Verkhoturye Kremlin

The Verkhoturye Kremlin (Russian Верхотурский кремль) is a stone kremlin in the town of Verkhoturye in the middle Urals. It is the smallest and youngest kremlin in Russia. Besides the kremlin wall, its building ensemble comprises several historic administrative buildings and the Trinity Cathedral in the Naryshkin Baroque style.

As early as 1598 a wooden fortress (ostrog) was built on this site, which became the nucleus of the town of Verkhoturye. The founding of the town was connected with the beginning of the use of the Babinov road, which was declared the only official road from the European part of Russia to Siberia. The road led from Solikamsk over the Urals to the upper reaches of the Tura. Via this West Siberian river one travelled eastwards over the Tobol and the Irtysh into the Ob. The fortress was founded on the site of a settlement of the Voguls. Before long it received town rights and grew quickly on account of its important trading, customs and military functions. Beside the kremlin a suburb arose which was later protected by a second wall.

In the course of the 17th century Verkhoturye was never attacked, but suffered from many fires. For this reason Tsar Peter the Great ordered in 1700 that the town's fortifications and most important buildings be erected in stone. The construction went on until 1712. Besides the kremlin, the Trinity Cathedral was also newly built in place of the wooden church of the same name. The placing of the towers on the safe river side reveals that the kremlin had only a representative function and was no longer planned as a strategic military installation. Verkhoturye was the regional capital of the Urals until the rise of Yekaterinburg.

Between 2010 and 2015 the decayed walls and towers of the kremlin were rebuilt. Today the Verkhoturye Kremlin houses a historical museum.

Machine-translated from “Kreml von Werchoturje” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Verkhoturye Kremlin ranks #4,086 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #93 of the 145 mapped in Russia. Founded 1699, it is older than 23% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 626 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,102 times in the last 60 days, more than 51% of the atlas. See how Russia compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in German) ↗