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The administrative centre of the District, the settlement of Kholmogory, is situated on the Northern Dvina River, 75 km southeast of Arkhangelsk. It is known since the 14th century when a conglomeration of ‘posads’ (small villages) was first mentioned under a general name of Kholmogory. A legend says that once upon a time there used to be the main settlement of Chud Zavolotskaya Land, a Scandinavian trading colony where the Vikings stopped to trade peacefully with the locals.
From the moment Kholmogory was founded it became an important political and economical subordinate of the Great Novgorod serving as a strong point of the Novgorodians in Zavolochye area. Using its beneficial geographical position – at the crossroads of the trading routes from Novgorod to the Dvina mouth – the Novgorodians erected ‘posads’ (villages) and churches, a wooden fortress with towers on top the artificial hill, which has preserved its name of Gorodishche. They say the fortress was destroyed at the end of the 15th century, after the fall of the Novgorod Republic. In 1478 under at the time of Ivan III the Novgorod lands and the whole of the Dvina area were placed under the authority of Moscow.
In the 15th - 16th centuries Kholmogory developed into a large merchant port, an administrative, cultural and religious centre through which Russia used to support all the external economic links. A safe water way along the Northern Dvina which brought merchants to the White Sea gave an opportunity for Moscow State to establish political and economical relations with the Western Europe. Close to the port guest houses were built, merchants’ houses, stores, warehouses, monastery residences were concentrated. Here were also governmental institutions - in the vicinity of the Troitskaya (Trinity) Church there was a customs house, a hotel, shipbuilders and sailors also lived in the quarter. Here in 1553 the elected Dvina authorities accepted the British merchants who were granted tax-free trade and a right to built their own houses. This event had serious consequences for the whole of the Russian State and for the countries situated along the Northern water way, it became a stimulus for further development of Kholmogory.
As early as in 1557 Moscovy Trading Company in London established trade with Russia, and Kholmogory became the only Russian town through which foreign goods were brought to Russia. The town stretched along the banks of the Northern Dvina for 5 ‘verst’ (5.3 km) and consisted of five large trading ‘posads’ (villages). In 1557 Richard Grey, a British merchant, built special ropes manufacture in Kholmogory which actually was the first factory in Russia. Nearby the densely populated ‘Nemetskaya Sloboda’ (Foreigners’ Quarter), the first in Russia, appeared.
After Arkhangelsk was founded the leading role in the region was transferred to the new town, and Kholmogory fell into decay. In 1707 Kholmogory were given the status of a ‘posad’ (village), a subordinate of Arkhangelsk; in 1784 it was granted the status of an ‘uyezd’ town of the Arkhangelsk Region.
Kholmogory is known as a centre of a very special craft, the bone carving of Kholmogory. The traditions of the craft which appeared in the 17th century are still alive.
The history of Kholmogory is closely connected with Peter the Great, who visited the place three times. M.V.Lomonosov, a great Russian scientist and reformer, and Fedot Shubin, a famous sculptor, stepped from here into eternity. The Kholmogory Land gave birth to F.A. Popov, an explorer who first reached the Bering Channel in 1648, a poet Nikolai Rubtsov, a Soviet Union Hero P.I.Galushin.
Thanks to its geographical position and the rich history the Kholmogorsky District has a good perspective for developing pilgrimage, natural, cultural, educational, water tourism. The events to attract tourists are the traditional Lomonosov Readings in Kholmogory and Recitals devoted to Rubtsov’s poetry in Yemetsk. Annually thousands of pilgrims come to Antony of Siya Monastery to see the sacred place and to kiss the relics of the Reverend Antony of Siya.
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