Sviyazhsk

Swijaschsk (Russian Свияжск; Tatar Зөя / Zöyä ) is a village and former town in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia) with 276 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010 ).

Geography

The town is located on an island near the right bank of the Kuibyshev reservoir there pent-up to the Volga, in the area of ​​the confluence of the Sviyaga, almost 30 kilometers in a straight line west of the center of the Republic capital Kazan.

Swijaschsk belongs to Rajon Selenodolsk. Its center Selenodolsk located 12 kilometers as the crow in a northwesterly direction from Swijaschsk away on the far, left bank of the Volga. The village forms as their only place the rural community Swijaschskoje selskoje posselenije.

History

Swijaschsk was founded by order of Ivan IV during the last war against the Khanate of Kazan on May 24, 1551 as the basis for the decisive attack on its capital Kazan. Within four weeks there was on an elevation in the floodplain of the Volga a wooden fort of parts that are prefabricated in Uglich and the Volga had been shipped down.

After the final defeat of the Khanate in 1552 and its incorporation into the Russian state Swijaschsk was considered a town and was especially in the second half of the 16th century, important commercial center. This role could not say in a row against the much larger city of Kazan. After the founding of several monasteries but it remained significant religious center in an attempt of the Russian Orthodox Christianization of the Tartars. Their heyday had the monasteries in the second half of the 18th century. Then its importance declined until the beginning of the 20th century only a few dozen monks and nuns remained.

After the establishment of the government of Kazan in the early 18th century, the city charter for Swijaschsk in the division of provinces in Ujesde 1775 was confirmed. It became the administrative center of one of the first 13 (later 12) Ujesde, economically developed but hardly. Towards the end of the 19th century, the population was only 2365 ( Census 1897) and decreased further during the 20th century.

After the October Revolution of 1917 and the establishment of Soviet power the Swijaschsker monasteries were relatively early, already closed from 1918 until 1924. With the administrative reorganization after founding the Tatar ASSR in 1920 Swijaschsk in 1921 the center of a canton, in 1927 converted to a Rajon. With the dissolution of Rajons 1931 Swijaschsk lost its administrative function and on February 1, 1932 its municipal law ( according to other sources in 1926 ) than it is to a rural settlement ( Selo ) was downgraded.

In the buildings of the former monasteries was originally from the 1920s, a prison, then placed a re-education camp for homeless young people and in 1953 a mental hospital. A storage compartment in the system, the gulag with names Swijaschsk 1947-1948 was not in place Swijaschsk, but at the same station in the ten- kilometer west located Nischnije Wasowyje.

Due to the flooding of the Kuibyshev Volga Reservoir 1957-1959 Swijaschsk remained on an approximately 1.2 km long and 0.7 km wide island. In 1960 the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Swijaschsk to a historical monument of republican significance, which was established in 1969 confirmed and clarified by the Council of Ministers of the Tatar ASSR. 1980, the site has been promoted to the monument of " All-Union importance " and opened a first Museum in the same year in one of the churches.

In the 1990s, the psychiatric clinic was closed, returned the Assumption Monastery in Kazan Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church (which up to 1950 bore the name of Kazan eparchy and Swijaschsk ) and reopened in 1997. Since 1998, the candidate site for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. There are plans for the entire site into a " museum - Sapowednik " convert.

Demographics

Note: Census data

Culture and sights

In Swijaschsk a larger number of buildings is the 16th to receive the early 20th century, making it one of the most important tourist destinations in Tatarstan.

Economy and infrastructure

The place lives enhanced by tourism. The few inhabitants horticultural activities for self-supply.

Since the embankment of about 3.5 km long, 2008 completed the dam from the island to the mainland in a southwesterly direction is road link to south past leading new route of the highway M7 Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan - Ufa as well as to the train station Swijaschsk, which is about 10 km west in the settlement Nischnije Wjasowyje on the railway line Moscow - Kazan lies.

In summer regular bus passenger ships to Kazan and to the left bank of the Volga towards Swijaschsk nearby settlement Wassiljewo.