Orlov town: sights, history and modernity

If the fate of one of her driven motives will lead you to the city of Orlov, the sights are unlikely to line up in order to please you. Perhaps you even think that there is nothing to look at at all. A tiny town with wooden buildings can boast of only seven thousand people and a museum of local lore. However, everything in the world has its own history. Having learned more about this settlement, you, probably, will not be so categorical and on the way (for example, in Kirov) you will also glance into the city of Orlov, whose sights are modest, but also worthy of attention.

A bit of history

Orlov is a small regional center in the Kirov region. The official date of its foundation is the first mention in the annals in 1459. During the war of Galicia and Moscow principalities the city was captured by the troops of Tsar Vasily II. In 2014 the village celebrates its 555th anniversary. However, there is no doubt that people lived in this area long before the XV century. Today, historians believe that the first settlement in this place arose in the XII-XIII centuries, and its inhabitants were settlers from the Novgorod lands.

A bit of geography

Like most ancient cities, Orlov was founded in a convenient place - on the cape, at the confluence of two rivers - Vyatka and Plyushchikha. On two sides it was protected by natural water barriers, and with the third - a deep moat, also filled with water. Orel fortress is one of the oldest in the region. In the middle of the last century, archaeological excavations were carried out here . Today, on the site of a triangular settlement, you will see only mounds and holes. And only a rich imagination will help to imagine how the ancestors grew rye, barley, oats and peas here, fished, hunted and fought using darts and arrows.

But the town is not the only thing the city of Orlov can offer us. Attractions are not only archaeological, but also natural. The district center stands on the river Vyatka, and you can not bypass it with a real traveler's attention. Once the largest tributary of the Kama was famous for navigation. Here ferryboats were being sent to the other side, steamboats were buzzing, barges were stretching, and fast fishing boats were moving. After all, only on the territory of the Kirov region the length of Vyatka is about one and a half thousand kilometers. Today the river is shallow, but still as beautiful as when Vasnetsov was writing it. By the way, in the neighboring Kirov spent his childhood and youth Alexander Green. Local historians believe that the local nature inspired the writer to create a wonderful world of "Scarlet Sails". Fans of fishing will not miss the chance to do here "quiet hunt". Vyatka has the highest fishery category.

Here are found and bream, and catfish, and pike, and pike perch, and carp. But local residents for "real fish" venerate only the famous sterlet, which was once from here on carts delivered to the imperial table in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Where is the city of Orlov

The map tells us that it is located 70 kilometers from the regional Kirov, on the right bank of Vyatka. Nearby are also Kotelnich, Murashi and Sovetsk (the former Kukarka, the birthplace of Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov). By the way, he himself changed the name twice throughout history. In the period from 1923 to 1992 he was called Khalturin - in honor of the handsome revolutionary Stepan Khalturin, who in 1880 managed to carry 30 tons of dynamite to the basement of the Winter Palace and set up an explosion that killed 11 people. Emperor Alexander II, against whom the terrorist act was plotted, by lucky coincidence remained alive. Khalturin was born three kilometers from Orlov, in the village of Khalevinskaya.

Orlov town: tourist attractions

This settlement is distinguished by remarkable Russian unhurriedness, patriarchy, provinciality. Here, many small wooden buildings with carved platbands have been preserved. A kind of merchant's stronghold on Vyatka. In one of the surviving mansions there is a museum of local lore. It stores only 3000 items, almost all of which are genuine. There are the Merchant and Soviet halls, as well as a military exposition.

The only active church in Orlov is Christmas-Bogoroditskaya (1840). It stores the holy relics of the Great Martyr Mikhail Tikhonitsky. Father Michael worked as a priest and taught the law of God in Orlov. He was shot in the years of the Red Terror.

The once beautiful Trinity Church of the XVIII century has survived. But today it houses city baths.

By the way, local ethnographers say that there is an invisible link between Orlov and Moscow. The fact is that once in the city found the image of the Savior. He was taken to the capital's Kremlin. The icon was brought in through the Frolovsky Gate. Allegedly since then, both the gate and the tower above them have received the familiar name Spassky.

The city of Orlov (photos clearly demonstrate this) is gradually changing. There are five-story stone buildings, beautiful blooming corners. From here you can even bring souvenirs to relatives. If you do not get to Kirov with his vyatskimi lace and Dymkovo toy, get unusual chess or backgammon, inlaid with straw. These are produced at the local enterprise - OJSC "Chess".