the Nizhny Novgorod province for the production of wooden utensils with Khokhloma painting and carved products, by the end of the 17th century. becomes also the center of the Old Believers. During this period there were 94 hermitages.

Kerzhenets became a sacred river for the Old Believers. Its popularity grew to the point that the word “Kerzhenets” began to be identified with the word “schism,” and instead of the word “schismatic,” the word “kerzhachit” began to be used. (The life and way of life of the Old Believers in Kerzhenets was described by the famous everyday life writer P.I. Melnikov (A. Pechersky) in the novel “In the Forests” and “On the Mountains,” who spent his childhood years here and later visited on matters of schism). The monasteries became the richest treasuries of ancient Russian art. The Old Believers brought handwritten and printed religious books and icons with them to the Kerzhen forests. They were engaged in copying books, handicrafts (beadwork, embroidery), and painted icons. One of the main occupations of the Old Believers was the manufacture of wooden utensils.

The emergence of Khokhloma craft, an original technique for painting wooden products, is associated with the Old Believers. In hermitages, monasteries and in the city of Semenov itself, lestovki (rosaries) were made. These places were the only ones in Russia where this fishery existed. Lestovki were sent to Austria and Turkey. In the 19th century up to 60 thousand of them were produced per year. With the arrival of the Old Believers, felting - shoemaking - also developed here.

Interesting surrounding villages

The villages that are part of the Semenovsky urban settlement conceal a lot of interesting things. Those who are interested in the hidden corners of Russian history and culture should definitely take a look there.

Village Merinovo

• Coordinates: 56.784565, 44.610598.

It is believed that the legendary painted “Semyonovskaya nesting doll” was born in Merinovo. The name of the ancient village, according to one version, comes from the ancient “Meryan settlement” located here. The settlement is known as one of the centers of the Old Believers.

Bydreevka village

• Coordinates: 56.835264, 44.637197.

The settlement with a three-hundred-year history was mentioned in the story “The Reception” by the famous writer V. Korolenko. It became the starting point for the author’s journey along the Kerzhenets River. The main rural attraction is the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, built in 1828. Local historians were able to establish that a wooden church previously stood in its place, dating back to the beginning of the 18th century.

The village of Sukhobezvodnoye

• Coordinates: 57.028148, 44.845085.

The history of the settlement is inextricably linked with the abbreviation GULAG, tragic for Soviet history. It arose in the 1930s as a logging settlement; the administration of the Uzhensky forced labor camp was located here. Among its prisoners were people of many nationalities, including Finns. In memory of the representatives of this neighboring people who died in the camp, a granite monument was erected on the territory of the village.

Village Kerzhenets

• Coordinates: 56.906546, 44.627917.

The settlement of the same name on one of the surrounding rivers is located on the railway route. Actually, the station is its main highlight. The building, recognized as a monument of urban planning and architecture, is the creation of a famous author - Alexey Shchusev.