Staraya Ryazan

Old Ryazan overlooks the Oka from a high right bank. Its earthworks enclose the site of the medieval capital of the Ryazan princes, once a substantial town on the southeastern edge of Rus'. Beyond the fortifications lay suburbs, churches and the lands of a principality exposed to both trade and attack from the steppe.

In December 1237 Batu Khan's army besieged and destroyed Ryazan. The city was not restored as the princely capital: Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, farther upstream, became the principal centre of the Ryazan lands and eventually inherited the name Ryazan. The ruined site nevertheless retained its identity, and later villages occupied parts of the old urban landscape. The scale of its surviving ramparts recalls the importance of the city that stood here before the Mongol invasion.