page_title: Kostroma
section_title: Under the Romanovs
hierarchical_section_title: Kostroma / History / Under the Romanovs
caption_attribution_description: Кострома. Река Кострома. Автомобильный мост 3
context_page_description: Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma. Population: 268,742; 278,750; 278,414.
context_section_description: It is understandable why the Romanov Tsars regarded Kostroma as their special protectorate. The Ipatievsky monastery was visited by many of them, including Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar. The monastery had been founded in the early 14th century by a Tatar prince, ancestor of the Godunov family. The Romanovs had the Trinity Cathedral rebuilt in 1652; its frescoes and iconostasis are notable. A wooden house of Mikhail Romanov is still preserved in the monastery. There are also several old wooden structures transported to the monastery walls from distant districts of the Kostroma Oblast.
  Town status was granted to Kostroma in 1719.
  In 1773, Kostroma was devastated by a great fire. Afterwards the city was rebuilt with streets radiating from a single focal point near the river. They say that Catherine the Great dropped her fan on the city map, and told the architects to follow her design. One of the best preserved examples of the 18th century town planning, Kostroma retains some elegant structures in a "provincial neoclassical" style. These include a governor's palace, a fire tower, a rotunda on the Volga embankment, and an arcaded central market with a merchant church in the center.
caption: Kostroma River, 2011
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