Guide to Pereslavl Zalessky

contents: facts - history - main sights - transportation - communication - accommodation

FACTS. Pereslavl Zalessky is a small provincial town of Yaroslav region, located on the halfway from Moscow to Yaroslavl (around 130 km), next to Pleshcheevo lake.
There are 45 000 inhabitants in this small, quiet provincial town.

HISTORY OF PERESLAVL ZALESSKY. Pereslavl was founded in 1152 by the Prince of Suzdal Principality Yury Dolgoruky, who founded some other Golden Ring towns. There were already two Pereslavl in Russia: the first on the territory of Ukraine, the second is called 'Ryazan' now.
Pereslavl was founded on the busy river way from Kostroma to Vladimir, so it boosted the town's development.
The history of Pereslavl is closely connected with history of Novgorod.
There's a tale that once the Prince Yaroslav Mudry ('the Wise') was coming back through Novgorod after a successful military expedition (fighting against the Swedes), and he decided to leave his two sons (Alexander and Fyodor) to rule in Novgorod. Novgorod had always wanted to be independent, so the riots made Alexander and Fyodor leave Novgorod and run to Pereslavl. When Yaroslav learned that his two sons ran from Novgorod to Pereslavl, he closed all the river ways to the town, so Pereslavl was completely blocked.
In 1238 Tartars invaded the town and completely devastated it, Alexander Nevsky (the son of Yaroslav Mudry, already mature and succesful military leader) came back to his home town and started to rebuild and restore it.
Because of its central location Pereslavl was continiously attacked first by Tartars and later by Polish invaders.
One of the most famous Russian emrerors - Peter the Great - spent his childhood in Pereslavl. Here, in 1688, young tsar built his first boat (you can still see it in the museum) and 'fun' river fleet. Later, when he became the emperor, he created the first Russian military fleet.

ORIENTATION. The centrum of Pereslavl is situated along the main street, which is the way from Moscow to Yaroslavl. The beginning of the street is called Kardovskogo (¹ˆ¶Š”‰–�”‹”) on the left side of which there's Goritsky monastery and a road to Peter the Great's Boat, and on the right side there's an interesting garden. Further to Yaroslavl, the street changes its name to Sovetskaya (Ô”‰Œ˜–�ˆ§), which goes through the old Kremlin fortification and after Narodnaya ploshchad (the post and phone office is just on the opposite side) changes to Rostovskaya street (hotel Pereslavl is on the right side). It goes further into Uritskaya (Ò¶�š�ˆ§) street, on the left side of which there's Nikitsky monastery.

THE MAIN SIGHTS
Pereslavl Zalessky used to be completely built up with fortifications, churches, palaces, and houses. Most of them have dissappeared with time, but some have remained.
The oldest building (almost 850 years old) in Pereslavl is Spaso-Preobrazhensky cathedral (Savior-Transconfiguration cathedral), located in the heart of Pereslavl. It was built during 1152-1157, when Pereslavl was founded. The cathedral has very simple and light forms, common for the times.
Next to the cathedral there's the Church of Mitropolit Peter, built in 1585, which has the form of the roof the same as wooden churches.

There are quite many monasteries in Pereslavl. On the left side of the road from Moscow to Yaroslavl there's Goritsky monastery, which was founded in the 12th century. In 1382 the Tartars, who were following the wife of Russian prince Dmitry Donskoy, burned the monastery, because the wife of Dmitry (Evdokia) was hiding there. She managed to run away to Pleshcheevo lake where a small boat took her to the middle of the vast lake. She was saved, and to celebrate the event she ordered to build the monastery again.
The buildings, that you'll see now inside the monastery were mostly built in the 17th-18th centuries. The main cathedral of the monastery is the Assumption cathedral (Uspensky sobor) that was started in the second half of the 18th century and has very interesting decorations inside.
Now there's the history, architecture and art museum on the territory of the monastery. It features an interesting collection of Russian paintings, artpieces, ancient crafts, archeological findings, old Russian hand-written books. The address of the monastery and museum is #4, Muzeiny pereulok. The phone is (08535) 22-19-10. Open hours: from 10.00 to 17.00 except tuesdays.

On the opposite side of the road from Goritsky monastery there's an interesting garden founded in 1956, where you can see more than 500 various species of plants growing, gathered from all over the world and organised correspondigly. Some very unusual for the European part of Russia species were brought here from the Russian Far East and China.

If you go to the direction of Pleshcheevo lake from the Goritsky monastery, you can see the museum 'Botik of Peter the Great', which feautures the original boat hand-made by Peter the Great in the end of the 17th century. There's a also an exhibition dedicated to history of the Russian fleet. Location: Veskovo (⌖Ÿ�”‰”) village, phone: (08535) 2-27-88, open hours: 10.00-16.45 except mondays.

Further on the left along the same road, after the Spaso-Preobrazhensky cathedral, there's Nikitsky monastery, which is one of the oldest in Russia, founded in 1010. Most of the buildings inside the cathedral are built in the 16th centrury under the supervision of Ivan the Terrible. The monastery was closed during the Soviet times in 1923 and was returned to the Russian Chuch in 1993. Now it is a working monastery.

TRANSPORTATION. Pereslavl Zalessky is located on the way from Moscow to Yaroslavl. The bus station is situated along the main road from Moscow to Yaroslavl on the right side (the phone: (08535) 2-30-75). There's a small food shop at the station opened from 8 until 21.
Most of the buses going from Moscow to Yaroslavl stop in Pereslavl Zalessky and further in Rostov (the same for the buses in the opposite direction). There's no train station in Pereslavl.
Daily there are around 9 buses going from Rostov Veliky direction to Moscow, they stop in Pereslavl to continue their way to Moscow around these times: 2.10 (sp), 3.00, 3.30, 9.50 (sp), 11.00 (sp), 13.00 (sp), 14.50 (sp), 16.10, 17.30, 20.00. The buses marked 'sp' stop in Sergiev Posad. The trip to Moscow will take around 3 hours and cost around 70 roubles ($2.5).
There's about the same amount of buses going daily from Pereslavl (with a stop in Rostov) to Yaroslavl. They depart from Pereslavl around these times: 6.20, 9.00, 10.15, 11.00, 11.50, 13.20, 15.00, 16.00, 17.00, 17.50, 18.50. The trip to Rostov takes around 1h30m (costs around 30 r ($1), a trip to Yaroslavl should take around 3 hours (costs around 70 r ($2.5)).

COMMUNICATION. The phone code of Pereslavl is 08535. When phoning inside Pereslavl you should just dial a local 5-digit number, without any codes.
The main post, phone and telegraph office is located on Svobody (Ô‰”‡”Šž) ulitsa, on the right side of the Sovetskaya street if you go from Moscow to Yaroslavl, opposite to Narodnaya square.
The mobile phones of 'MTS' or 'BeeLine' companies are working in the whole Yaroslav region and in Pereslavl, a minute costs around $0.5 for local calls, and $0.8 for calls to Moscow. If you have roaming with the two companies, you can use your cellphone in Pereslavl.

WHERE TO STAY IN PERESLAVL ZALESSKY. Here all Pereslavl hotels are listed in the alphabetical order, the cheapest single / double will cost around $10-15 US.

BOTIK CAMPING
Located on the shore of Pleshcheevo lake
Phone: (08535) 9-80-85

LESNAYA SKAZKA HOTEL ('A Forest Tale')
Located far from the centrum.
Phone: (08535) 2-08-53

KOMFORT HOTEL
Address: 2, Severny (ÔŒ‰Œ¶’žŽ) pereulok. Phone: (08535) 9-33-01

PERESLAVL HOTEL
Centrally located on the right side of the road from Moscow to Yaroslavl, withing 5 minute walk down to Saviour-Transfiguration church or up to Nikitsky monastery
Address: 27, Rostovskaya (°”–˜”‰–�ˆ§) ul. Phone: (08535) 2-15-59