Island-city Sviyazhsk - my trip and review

• My name is Alena.
• I go from Kazan and to Sviyazhsk every summer. I love this place!

"Past Buyan Island ..." - this is, as historians say, about the Island-city of Sviyazhsk.

If Alexander Sergeevich admired him, referring to the category of "fabulous", and the island itself is protected by UNESCO, it is not surprising that the reviews of tourists about Sviyazhsk are completely positive. How I agree with them!

The history of Sviyazhsk - why do they come here?

Great Bulgars (Bulgarians), Raifa and Sviyazhsk - Tatarstan calls them its spiritual components. Sviyazhsk and Kazan (the nearest large city) are separated by about 60 kilometers. The island is surrounded on three sides by the rivers Shchuka, Sviyaga and Volga.

People come here for gorgeous views and to relax from the city. For pilgrimage purposes, for unloading the soul, for history and architecture ... and also for delicious khachapuri!

Initially, however, the goals were slightly different: in 1551 Ivan the Terrible used the island as an outpost for the capture of the Kazan Khanate, after which Sviyazhsk for a long time became the center of Russian architecture and Orthodoxy. In the 16th century, the Sviyazhsk fortress was larger than the Pskov, Novgorod and Moscow ones!

An interesting fact is that the fortress was assembled as a constructor in the city of Uglich. The logs, which were then floated down the Volga, were notched to help assemble the fortress in the correct order. And they collected it in a little less than a month! By the way, such notches have been preserved in one of the churches of Sviyazhsk, the oldest in the Volga region.

In Soviet times, the island-city of Sviyazhsk was the site of the GULAG prisoners, and today the island is a museum-reserve.

Excursion to Sviyazhsk

How to get to Sviyazhsk from Kazan? For nonresident tourists, the most popular way was, is and will be an excursion. They will deliver to the place, tell the story and interesting things - what could be more convenient?

Tours to Ostrov-grad are divided into group (on a big bus) and individual (as part of only your group). They, in turn, are divided into including directly Sviyazhsk and exciting other top attractions near Kazan.

I am very glad that even clumsy excursion bureaus are moving online, and now there is no need to run around the city in search of a guide! The entire "assortment" of excursions to Sviyazhsk from Kazan, prices, conditions and reviews of those who have visited, look at the service:

• Tripster

I liked - and I think the most optimal - program: Sviyazhsk and Raifsky Monastery + Temple of All Religions. I definitely do not advise you to mix the island with a tour of Kazan itself. The road, the rush, the undigested impressions are not worth it.

Group excursions start at 800 rubles per person (tickets are usually already included in the price). They recruit 40-50 people on the bus, last from 5 to 8 hours, depending on the program. Sviyazhsk is a very cozy, quiet and thoughtful place ... and it is difficult to imagine how you can enjoy a walk here in the crowd. But! You can, after all, assign the role of a transfer to excursions and lag behind the group 🙂

Individual tours start at 8000 rubles for 6-9 people (taking into account the included tickets for the whole train, it is even more profitable than a group tour). The duration, on average, is the same - from 5 to 7 hours.

Such excursions also benefit from the fact that they are more diverse. For example, there is a motorboat ride. Or here's a cool option - a flight on an airplane and a view of the island from above! I even thought about the idea of ​​such a gift myself. The route - from Kazan through Sviyazhsk to the Mari forests - will take 30 minutes, but it can leave a train of impressions for several years to come. Extreme people with children are also welcome.

How to get to Sviyazhsk from Kazan on your own?

Residents of Kazan and nearby towns / villages do not hesitate to take excursions, but for frequent visits, of course, they go on their own. On myself, I have tried two ways so far, how to get there: a boat and a car.

By car

If there is no car:

• Taxi from Kazan (Yandex, Uber) - from 1000 rubles one way per car.
• You can use carsharing from Yandex. Download the app and enter the code reftz5CP2 for a discount on your first ride.

Travel time by car is about 1 hour. The roads are beautiful, there are signs, so it will be difficult to get confused even without a navigator. In front of the entrance to the museum complex there is a large parking area (free of charge!), There are places even on holidays and weekends.

Bus

It may not be the most comfortable option, but it will take you to the very entrance to the museum complex. It departs ONLY ON DEPARTURES from the Yuzhny bus station at 8:40, makes one stop at the Kazan Central Bus Station at 9:00 and goes to the final point.

The cost is 165 rubles, the journey takes 2 hours.

Train

... as the most romantic way to get to Sviyazhsk, but not the most convenient, since no one has laid railroad tracks along the dam. Arriving at the final nearest station "Sviyazhsk" in the village of Nizhnie Vyazovye, you need to overcome another 15 kilometers to the island itself.

The ticket price is 76 rubles, the travel time by train is 1 hour 15 minutes.

Motor ship

You can see the power of the Volga shores directly from the water with a boat ticket. The ship departs from the River Port of Kazan, tickets are also purchased there. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to purchase online in advance.

• The motor ship departs once a day, at 9:00.

The ticket price for the motor ship to Sviyazhsk is 127 rubles, the journey takes 2 hours.

Boat

I am very lucky, my family is the happy owners of a boat and a place of residence in the Zelenodolsk region, which is indented and surrounded by the Volga waters. We ride along them every summer to Sviyazhsk.

If you can hire a boatman somewhere, ask him at the same time to take a ride to the male Makaryevsky monastery (you can see it from Sviyazhsk, marked on the map), where you can plunge into the ice font. Of course, girls are not allowed to enter the monastery itself.

I do not recommend taking the boat for personal use, as someone has to stay at the “foot” of the island on the shore to look after it - not very convenient for a first acquaintance.

Sights of Sviyazhsk

What to see in Sviyazhsk? I do not know what forces are pulling us to start each walk around the island on the right side of the entrance, but I will lead you too!

• Horse yard - souvenirs, pottery and blacksmith's workshops, the opportunity to ride a horse (if you wish and you can ride around the entire island), a tavern, a public toilet ... It is better to unload here after the historical, educational and pilgrimage program.

• John the Baptist Monastery - in fact, it is a complex that consists of three temples:

— Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow": the cathedral resembles a cake, as if the domes are covered with glaze. Tourists who know a lot about cathedrals and their purpose put it on a par with St. Isaac's and even Byzantine Orthodox churches. It reminds me of the Georgian temple Tsminda Sameba ... Perhaps, a combination of multi-tiered and power.

• — Church of the Holy Trinity (Trinity Church): considered the oldest church in the Volga region. This is the one where you can see the notches on the logs. The church was built without a single nail! They say that fires have always bypassed it ... For me it is the most powerful place in terms of energy and the most pleasant place to look at, despite the simplest and most modest decoration inside. So rare now, the Old Believers.
  — Temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh: notable for its fresco - an exact copy of the Trinity of Andrei Rublev. There is a refectory in the temple, if you are lucky, lovely nuns will treat you to monastery jelly.
• Ruins of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin - if you are not an archaeologist, then just mark this place on the map as a landmark of the observation deck, from where magnificent views of the Volga and neighboring lands open up!
• Lazy Torzhok - something like a fairground where you can taste mead, tea from a samovar, pancakes, buy souvenirs from local artisans. Still shoot from a bow, fight with swords, plunge into pottery. Interactive excursions are conducted for children. It is very atmospheric there on holidays (Maslenitsa festivities have been tested for themselves - fire!).

• Archaeological tree museum - a very worthy modern technological space that houses not only wooden beams and other forms of wood (let archaeologists forgive me), but also monitors and technical devices that recreate the life and life of a 17th century city. All household items in the museum are original archaeological finds. The only museum on this subject in Russia! This is due to the fact that it is here that there is a special archaeological layer enriched with moisture and with a deficiency of oxygen, which is very suitable for a tree.
  A ticket to the museum costs 250 rubles.

• Temple of Saints Equal to the Apostles Tsar Constantine and his mother Helena (Church of Constantine and Helena) - the temple stands on the shore, and not all tourists come down to it, perhaps because it is not so remarkable. But all pilgrims say that this is a very prayerful place with ancient icons. On my own behalf, the temple is incredibly beautiful in the setting sun!
• Civil War Museum - why exactly here? Because here the offensive of the whites was stopped. Why is it definitely worth walking alongside? Because it is located in a beautiful and architecturally interesting building. Should I go in? Yes, if you are interested in the military topic, Trotsky, Soviet times ...
  The ticket price is 120 rubles.
• Museum of the History of Sviyazhsk - in general, it fully justifies its purpose and suits for acquaintance with the biography of the island, but you will not find there anything unusual and distinguishing it from the museums of the history of the city of N. For the sake of curiosity and the circle of your review, of course, visit. The ticket price is 200 rubles.
  Museum tickets can be bought on site.

• Theotokos-Uspensky monastery - the main attraction of Sviyazhsk. On the territory of which there are two important sights in Sviyazhsk: Nikolskaya Church and Assumption Church... A not very pleasant, but interesting fact is associated with the temple - in Soviet times, a psychiatric hospital, a correctional colony, and a gulag were located here. Today the monastery complex is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Frescoes of the 16th century have been preserved in the Assumption Cathedral! And in the Nikolsky Cathedral there is a cinema.

For 100 rubles you can climb the bell tower. And on the way back, you can buy monastery pastries.

Ticket prices (general tickets)

The entrance to the island is free for tourists. However, in order to get through the turnstile, you still have to take a ticket with a barcode, thanks to which a record of those who entered and exited the complex is kept.

Life hack in case of a large crowd of people: turn right from the turnstile, past the barrier, and go up along the road. You will go to the St. John the Baptist Monastery. Usually, no one forbids doing this, well, or you can always say that you just want to walk along the embankment along the river or shorten the path to the river port, since your ship leaves without a captain.

There are also uniform (general) ticketsthrough which you can go to all museums, visit exhibitions and expositions. Single ticket prices vary depending on the events you are interested in and the number of people.

• A single ticket for all museums - 660 rubles.

The territory of Sviyazhsk itself can be visited at any time, but the operating hours of museums and exhibitions are from 9:30 to 16:30, on Saturday until 18:00 (working hours in winter - also until 16:30). Many museums are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Official website: www.ostrovgrad.org

My advice

My main advice to all guests of the island is to go to the Khachapurnaya on Aleksandrovskaya Street (next to the St. John the Baptist Monastery). I have heard more than once from visitors that they come to Sviyazhsk precisely for excellent khachapuri (we ourselves are guilty of this matter). But you will understand everything yourself when you try. Perhaps the atmosphere and the good people made the place this way, but that doesn't matter! The shop is run by a Georgian family - spouses - who bake and serve themselves.

Having been there several times, I somehow missed the shop with delicious, according to the stories of my friend, bread! It is located in the Horse Yard, on the map there should be a mark "Prokhor's Bread". Firstly, bakery products are stored for a very long time and do not lose their taste (and this is not about chemical additives), and secondly, Prokhor (but this is not certain) offers and sells goods using sayings, and is very funny. Just like at fairs in old Russian fairy tales :) Thanks to my friend, I got a wonderful justified excuse to visit Sviyazhsk again.

• Where to stay in Kazan
• In addition to Sviyazhsk, find out what to see in Kazan too!

Reviews of tourists about Sviyazhsk

Sviyazhsk was not always cut off from the rest of the world - only after filling the Kuibyshev reservoir did it turn into an island.

I remember it at the beginning of my "tourist career", when the island was just a place of residence for ordinary people, mostly elderly people (most likely, most of the inhabitants born there never left the island, did not see any transport or other benefits of civilization). I remember old cozy houses, most of which did not even have electricity, unpaved streets, kilometers of sand, which today has been turned into a lukhari beach. In fact, the sand was brought in to strengthen the coastal zone and build the embankment.

The reconstruction of the island began in 2010. Gradually, the number of locals became less and less, they were relocated to "civilization", small wooden houses turned into bulky mansions. Glory to UNESCO, in 2017 she laid eyes on historical sites. Perhaps thanks to this, today the Island-city of Sviyazhsk has not turned into another haughty "dacha" place.

Many people advise to stay here for a few days. And even I, living on the banks of the Volga, would not have given up on such an undertaking (I don't even know what stopped me so far ...). A good room on Booking at the height of summer costs from 3000 rubles for two. These tips are more than justified, since it is very difficult to find such a pacifying atmosphere now! Well, the sunsets, of course, I have mentioned more than once ... And if you are not lazy, then the sunrises should be one of the most memorable in your life :)