Current Time in Kostroma, Russia

Kostroma stands on the left bank of the Volga in central European Russia, some three hundred kilometres north-east of Moscow, where the smaller Kostroma River joins the great waterway. It is one of the classic towns of the Golden Ring, the circle of ancient cities that preserve the architecture and atmosphere of old Russia. Forests of pine and birch surround the town, the winters are long and snowy, and in summer the Volga is busy with cruise ships that tie up beneath the riverfront churches.

About two hundred and seventy thousand people live here, in the capital of a largely rural and heavily forested region. Kostroma has been the centre of the Russian linen industry for centuries, and flax spinning and weaving mills still operate alongside timber processing, shipbuilding, machinery, jewellery manufacture and a growing tourist trade. The town is also known nationally for its cheese, produced on the surrounding dairy farms, and for the goldsmiths of the nearby village of Krasnoye-on-Volga.

Tradition dates the foundation of Kostroma to 1152 and attributes it to Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, who also founded Moscow. The town rose to national significance in 1613, when a delegation travelled to the Ipatiev Monastery to invite the young Mikhail Romanov, then sheltering there, to accept the Russian throne. That moment ended the Time of Troubles and began three centuries of Romanov rule, and Kostroma has been called the cradle of the dynasty ever since. The peasant Ivan Susanin, who according to legend led a Polish detachment astray in the forests to save the future tsar, is honoured with a monument in the main square. A great fire in 1773 led to the town being rebuilt on an elegant radial plan under Catherine the Great, which gives the centre its harmonious classical appearance.

The Ipatiev Monastery is the principal sight, a white-walled fortress beside the river containing the richly frescoed Trinity Cathedral and the chambers where the Romanovs stayed. Beside it stands an open-air museum of wooden architecture, with churches, windmills, peasant houses and bathhouses brought from villages across the region. In the centre, the fan-shaped Susaninskaya Square is surrounded by the long arcades of the merchant trading rows, a fire tower of 1827 admired by Tsar Nicholas I, and the former guardhouse. Museums of linen and birch bark, of cheese and of local art make enjoyable visits.

Kostroma claims the Snow Maiden of Russian folklore as its own, since the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky, whose estate lies nearby, set his famous version of her story in these forests. A residence dedicated to her entertains children throughout the year, and the region celebrates traditional crafts, festivals and river excursions.

Trains and buses run to Moscow, Yaroslavl and Ivanovo, and river cruises call in summer. Kostroma State University and an agricultural academy serve the region.

Kostroma is loved for its riverside setting, its imperial history and its atmosphere of unhurried old Russia.