Uglich

Uglich stands on a bend of the Volga, its name recalling the river's corner. Recorded in 1148 as Ugliche Pole, it became the seat of a small principality before passing into Moscow's hands in the fourteenth century. Its frontier position exposed it to attacks by Lithuanians, Tatars and the princes of Tver. In 1462 Ivan III granted Uglich to his brother Andrey the Great, under whom the town expanded and acquired its first stone buildings, including a cathedral and a brick princely palace completed in 1481.

After Ivan the Terrible's death, his young son Dmitry was sent to Uglich. In 1591 the boy was found dead with his throat cut in the palace courtyard. An official inquiry concluded that his death was accidental, but suspicion fell on the tsar's adviser Boris Godunov. The bell that announced the death had its tongue removed and was sent to Siberia. During the ensuing Time of Troubles, claimants professing to be the surviving Dmitry gathered supporters, while invading forces devastated Uglich and its monasteries. In 1690 the Church of Dmitry on the Blood was built at the place associated with his death, making the tragic episode a lasting part of the town's sacred landscape.