Mikhaylov is a Russian town (since 1778), the administrative center of the Mikhaylov District of the Ryazan Region.

It stands on on the Pronya river (influx of Oka), at the east bottom of the Central Russian Upland, 68 km to the southwest of Ryazan. The town has the same name railway station.

Mikhailov with the population of 11 046 people (as of 2014) takes the area of 60 sq km.

History of Mikhaylov

Mikhaylov was for the first time recorded in the chronicle of 1172. It was founded by Prince Rurik Rostislavich in 1137 and named after his son Mikhail.

The town was refounded in 1551. The Mikhaylov sentry fortress was located on the main route of Tatars towards the center of the Moscow State. Gunners, riflemen and carpenters who settled around the fortress where the first dwellers of Mikhaylov. In 1618 Mikhaylov withstood a ten-day siege by the Polish armies.

The town was attributed to the Moscow Province in 1708 and the Pereyaslav-Ryazansky Province from 1719. From 1778 it was the district town Mikhaylov of the Ryazan Province.

In 1856 Mikhaylov had 5 churches, 344 houses, and 40 shops.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) it was occupied by fascist armies on November 24, 1941. The town was released by armies of the Western front during the Tula campaign on December 7, 1941.

Architecture and Sights

The town harbours samples of civil architecture of the early 18th century: the so-called Podatnaya Log Hut (Treasury House), the Nativity Church and residential houses.

Building of the former district council designed by architect A.A. Bantle in 1912 is a good sample of provincial Art Nouveau.

The Krasnnoye Settlement to the southeast of Mikhaylov keeps a former estate of the 18th -19th centuries with Kazanskaya Church (1785-1810, classicism style), a manor and an extensive farmyard in the pseudo-Gothic style.