What is the German city of Hameln famous for? What is the ancient Greek city of Troy famous for and what did it become famous for? Important milestones in the history of Yaroslavia
The city of Mozdok in North Ossetia appeared on the map of the Russian Empire in the 60s of the eighteenth century. IN famous dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efrona Mozdok is mentioned as a provincial town in the Terek region. Here, on the banks of the Terek, in a tract whose name is translated from Kabardian as a dense forest, a Russian settlement was founded by order of Catherine II. Today, the multinational population of Mozdok is just over forty thousand people, and each of its residents is proud of the glorious past of the city and its famous natives.
What made the city of Mozdok famous in Russian history?
The history of Mozdok, although only two and a half centuries old, is very interesting. Appearing as a fortress designed to become one of the southern Russian outposts, this city in a short time became the cultural and economic center of the North Caucasus. The famous Georgian Military Road once began here, known to every schoolchild thanks to the study of creativity and life path A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontov, A.S. Griboedova. Emelyan Pugachev once sat in the local guardhouse, having fled from here to the Yaik steppes and proclaimed himself the Tsar-Father. And the artisan brothers Dubinin glorified their hometown by inventing a method for distilling oil and building a kerosene plant. This production did not last long, but the merit of the brothers is undoubted. In Europe at that time they did not yet know how to distill kerosene from black gold.
The second half of the nineteenth century was marked by the loss of city status for Mozdok; until 1925 it was considered a settlement. The reason was construction railway through Beslan: all the roads passing through Mozdok lost their strategic importance. However, after the revolution, the city's industrial production was restored.
To the Great Patriotic War the city is captured by the Nazis. The occupation lasted only four months, and the damage was enormous. But the Nazis failed to advance further than Mozdok and carry out their plans to capture Maykop and Grozny; this area became for them a “valley of death.”
What made Mozdok famous in 2015? For the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory in the city for the first time in last years A military parade took place, and about three hundred city residents took part in the “Immortal Regiment” action.
Sights of Mozdok: what travelers should see
In the Republic of North Ossetia, Mozdok is considered the largest of the small towns. Numerous monuments of the city perpetuate both famous guests and glorious citizens. There is, for example, a bust of Yu.V. Andropov, installed in the courtyard of the school where the future General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee studied. And the city’s Pushkin Square, naturally, is decorated with a bust of the great Russian poet.
There are other monuments in the city, among them:
monument to the Dubinin brothers;
monument to Emelyan Pugachev;
monument to Kosta Khetagurov;
Lenin monument;
monument to Sergei Kirov;
a monument to St. George the Victorious, considered the patron saint of Ossetians.
But still, the most grandiose structure among the city’s attractions was the obelisk erected near the station on Victory Square to the heroes-compatriots who died during the war years. Three pylons symbolizing bayonets, connected by a ring decorated with relief portraits of warriors, rise next to the eternal flame in a seated scarlet roses square. This is not the only military monument in the city: in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the Victory, the Airplane monument was erected in the park. And in the park on the corner of Kirova and Rostovskaya streets, tourists are surprised by another unusual memorial. The composition dedicated to the Afghan soldiers is installed next to marble slabs on which names are carved fallen heroes. The monument represents a human hand: people approaching the palm from one side see a grenade lying on it, but as soon as you walk around the composition, the observer will see a human heart, a piercing symbol of the sacrifice of internationalist soldiers.
Another attraction of Mozdok is the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The Mozdok Icon of the Virgin Mary is kept here, a copy of the shrine that protects the entire Caucasus, according to legend, donated to the Ossetian people by the Georgian Queen Tamara. Previously, the church belonged to the Armenian community, and in its courtyard there is a sign in memory of the victims of the genocide.
The only museum in Mozdok is a local history museum. More than 17,000 exhibits are collected here, revealing to visitors the secrets of the history, nature and culture of their native land. And the most unusual of Mozdok’s monuments is rightfully considered a giant oak tree, the same age as the city, fenced with forged chains. Next to the mighty trunk there is a marble slab with verses carved on it, calling the tree the chronicler of Mozdok.
The ancient city of Kaunos is located on the territory of modern Turkey, a few kilometers from the city of Dalyan and is most famous among tourists due to rock burials dating back to the 4th century BC.
The first mentions of Kaunos date back to the 3rd millennium BC. e. The ancient city was founded by the son of Miletos Kaunos, who was expelled from his father's house because of a forbidden relationship with his sister. During its existence, the city was ruled by the most different peoples. Kaunos belonged to the Persians, Carians, Ionians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines.
During its heyday, Kaunos was a major port town. However, over time, the bay became very shallow due to silt deposits, and ships could no longer enter the city’s port. All this had a negative impact on trade. Many townspeople are left without work and in search of better life decided to leave the ancient city. Over time, Kaunos became empty and fell into disrepair...
The most famous structure of the ancient city are rock burials, which first appeared in the 4th century BC, and were used for their intended purpose even during the reign of the Romans.
Not everyone will be able to examine all the tombs, since it is very difficult to approach some of them, since they are located at a high altitude. However, if you want to explore the tombs thoroughly, you can use the rope ladder. The bodies of the people buried here have decayed many years ago, and only two lion heads, which look at each other from the Carian tombs, keep the memory of long-vanished civilizations...
There are two types of burials here: for commoners and for nobles. The first type of burial consists of a bed of three stones on which the body was laid. The facade of such a grave was decorated with Ionian columns and a pediment.
Burials for the nobility differ little from the outside from the graves of commoners, but from the interior decoration one can easily guess which person was once buried here. In many ways, this “disguise” was created specifically to protect graves from looting. However, this did not bother the looters and robbers at all...
In February 2016, we asked the magazine's readers to tell us in two or three sentences about the city in which they live and what it is famous for. What are the main ones famous for? Russian cities— Moscow and St. Petersburg are known to almost everyone today, but with the rest of the cities (there are ~1,100 cities in Russia) things are not so optimistic. Unfortunately, only 4 people responded to our appeal. There was no mass revelation or engaging dialogue. Nevertheless, our collection of “stories about cities” continues to grow and we will continue to post everything that we “collect” in encyclopedias, on forums, in comments in this section. Let's start our educational excursion with Tula, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg and Volgograd. So, what are these Russian cities famous for?
Tula
Shares knowledge: Cometa
For Halloween, the dinosaur standing at the entrance to the Tula Exotarium was dressed in a witch costume
"Hero City will replace gingerbread, samovars and weapons. And we also have Yasnaya Polyana nearby! Here's something else I remembered - Tula Exotarium!!! Here, children are born to all sorts of exotic snakes, which sometimes does not happen in any country in the world (in artificial conditions)!!! This is especially surprising knowing what tiny rooms they live in! And next to dinosaur monument, but people always call it “the monument to the mother-in-law.” :) On New Year They put a red hat on him.”
From the editor: The famous Tula “dinosaur-mother-in-law” is dressed up not only for the New Year, but also on September 1, March 8, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, City Day, and they even tried on a kimono for the arrival of President Putin.
By the way, the first weapons factory, which was built specifically for the war with Sweden, was opened during the reign of Peter I in Tula. Subsequently, Tula became the most weapons-rich city in Russia.
Samovar factories at the beginning of the 20th century there were about 50 in Tula. At this time, the saying “You don’t go to Tula with your own samovar” arose. Naturally, there is a samovar museum in Tula.
A curious fact about Tula gingerbread: A unique Tula gingerbread was considered to be one whose baking form was cut out and left to infuse for 10-20 years. It was then that gingerbread could be baked in it, but only once. The second gingerbread baked in the same form was no longer considered unique. One of these unique gingerbread cookies was baked for the coronation of Nicholas II. The profile of the king himself was depicted on the gingerbread itself. By the way, the heaviest Tula gingerbread weighed 1 pood (16 kg), and the smallest baked one weighed only 50 grams.
Among other things, Tula is considered to be the birthplace of the Russian accordion. The funniest thing is that they started producing harmonics Tula gunsmiths at samovar factories (!) Tula was the main supplier of harmonicas for the entire Russian Empire. The sound capabilities of accordions imported from abroad did not satisfy Russian musicians, and by that time one of the artistic and stylistic features of Tula accordions had already emerged - their unique chamber sound.
Voronezh
The city is considered the birthplace of airborne assault, as well as navy Russia. It was first built in Voronezh admiralty. It was here in the 18th century that the first Russian fleet. For his perseverance, courage and heroism during the years of struggle for independence and freedom of the Fatherland, in February 2008, he was awarded the proud title "City of Military Glory".
Voronezh is famous all over the world for its black soils. Chernozem soils are among the most fertile in the world and occupy about 75% of the territory. Voronezh region. Of the 49 million hectares of chernozems in Russia, 3 million hectares are located in the Voronezh region. An interesting fact: at the famous fourth World Exhibition in Paris (1899), which lasted for six months, the “Russian department” looked so respectable that out of 818 participants, 662 awards were awarded to Russia. The most “unusual” award was a gold medal to the Russian “soil scientist” Dokuchaev and his black soil.
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General view of the Champ de Mars, 1889
Russian restaurant at the 1889 exhibition
Russian Pavilion, 1889
Russian Pavilion, 1889
Main gallery Russian department, 1889
Here’s what the press wrote: “Among the huge Russian samovars, pound candles, piles of Siberian furs and barrels of caviar at the pavilion of the Russian Empire, on a high pedestal stood a huge cubic monolith of black soil, each face of which was two meters. Thus, in that “cube” there was not one, but eight cubic meters of first-class, anthracite-black chernozem. They took this monolith not far from Voronezh, in the current Paninsky district.
After the exhibition closed, the National Museum, the University of the Sorbonne, various institutes and scientific societies France was asked to cut the monolith of Russian black soil into pieces and distribute it as visual evidence of the immense soil wealth of Russia and all of humanity. But they still decided to preserve the miracle monolith in its entirety; by lot it went to the Sorbonne and was kept there for many years.”
In 1968, major student unrest occurred at the Sorbonne and during battles between youth and the police, the monolith was completely destroyed. French soil scientists preserved only fragments of that monolith. The largest of them is 60 cm in length, 40 in width and 25-30 in height. The remains of the sample are now stored in the attic of the National Agronomic Institute.
And the city also has its own sea— “Voronezh” is a local reservoir. The length of the reservoir is about 30 kilometers, the width is about 2 km, the average depth is about 2.9 meters. The reservoir on the Voronezh River was built in 1972, and became the first man-made reservoir of such a scale within the city in the history of the USSR. The “sea” was intended for the industrial water supply of Voronezh.
And also Voronezh - Homeland of the Oryol trotter. The Oryol trotter is a famous Russian breed of horse with a hereditary ability for a fast trot (trot is the gait of a horse in which it alternately rearranges pairs of legs located diagonally).
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Great Oryol trotter "Krepysh"
One of the victories of "Krepysh"
Oryol trotter "Bedouin"
Trotter "Bull"
Trotter "Balagur" with a lady
Oryol trotter
Trotter "Crown Prince"
Oryol trotter "Kochet"
Trotter "Huge"
Count Orlov
The Oryol Trotter breed was bred at the end of the 18th century. early XIX century at the Khrenovsky stud farm, which still exists today and is located in the village of Khrenovoe, Bobrovsky district, Voronezh region. The breed of trotting horses was named Orlovskaya in honor of the favorite of Catherine II - Count Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky, who worked on creating a new breed until his death - from 1775 to 1808. His co-author in this matter is deservedly considered the serf Vasily Ivanovich Shishkin, who after the death of Alexei Grigorievich successfully completed the work he started. It is thanks to V.I. Shishkin, the Oryol trotter spread to stud farms and became the main Russian factory breed.
Portrait of Alexander I on horseback (artist Franz Kruger, from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg). A funny incident: There were legends about the Oryol trotters; crowds of people gathered to watch them run. Once, in 1812, Alexander I visited the Khrenovskaya stud farm. When the emperor stepped onto the threshold of the stable, 500 horses, as if welcoming him, reared up and neighed deafeningly. The secret was that a few weeks before the arrival of the Tsar, Shishkin, who managed the factory, ordered the grooms to open the shutters on the windows when distributing oats to the horses, thus creating conditioned reflex. As soon as the emperor entered the stable, the shutters were thrown open... Alexander was very pleased with this reception, gave Shishkin a diamond ring and asked Anna Orlova, the count’s daughter and heir, to give Vasily Ivanovich his freedom.
Orlova complied with this request of the tsar, but refused to violate the ban established by her father - not to release a single uncastrated stallion from the stud. When Alexander I wanted to get “Khrenov’s” stallions for riding, he was given geldings...
Ekaterinburg
Natalia Balbutskaya: « The city is famous for the “Musical Comedy Theatre”, a dozen of the strongest Universities, the railway, museums, theaters (24), literate people, just normal HUGE Ural city, the capital of the Southern Urals."
A forum member with the funny nickname “Rain’s Wife” shared more extensive information: “Ekaterinburg is the stronghold of the state. It is famous for being located on the Europe-Asia border; execution of the family last emperor Nicholas II; the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, lived and studied here; KVN team “Ural dumplings”; humorous artist from “Our Russia” Sergei Svetlakov; S/C Greenwich, where Gena Bukin from “Happy Together” works; there are many Olympic and world champions, for example Sergei Chepikov, etc.”
S. Chepikov, Soviet and Russian biathlete and skier, two-time Olympic champion and two-time world champion in biathlon. First ever new Russia winner of the Biathlon World Cup. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. The information and tourism service of Yekaterinburg pleased with the following facts:
The world's oldest wooden sculpture, the Great Shigir Idol, is kept in Yekaterinburg. It is older than the Egyptian pyramids, its age is 9,500 years. Radiocarbon dating of fragments of the idol found in the vicinity of the city gave a sensational result: it was made with stone tools during the Mesolithic era in the 8th millennium BC.
The one-of-a-kind Kasli cast-iron pavilion, created by Ural craftsmen and which won the Grand Prix and gold medal World's Fair in Paris in 1900. Each of the 25 Ural workers who assembled the pavilion at the exhibition received a personalized silver watch in Paris as a reward for their art. The pavilion is made up of more than 1,500 unique cast iron parts and sculptural compositions and weighs about 20 tons. In 1978, the pavilion was registered by UNESCO as a rarity - the only architectural structure in the world made of cast iron that is in a museum collection.
The products of Yekaterinburg metallurgical plants were used to create the most famous architectural structures and structures around the world. It is known that the first industrial machines in England were made from Ural iron. In 1820, the roof of the English Parliament building in London was made of roofing iron produced in Yekaterinburg. Ural steel was used in the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and Ural copper was used in the construction of the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Yekaterinburg is the first city in Russia in which ore gold was found and began to be mined. From 1745 to 1922, 559 tons of alluvial and 145 tons of native gold were mined - about a third of Russia's total balance. But the significance of this Ural metal can hardly be overestimated: it was the first Russian gold. Here, the technology for searching for primary and alluvial deposits, technologies for processing ores from gold-containing sands were developed, and machines for gold extraction were designed. In short, the historical, geological, and technological significance of Ural gold is unusually great.
In the 18th century, the Yekaterinburg Mint was one of the main mints in the country, producing up to 80% of the copper coins in the Russian Empire. For almost two centuries, the entire population of a huge country paid for purchases daily in Ural nickels.
The first bicycle, an analogue of modern models, was invented in Yekaterinburg. Peasant Efim Artamonov built a model not much different from modern ones, and in 1801 he arrived on it for the coronation of Emperor Alexander I in St. Petersburg. A similar two-wheeled “running machine” with pedals appeared in Europe only in 1839.
The world's first jet aircraft BI-2 was tested in Yekaterinburg. On May 15, 1942, BI-2, under the control of test pilot Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi, took off for the first time using a rocket engine. The flight lasted 3 minutes 9 seconds at an altitude of 840 meters.
Yekaterinburg, like the entire Urals, is directly related to the opening space age humanity. It was in Yekaterinburg that a transmitter was invented that made it possible to receive signals from a satellite to Earth.
The world's most famous walking excavator, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, was produced in Yekaterinburg. The boom length of the giant model ESh 100.100, manufactured at the famous Uralmash plant in 1980, is 100 meters. One bucket of such an excavator loads two railway cars at a time.
Volgograd
Revived from the ashes, the hero city of Volgograd (formerly Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad) is primarily known to the whole world memorial complex"Mamaev Kurgan" and the statue of the "Motherland" erected in memory of one of the most terrible battles in the Second World War. Mamayev Kurgan is the highest point in the central part of Volgograd. Its military name is "Height 102"
Battle of Stalingrad- is the largest land battle in human history. For 140 days and nights, the troops of the 62nd Army under the command of V.I. Chuikov stood to the death on the slopes of Mamayev Kurgan, which occupied a key position in the battles for Stalingrad. Therefore, whoever owned the mound at that time also owned the city. That is why, holding this height in your hands was a matter of life or death. In total, the Battle of Stalingrad lasted exactly 200 days and nights!
The fierce nature of the battles for this height is confirmed by the fact that immediately after the battle on each square meter the lands of Mamayev Kurgan found from 500 to 1250 fragments from shells. In the spring of 1943, not even the grass was green here. According to official data, casualties Soviet army exceed 1,130,000 people.
The tallest monument to Lenin in the world - The stone giant is located in the Krasnoarmeysky district, on the Volga embankment. The height of the monument together with the pedestal is 57 meters, and the Lenin sculpture is 27 meters.
Volgograd is famous for its embankment! Embankment named after the 62nd Army named after the army that defended it in Battle of Stalingrad. Its length is 3.5 km. One of the most popular vacation spots for Volgograd residents and city guests. For many tourists and vacationers, their acquaintance with Volgograd begins from the central embankment.
The most noticeable building on the embankment is Volgograd River Station. This is the largest structure of this type in Europe: the length of the building is almost equal to the length of Red Square in Moscow and is 296 m, the width is 36 m, and the height at the top is 47 m. The river station building was built on reclaimed territory. 6 ships can moor at the station at the same time.
Ancient German cities are similar to each other and enchant at first sight - their well-kept half-timbered houses evoke thoughts of the scenery for the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Not all of them have survived to this day: bombing during World War II destroyed many of them. Nevertheless, Lower Saxon Hameln has completely retained its charm - its historical center was practically undamaged, although neighboring Hanover was literally wiped off the face of the earth.
It is impossible to talk about Hamelin without its history; it is so amazing that it is inseparable from the city itself.
Each of us in childhood heard a chilling story about the Pied Piper, who, with the help of a pipe, took all the children away from the city. This legend exists in different variations in the folklore of many peoples. But only for the German city of Hamelin this is not a legend, but historical fact, about which not only the year, but also the month and day when it happened are precisely known.
It’s worth starting with the location of the city: it stands on the rapids of the Weser River. It was here that many centuries ago the first water mills were built, which became the basis of the city’s prosperity. Peasants from surrounding estates brought grain for grinding; Since the 13th century, Hameln has become richest city. There are still houses preserved, on the facades of which there are inscriptions in Old German about the year of construction - some of them date back to the 14th–15th centuries! However, today their first floors are given over to McDonald's and clothing stores.
So, the classic version of the legend that made Hameln famous is this: the city, which concentrated large reserves of grain, was attacked by rats. The authorities did not know how to deal with this - even cats were afraid of aggressive rodents. Once a man came to the city who introduced himself as the Pied Piper and offered to lime the rats for a substantial fee. The mayor agreed, the rat catcher played the pipe, took all the rats outside the city and drowned them in the river. But the cunning city fathers decided not to pay him. The rat catcher left empty-handed.
But on June 26, 1284, he returned again - in different, bright and unusual clothes. He played the pipe again, and this time he took away all the children, except for two cripples - a mute and a lame one. And the adults froze and could not move until the Pied Piper crossed the bridge to the other side of the river and disappeared with the children on Mount Clute (which still towers over the city and offers beautiful views of the surrounding area). Surprisingly, another legend says that around the same time, a group of children appeared in Transylvania (now Romania) who spoke German and did not remember who they were or where they came from.
Scientists have found an explanation for this strange legend in the tradition of children's crusades, which were popular precisely in the 13th century. These spontaneous gatherings of children first arose in France and then spread to Germany. Children's crusades were not approved by the church: most of the children died during the journey, and the campaigns themselves, as a rule, were initiated by scammers who then sold the children into slavery - in particular, they made them chimney sweeps (only children could crawl into the chimney). Apparently, the echoes of these events resulted in the legend about the Pied Piper.
Be that as it may, today in Hameln everything reminds of this history: the official name of the city is Rattenfängerstadt Hameln (City of the Pied Piper). Mechanical figures on the facade of the Hochzeitshaus (a building on the central square, built in 1671) play out this dramatic scene several times a day, accompanied by a melody that will give you goosebumps. On the main street of the city there is a beautiful bronze monument to the Pied Piper. All key buildings are named after the Pied Piper - the modern music hall Rattenfängerhalle, or the medieval Rattenfängerhaus, where a beam was found during renovation with an inscription about the legend with the exact indication of the missing - 130 children. The paving stones are decorated with images of rats cast in bronze, and the bridge over the river is decorated with a beautiful golden sculpture of a rodent. Every year in June there is a big festival with a performance: Hamelin schoolchildren consider it an honor to take part in it, playing first children and then rats.
Just like carts from the surrounding villages used to be, today buses with tourists eager to touch the legend regularly arrive in Hamelin, and their money flows into the city. The rat catcher not only took away the rats, but also provided the city with an invaluable service for centuries to come. Even Michael Jackson at one time gave a concert not in large neighboring cities, but precisely in Hameln, with a population of 40,000 (at that time): it turns out that his mother told him this story as a child, and he really wanted to see the legendary city with his own eyes.
Interesting fact: it turns out that it was in Hameln that there was a pharmacy, which until 1841 belonged to the inventor of morphine, Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner (who went crazy and died at the age of 58, most likely from abusing his own invention). The pharmacy was located in the Hochzeitshaus - exactly in the building where the mesmerizing puppet show is now taking place. The symbol of the inexorable pull that the Pied Piper's pipe has become echoes the strength of addiction to the first alkaloid isolated by chemical means.
