IVANOVO

Distance – 300 km north-east of Moscow
Population – 450 000

Ivanovo is located on the banks of the Volga River. It  is a real Russian industrial city: grey residential buildings, dirty streets, polluted atmosphere, relics of the Soviet times kept intact. Perhaps, you will be happy just to go through this city, but it will be the most interesting stop along the Golden Ring if you want to get the taste of 'industrial' Russian province.
 The first settlement was founded in the 16th century. The peasants there engaged in woodcarving, preparing dye-stuff and weaving flax linen. Flax weaving was the key trade.
  In the middle of the 18th century Ivanovo became the center of the country's textile industry, the so-called "cotton empire".
Ivanovo cotton fabrics were in great demand not only all over Russia, but also abroad in Britain, Persia and other countries.

SIGHTS OF INTEREST
• Wonderful architectural monuments such as the wooden Assumption Church and Shudrov Tent - an example of industrial design - have been preserved to this day.
 
• Visitors can see the local Art Museum, featuring 18,000 exhibits including old Russian icons and Palekh  miniature paintings, as well as go to the memorial museum of artist Boris Prorokov.
 
• On out-of-town excursions one can get acquainted with the State Museum of Applied Arts or visit Palekh which is 65 km from Ivanovo.
 
• In Palekh, tourists will see the Church of Exaltation of the Cross, icon painting of the 14th - 19th centuries, the Memorial Museum of Ivan Golikov (the founder of modern Palekh lacquer painting) and exhibits at the Museum of Lacquer Miniatures.