Zvenigorod is a town (from 1781) in the Moscow Region. The town is located on banks of the Moskva River, 30 km to the west of Moscow, on the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge of the Smolensk-Moscow Upland.

The population of Zvenigorod is 16.4 thousand people as of 2010.

Picturesque vicinities of Zvenigorod, which is called the Russian Switzerland, are a climate-balneal area. Along with the climate its major natural medical factor is sulphatic magnesium-calcium water (it is applied in drinking treatment) and chloride sodium brine (for baths). There are natural discharges of chalybeate hydrocarbonate calcic waters and fields of peat therapeutic muds. It is replete with sanatoria.

The overall territory of Zvenigorod makes 47 sq.km.

History of Zvenigorod

Zvenigorod was allegedly founded by Yuri Dolgoruky in 1152. However it was first recorded in written sources much later: in Ivan Kalita's spiritual letter missive (1336) and in a chronicle of 1382.

The name was transferred to the Rostov-Suzdal Principality from Kiev region, where there was a town of Zvenigorod. The widespread explanation of its name as “a town with bell-ringing” appeared as a result of naive etymology.

In the 14th century Zvenigorod was a stockade town on a high hill on the left bank of Moskva River, with fortifications consisting of a ditch, a shaft and a timbered wall with towers. In the 14th -16th centuries it was an important sentry point on the western approach routes to Moscow.

From 1339 to 1492 the town was the center of the Zvenigorod specific principality. In 1382 Zvenigorod was ruined by the Tatars in the course of Tokhtamysh’ invasion.

Blossoming of the town fell on 1389-1434, the period of reigning of the second son of Prince Dmitry Donskoy - Yury Dmitriyevich, under whose rein Zvenigorod was enclosed with powerful defensive shaft and oak walls, and the Uspensky Cathedral was built in 1399.

Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery was founded in 1398-99 on the Storozhevaya (Sentry) Mountain. During the reign of Alexey Mikhaylovich the monastery was used as his country residence.

In 1708 the town of Zvenigorod was attributed to the Moscow Province. From 1781 it was a district town of the Moscow Province.

In the late 18th – early 19th centuries it was a local shopping center.

In 1784 Zvenigorod was reconstructed and received rectangular planning. In the 17th -18th centuries the town was developing on the place of Verkny and Nizhny Posads, but stone construction was hardly carried out there.

Throughout the 19th century it remained a district small town with underdeveloped trade (mainly dairy products and vegetables). In 1861 the town has several craft institutions and a brewery.

In 1856 the district town of Zvenigorod of the Moscow Province had 3 churches, 198 houses, and 20 shops.

Thanks to an extremely beautiful hilly area around the town from the 19th century Zvenigorod and its vicinities gained value as a country place near Moscow. Lots of writers and artists spent summers here: N. M. Karamzin (1802), A.I. Herzen (1830-40), A.P. Chekhov (1884-87), I.I. Levitan, A.K.Savrasov, A.E.Arkhipov, I.E.Repin, etc.

Zvenigorod Museums

Zvenigorod History, Architecture and Art Museum

Composer Sergei Taneyev Museum in Dyutkovo

Architecture and Sights of Zvenigorod

The ensemble of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery includes the Nativity Cathedral (1405; with interior paintings of the 15th and 17th centuries), Trinity Church, walls and towers of 1650-54, etc.

Near the town there are ensembles of the former estates of Yershovo (1837), Olsufyevs, Vvedensky (late 18th – early 19th centuries), and the Lopukhins.

Read more about Zvenigorod sights