An Excursion to Bogolybovo

On leaving Vladimir, whose new residential districts have now extended as far as the villages of Krasnoye and Dobroye, set among the rolling hills of the open countryside, the Gorky highway soon reaches Bogolyubovo, leading directly to a large, white church.

Just as Yuri Dolgoruky, when he was prince of Suzdal, decided not to live in Suzdal itself, where the boyars had their residences, but built himself a fortress outside the town, in the village of Kideksha, so his son, Andrei, built his residence not in his beloved Vladimir but in the town of Bogolyubovo. In doing so he also gained control of an important strategic point along the trade route used by the merchants of Suzdal—the confluence of the NerI and the Klyazma. In those days, the river Klyazma flowed directly below the hill. Now it has shifted to the south, leaving a water meadow.
Between 1158 and 1165, the same period that saw rapid construction work in Vladimir, a fortress rose in Bogolyubovo consisting of stone walls and towers, the prince's palace, the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin and other buildings. The cathedral was particularly magnificent. According to contemporary descriptions that have come down to us, it was richly decorated with gold, precious stones and pearls.

However, Bogolyubovo was not long to enjoy fame and glory. The boyars, who disliked Andrei himself and also objected to his grandiose political plans which removed from them their customary powers, broke into his sleeping quarters one June night in 1174 and murdered him. His successors, not wishing to remain in the place that had been the scene of such a bloody act, transferred Bogolyubovo to a monastery. The old buildings gradually fell into decay as a result of internecine strife amongst the princes and Tartar raids, and the monks removed the stones to use them in their own buildings. By the 17th century the prince's palace had long since collapsed, together with the old gates and the gateway church. However, the cathedral still stood, although it too had fallen into decay. At the end of the 17th century, it became the fashion to widen the narrow windows of old churches to provide more light. The father superior of the Bogolyubovo Monastery, Hyppolitus, who had added many new stone buildings to the monastery, decided to follow the new fashion. The cathedral, however, was unable to withstand this barbarous operation. It cracked and in 1722 it collapsed.

All that has survived of the fortress of the mighty ruler of Vladimir-Suzdal is a small section of the staircase tower, the passage connecting it whith the cathedral, and the north wall of the cathedral itself, onto which a new church was built in the 18th century. The inexperienced eye will have difficulty in picking them out among the buildings erected in the 19th century. The precious remains of their former glory can be recognised by the stone, now dull, darkened and corroded with age, and the beautiful band of blind arcading that was the hallmark of the Vladimir builders of the period. The northern wall, staircase tower and the passage between them owe their miraculous survival to the fact that the monks who utilised the stones from the ruins could not bring themselves to dismantle these surviving sections as by this time the Russian church had declared Andrei a saint.

After entering the tower and climbing the worn steps of the spiral stairway, the visitor arrives at the first floor from where, according to expert opinion, it was possible to reach any part of the 12th-century ensemble—the prince's palace, the cathedral, the towers and the fortified walls—without descending to ground level. The stairway is dimly lit by slit windows. On the first floor of the tower, a magnificent window, divided by two columns with carved capitals into three arched apertures looks out to the east. There is no other example of this architectural technique anywhere in the Vladimir Region.

The walls of the passage are still decorated with later frescoes depicting the assassination of Andrei Bogolyubsky, but these are not of any particular artistic value. The arched passageway leads to the northern portal of the 18th century cathedral, which is now a museum in which are displayed the finds uncovered during excavation work. These include majolica tiles from the floor, carved stone from the walls and foundations, and stone masks. Although few in number, these exhibits reveal that the Bogolyubovo ensemble was a work of art created by talented builders and artists.