Administrative division

483 settlements

Geographical location

The district is situated in the southern part of the Vologda Oblast. The district boasts a very advantageous geographic and economic location. The extensive network of highways and railways runs through the district, the federal paved highway connecting Moscow with Arkhangelsk and the railways linking Saint Petersburg and the Urals, Moscow and Arkhangelsk among them. All this makes getting to the District of Gryazovets extremely easy.

Border regions: the districts of Vologda, Mezhdurech'ye, Babushkino and Tot'ma within the Vologda Oblast; the Yaroslavl Oblast in the south-west, the Kostroma Oblast in the south-east.

Transport

Distance from Vologda: 44 km.

Transport infrastructure is highly developed in the District of Gryazovets. The district has 280 km of highways and 160 km of railways. Two railway lines go through it and it connects many railway stations of the North railway. The network of buses makes getting to and around the district easy.

Economy

Industrial complex of the District of Gryazovets is represented by numerous enterprises working in the following fields:

• Power engineering;
• Timber industry;
• Agriculture;
  
• Food industry.

In the branch structure of industry, timber industry and agriculture take a dominating position.

The gas pipeline LIGHTS OF THE NORTH which is affiliated with the GAZPROM company creates working places for the residents of the city. The gas - compressor station delivers natural gas to industrial centres of Russia and abroad.

The economy of the District of Gryazovets is based on diverse natural resources. On the territory of the Gryazovets District there are considerable mineral resources - deposits of clay and loam for manufacture of bricks, reserves of quartz sand, deposits of sand and gravel.

The district of Gryazovets is one of the largest producers of farm commodities and agricultural goods in the oblast. Dairy - farming and cattle - breeding are clearly expressed specializations of the district. Farmers of Gryazovets are very competitive and adapt their activities in line with changing market needs. There is a growing demand for the district's products which are biologically sound and additive - free.

By virtue of natural conditions and climate, farming is historically developed in the district. There are no special conditions of soil in the district. People's use of the land determine stable crops of cereals, flax and forage crops. Some farms are engaged in seed - growing.

Attractions and tourism

Places of interest: the Paul - Obnorsky monastery, Kornilyevo - Komelsky monastery, Bryanchaninovs' country estate

The Paul - Obnorsky Monastery

The founder of the monastery - Paul was born in Moscow at the beginning of the 14th century. At the age 22 he took monastic vows in one of the temples situated on the Volga river. Soon after it he headed for the cloister of St.Sergius of Radonezh that attracted the ever-increasing number of believers. In the space of several years he roamed throughout the monasteries, met many ascetics on his way. In 1414 metropolitan Photy blessed Paul to found a monastery, the main temple of which was the Cathedral of the Trinity. Having left one of his disciples at the head of the cloister, Paul spent the last years of his life roaming again. He took up his abode on the other bank of the Nurma river. There he passed away on January 10, 1429. Two chapels to commemorate Saint Paul were built on this spot. There were some relics kept in the cloister - the tomb of the founder of the monastery and the cross with which St.Sergius of Radonezh blessed Paul.

Owing to the patronage of the tsars and grand dukes, who regarded northern monasteries with favour, the Paul-Obnorsky monastery had built some stone structures by the late 16th century. The cadastres dating back to 1628-1630 testify to this fact. In May, 1545 tsar Ivan the Terrible visited the monastery in passing. The chroniclers described the tsar's visit in all splendour. It was a good time for the monastery. The tsar liked to stay there. He attended divine services and often sent gifts and subsidies.

The monastery housed some works of art of exceptional value. The genius of medieval Russian art Dionisius participated in the embroidery of it. Three remarkable icons were given to the Kornilyevo - Komelsky monastery and then to the Vologda Museum of Local Lore. They suppose these icons belong to the brush of Dionisius. His cycle of frescoes devoted to the Virgin remains a unique monument of medieval painting having national as well as European importance. One of the icons - Crucifix- is displayed at the Tretyakov Picture Gallery (Moscow).

The 18th century turned out to be a hard time for all Russian monasteries. In the reign of Peter the Great the lots belonging to the churches and cathedrals were confiscated. The Paul-Obnorsky monastery was falling into decay, state subsidies needed to repairs were scarce. Moreover, in 1764 the monastery was hit by flames. Everything was in ruins. It took 13 years to rebuild the cloister. Over the following century the monastery dragged out a miserable existence.

All this changed when Father-Superior Ioasaf Tikhonov (1861-1877) appeared in the monastery. Coming from Tambov and being very active by nature he began to revive the cloister. He was fond of constructing. A highway to the monastery, a hotel for believers, a stone fence (3 metres high), vaults were built on the money collected by voluntary donors, merchants from Gryazovets and Kostroma. Ioasaf built a prayer sell in the forest removed from the monastery. He dug a pond near it and laid out a garden. Ioasaf's activity was versatile. He painted the walls of the monastery depicting the life of Serafim Sarovsky. The diocese was indignant at it and ordered to paint it over. Failures like this did not disappoint the Father-Superior. In 1867-1869 he erected the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. It has been preserved in its original form up to now.

Ioasaf arranged a small secluded monastery, worked out its charter that was notable for its severity. Under the charter the monks should toil and pray day and night, keep to a vegetable diet. Women were not allowed to enter this isolated place. Probably the strict rules doomed this project to failure. The monks were not eager to live there.

The illness forced the Father-Superior to desert his post in November 1877. After it construction in the Paul-Obnorsky monastery nearly stopped. The only structure that was built after his demise was a bellfry (1881-1887). In the summer of 1909 the monastery was ruined by fire. The whole country donated money for its reconstruction which had been finished by 1912. Now the monastery is an affiliate to the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery (Vologda).

Kornilyevo - Komelsky Monastery

The founder of the monastery Saint Kornily comes from Rostov. He took monastic vows in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. He wanted to be isolated from the world and in 1494 made his abode in a hit at the confluence of two rivers - the Nurma and the Talitsa. He cut down the trees in order to cultivate the lands and seed corns. In 1501 having been blessed by All-Russian Metropolitan Simon he erected a small wooden church, took holy orders and became the first abbot of the cloister. The ever-increasing number of believers flocked to the place, the church could not accommodate all the people. Saint Kornily's obsession idea was to built a bigger church.

The year 1515 saw the foundation and consecration of a new cloister. The monastery accommodated a bakery and a hospital. The saint established a hospice for beggars and pilgrims. Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich granted Saint Kornily a charter for his special deeds. In 1529 Vasily Ioannovich and his spouse visited the cloister when they were going on pilgrimage to the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. At their order the Kornilyevsky monastery was given forests and arable land. Over the following decades of the 16th century the cloister grew, peasants' settlements sprouted up near it. The people were engaged in trade (mostly staple food products - salt and fish). Every year a fair was arranged at the walls of the monastery.

Saint Kornily died on May 19, 1537. But the signs of God were frequent.

Two astonishing events are worth mentioning. When the Vologda province was hit by famine, large numbers of hungry people headed for the monastery to beg. Parents brought their children and left them at the walls of the cloister. And the Saint accepted all the children, provided them with food and shelter. Strange, but the cloister did not become poor at that time. On the contrary, it thrived.

In 1538 the Kazan tartars forayed into the Vologda province, robbed and burnt down the monastery's villages and flocked to the Kornilyevsky monastery. When they approached it, they saw warriors ready to fight, killed their guides and fled, doing no harm to the monastery.

The cloister saw some of its darkest days. In 1552 the entire monastery was in flames. This prompted the monks to erect stone temples. The first stone structure - the Cathedral of the Presentation of the Virgin - was built in the late 16th century. It has the likeness to Novgorod's temples dating back to the 14th-15th centuries.

In the 18th century the monastery fell into decay. The main income of it was the local spa. Since the mid-19th century it accommodated a clinic where the patients took cold and warm baths.

In the 1920s the monastery was shut down and it was turned into a prison for Polish prisoners of war, and later German prisoners of war. Finally the prison was closed too and the building became home to an asylum.

Not much is left for the visitor to see now, but one can admire a breath-taking panorama of the place, the expence of still undeveloped fields and green coppices.

Bryanchaninovs' Country Estate

Dwelling houses of the classical period constitute a notable part in the Vologda Oblast's architectural legacy. Quite remarkable is Bryanchaninovs' country estate - a stone structure built in 1809-1810. The drafts kept in the Vologda museum of local lore let us suppose that initially the plan of the house was worked out by architect A.Sapozhnikov. Later, in 1820 it was reconstructed by A.Kutepov. Bryanchaninovs' house is embellished with intricate moulded decorative patterns. Apart from the main building, the country estate included a number of structures, a church and a cemetery.

The name of Alexander Semyonovich's son, Dmitry, came down into the history of the Russian church. Dmitry, a young officer, favourite of tsar Nikolai Pavlovich gave up his service and took monastic vows. He is also known by name Ignaty. He is remembered for his ascetic life-style and literary works. He became an archimandrite and later a bishop. The last years of his life Ignaty spent in the Nikolo-Babaisky monastery on the Volga river. There he passed away on April 30, 1867. In 1988 Ignaty Bryanchaninov was canonized on the occasion of 1000th anniversary of christianity of Rus. His ashes were brought to the Tolgsky monastery at Yaroslavl.

The church located on the territory of the country estate remains active. The house is being reconstructed mainly on the money from the oblasts' budget.

History

Gryazovets (at that time known as the settlement of Gryazovitsky) was first mentioned in a charter of Tsar Ivan IV in 1538. As time passed the settlement developed into the trade village of Gryazlevitsa which boasted a rather advantageous geographic location on the route from Arkhangelsk to Moscow.

Trade development contributed to the prosperity of the village. The village grew and on January 25, 1780 under the Senate decree it got the status of a town. The same year the town's coat of arms was officially approved. The town became an administrative and trade centre of the district. Its residents were mostly engaged in farming and handicrafts. The merchants were occupied with trade.

Later, with the opening of the railway route Yaroslavl-Vologda, Gryazovets focused on dairy, flax and tanning industries. Two brick-producing plants were put into action.

In the 1920s the town built power stations and a water-supply system. The network of educational and public health institutions was rapidly developing. A trade union, an amateur theater and a drama studio sprouted up in the town.

The year 1931 saw the establishment of the machine and tractor station (the first one in the north of the country). Later the car repair service was built on the basis of it.

In 1890 the town boasted 25 small butter-dairies and in 1927 the town with the assistance of the state put into action the mechanized butter factory SOYUZ (UNION). Since 1975 the district has become a major centre for dried and skimmed milk production. Timber and woodworking industries are also on the rise.