Soligalich is a city (since 1389) in the Kostroma
region, the administrative center of the Soligalichsky district. It
forms the municipality of the same name, the city of Soligalich with
the status of an urban settlement as the only settlement in its
composition.
Soligalich is located in the upper reaches of
the Kostroma River (the left tributary of the Volga), on the Galich
Upland (to the west of the Northern Uvals, confined to a tectonic
uplift - the Soligalichsko-Sukhonsky megaswell) 95 km north of the
Galich railway junction, 216 km northeast from Kostroma. Since the
beginning of the 1960s, there has been a station of the Monzen
railway in the city. Balneo-mud resort (since 1841). It is the
northernmost city of the Central Federal District.
Population
- 5912 people. (2021).
The main enterprise of modern
Soligalich is the Soligalich lime plant.
Soligalichsky
district is characterized as an ecologically clean region. This is
facilitated by 81% of the territory covered with forests, low
population density, and a low level of anthropogenic pressure on
natural ecosystems.
Soligalich took 4th place among 50 small
towns in Russia, especially popular with foreign and domestic
tourists, according to the rating published on June 19, 2014 by the
All-Russian travel portal Travel.ru.
The city was included in
the List of historical cities of Russia in 2002, it is not in the
new List of 2010. In November 2019, it was included in the list of
historical settlements of regional significance, approved by the
Kostroma Regional Duma.
Wooden trading rows, pl. Krasnaya. In the center of Soligalich is Red Square, and on it ... no, not the Spasskaya Tower, but the Exaltation of the Cross Church (1809–1816), mutilated by the Soviet authorities so much that it looks more like a recreation center, which was located here for a long time. Of much greater interest are the shopping arcades along the square. For the cities of the Kostroma region, this is not uncommon, but only in Soligalich the rows were built of wood, since they were financed by the city budget, which did not have enough money for stone construction. The mall consists of two buildings built in the 1830s. The eastern building was restored in 1990–97. with the replacement of the skin and the addition of the previously absent carved decor, which, however, does not look too defiant here. The western building is more authentic, but is not used for its intended purpose, but stands behind the fence in a dilapidated state, waiting for the correct scientific restoration, which still cannot begin.
The dense southern taiga forests of the northwestern
part of the modern Kostroma region in the upper reaches of the Kostroma
River, where Soligalich is now located, were inhabited by the
Finno-Ugric tribe Merya before the arrival of the Slavs (originally
Novgorod ushkuiniki).
The city has been mentioned in chronicles
since 1335 as Galichskaya Salt. “Salt” indicates the existence of salt
mines at this place, and “Galician (Galician)” indicates belonging to
the Galich principality with its capital in Galich, Mersky, to the
south. Although the salt industry, as well as the settlement itself,
arose earlier, it was mentioned in the spiritual letter by Ivan Kalita.
The local legend, described in the Chronicler of the Resurrection
Monastery, connects its emergence with the foundation of the
Resurrection Monastery, a holy place for which was found by Galich
Prince Fyodor Semenovich next to salt springs in the wilds of the forest
on the banks of the Kostroma River in accordance with the beautiful
Easter vision of a pillar of heavenly light, however no other
information is known about the existence of Prince Fyodor Semenovich of
Galich, therefore this information, just like the date of 1335, was
called into question by N. M. Karamzin.
In the middle of the XIV
century, as part of the Galich principality, it entered the possession
of the Moscow princes, in 1450 it was finally annexed to Moscow and
ended up on the eastern border of the Moscow principality. On this
occasion, the city was fortified - at the beginning of the 16th century,
a wooden fortress was built on an earthen rampart on the left bank of
the Kostroma. Its circumference reaches 405 meters, its height is about
8 meters. It was surrounded on three sides by a moat, which was a
special branch of the Kostroma River, flowing along the western side of
the rampart. On the shaft in the past there was a wooden wall, six
towers and two gates: Spassky and Dmitrovsky. Under the first there was
a disgraced prison under the tower, under the cathedral (the Assumption
Church inside the fortress) the church treasury was kept. Detinets
quickly came in handy - in 1532 the fortress withstood the siege of the
Kazan Tatars. According to legend, they failed to capture the settlement
because of a miraculous phenomenon. Behind the wooden fortress wall
there was a phenomenon of a monk rider in “fiery clothes”, galloping on
a white horse. The rider galloped among the enemy ranks of the Tatars,
sometimes suddenly appearing and returning to the battle tower of the
city of Soligalich. Frightened Tatars fled in fear of what they saw,
crushing their warriors in confusion. The victory came on the third day.
The townspeople recognized on the icon their holy heavenly intercessor
Macarius of Unzhensky from the Assumption wooden church inside the
settlement on the rampart. A miraculous sculpture of the 18th century by
Macarius of Unzhensky from the Church of the Assumption, which was
located inside the earthen rampart of the fortress, where after these
events a special chapel was built in the name of Macarius, has
miraculously survived until now. During the siege, the Soligalichans
boiled water and tar in thick-walled twenty-bucket cauldrons, one of
which is still kept in the storerooms of the local museum of local lore.
It was made by local craftsmen who, in peacetime, riveted huge pans for
evaporating salt. Even iron was smelted from local swamp ore. It is said
that this boiler almost did not rust for almost five hundred years, and
all because it was made of very pure iron without impurities of sulfur,
phosphorus and carbon. Just like the famous iron column from Delhi,
which has not rusted for more than one and a half thousand years.
Soligalich was also repeatedly attacked by the Cheremis, and in the Time
of Troubles by the Polish-Lithuanian invaders. However, the city itself
continued to develop on the right bank of the river, connected to the
fortress by a bridge.
Like many other cities of the Russian state
that have survived to this day, Soligalich successfully ended up on an
important river trade route - from the Volga up the Kostroma and Sukhona
to Totma (also an ancient center of salt production), then through the
Northern Dvina to the only Russian seaport at that time Arkhangelsk. In
combination with the salt industry developed in the city, one of the
most famous and profitable, this meant enormous wealth.
The 17th
century was an era of prosperity for the city, whose prosperity was salt
and lime.
In 1609, a voivodeship was established in Soligalich,
since 1708 - as part of the Arkhangelsk province, since 1778 - a county
town of the Kostroma province. The city received a coat of arms
depicting the Kostroma coat of arms in the upper field, in the lower
field - three piles of salt on a golden field, which means that in these
places there have long been salt pans.