Yuriev-Polskoy is one of the towns of the Golden Ring route – the popular tour of Central Russia’s old towns.
Its history is uneventful. Founded in 1152 by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky it ours its name to its founder; Polskoy–“in the fields” – was added to distinguish it from the older town of Yuriev it the Dnieper area.
When in 1212 the strife among the heirs of Prince Vsevolod III broke the territorial integrity of the Vladimir realm, Yuriev became the center of a small principality under Svyatoslav, one of the monastery of Vsevolod’s sons. He is credited with the founding in Yuriev of the Monastery of the Archangel Michael as well as with the building of the new Cathedral of St. George.
In the first hall of the 14^th century Yuriev passed into the hands of the Moscow princes.
In the next two centuries Yuriev had its strategical and commercial meaning. In 1778 Yuriev-Polskoy became a district town of Vladimir region and from 1792- of Vladimir province.
At the same the first industrial (textile and cotton-weaving) factories appeared. The role of Yuriev-Polskoy as an industrial center of Vladimir province especially increased in the second hall of the 19^th century, when the railroad lay through it.
In our days Yuriev-Polskoy is the regional center of Vladimir region.