Ivanovo, the Town of Brides

The town of Ivanovo is located in the picturesque area of the Volga River basin, at the 300 km distance from Moscow, and is an integral part of the Golden Ring of Russia.

The town stands on the River Uvod’. Its population counts around 448 thousands, while the population of the Ivanovo Region is 1.1 million people.

Not far from Ivanovo there are located the old Russian settlements Palekh and Holui, the centres of the world-known lacquer miniature art.

Though Ivanovo and the monuments of Ivanovo Region are known less than other Golden Ring places, the town takes pride in a number of architectural ensembles of various epochs.

Ivanovo remains the textile industry centre of Russia, the fact entailing it the nicknames “Russian Manchester” and “the town of brides”. The latter of the two names became popular thanks to the song “Why aren’t we a pair” sung by the great Russian actor Andrey Mironov. There are such lines in the song: “I tell you again and again of my love, but when I am tired of telling, get this straight, I will go to Ivanovo, the town of brides”.

Points of interest:

Ivanovo is a big cultural centre today, with interesting museums, as well as Drama Theatre, Musical Theatre, Puppet Theater, and the circus.

It is a must for tourists to visit the Museum of Ivanovo Chintz, featuring the history of this fabric and displaying antique homespun canvasses with fanciful patterns. It is better to start the promenade, however, from the Lenin Street, where the Regional Museum is located. On the other bank of the River Uvod’ there are the so-called patrimonial bureaus amassed. There are more than ten of them here. Such a host of similar offices is accounted for by the fact that a lot of noblemen owing the local factories used to inhabit this area.

The most famous buildings of the town are: the wooden Assumption Graveyard Church (late 17th c.), Shchudrov’s Booth (18th c.), A. Dyuringer’s Estate (1910), Agricultural Bank (1927), Ship-House (1930), Horseshoe-House (1934), set of buildings of Ivanovo-Voznesensk Politechnical Institute (1928-1937), and “The House of Collective” (1930).

History

The town was founded in 1871 by blending of the settlement Ivanovo, the old centre of hay processing (first mentioned in 1561) with the industrial Voznesensky Posad (founded in 1856). Till 1932 the town was called Ivanovo-Voznesensk.

Already in the epoch of the Russian Empire Ivanovo was the centre of light industry, contesting for the rank of the Europe’s major centre of light industry with the Polish town Lodz, then also belonging to the Empire.

In the early 20th century a big number of splendid mansions owned by rich manufacturers were build in Ivanovo. Thus, the architectural image of the town was shaping from its luxurious mansions and brick buildings of textile factories.

The year of 1937 saw the opening of Interdom (International House) for children of overseas communists, including those of high standing. Children of the revolutionary Alexander Karastoyanov, the Spanish leader Dolores Ibarruri, Mao Zedong and others once studied there.