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Toropets

Toropets is an old district town located on the shore of the beautiful Solomeno Lake. Tourists usually come here for one or two days to enjoy the silence and measured pace of life of the city and to get acquainted with the charming architecture of Toropets. Today, unfortunately, few people know that it was in Toropets that Alexander Nevsky was married and Patriarch Tikhon spent his childhood.

Toropets is located on the shores of two lakes at once - Solomeno and Zalikovskoe, which are connected to each other, while dividing the city, by the Toropa River. Zalikovskoe Lake is a favorite place for recreation and swimming in the summer for city residents. But on Lake Solomeno you can see the unique remains of ancient fortress fortifications from the 11th century - the Small High Settlement. To this day, only embankments have survived here, from which a very picturesque view of the city opens up.

The city is located in the west of the Valdai Hills, 263 kilometers west of Tver. It is located on the Torop River (formerly called Toropitsa), which flows through the city through the Solomennoye and Zalikovskoye lakes. According to the reference book "Geographical names of the Toropetsky District" edited by V. M. Vorobyov, it was the river that gave the name to the settlement. In turn, the origin of this hydronym is associated with the Old Russian word "torop" - "haste" due to the high speed of the river at the rapids before flowing into the Western Dvina.

The historical center of Toropets is located on Krasny Val Island. The favorite landmark of the townspeople here is the monument to the teacher (they say it is the only one in all of Russia), which stands, not surprisingly, opposite the school. It is also worth visiting two cathedrals here - the Korsunsko-Bogoroditsky Church of the 18th century and the Epiphany Church. The latter was built in 1771, and is no longer in operation: within its walls is a local history museum.

Toropets is one of the oldest cities in Russia, included in the list of historical settlements of the country, approved by the Ministry of Culture of Russia. The first mentions of Toropets date back to 1074, when it was the capital of the Toropets Principality and a large trading city near the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks". Since the 13th century, it has developed as a merchant center, most of the ancient buildings and rich architecture of the city have been preserved.

Alexander Nevsky was born on May 13, 1221 (presumably) in the city of Pereyaslavl (now Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl region). His father was the Prince of Pereyaslavl (later the Grand Prince of Kiev and Vladimir) Yaroslav Vsevolodovich (in baptism - Fyodor), his mother was Princess Rostislava (in baptism Feodosia), the daughter of the Prince of Toropetsk Mstislav Mstislavich the Bold. In 1245, Prince Alexander recaptured Toropets (now a city in the Tver region) from Lithuania.

According to legend, in the 13th century, the wife of Alexander Nevsky brought the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God, which was painted by the Evangelist Luke, to Toropets. She left it here as a keepsake of her wedding. In honor of the icon, the first stone cathedral of the city was built in the 17th century, later destroyed by a terrible fire. This was the center of the once independent Toropetsky principality, through which ran the famous route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", connecting Northern Europe with the Mediterranean. The city is included in the list of historical settlements of Russia, approved in July 2010. There are more than 40 historical settlements of federal significance in Russia. Three of them are located in the Tver region. These are the cities of Torzhok, Toropets and Ostashkov. This status, on the one hand, helps regulate urban development activities, which will be carried out taking into account historical development. On the other hand, it is an opportunity to attract financial resources, including banking ones, for the development of the territory, as well as additional interest from the tourism sector.

The Russian Museum (St. Petersburg) will seek to return to its collections the Toropets Icon, which was temporarily transferred to a church in the Moscow region in 2009 and has not yet been returned to the museum, Russian Museum Director Vladimir Gusev said at a press conference on 17 October202. "We insist that the Toropetsk icon be returned to the Russian Museum," said Gusev, emphasizing that "it has not left the museum's collection." The museum director recalled that the decision to temporarily transfer the icon to the Alexander Nevsky Church, recently built with funds from parishioners in the rural settlement of Pavlovo-Slobodskoye in the Istrinsky District of the Moscow Region, was made in 2009 after the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill appealed to the Ministry of Culture with a corresponding request. But initially, according to him, the idea was to provide the exhibit for a year with a guarantee of its return in December 2010.

At the same time, the statement mentions the possibility of "considering the issue of transferring the icon for long-term storage to the Korsun-Bogoroditsky Cathedral in the city of Toropets, from which it was removed in 1921." The icon of the Virgin Mary Hodegetria comes from the Virgin Mary Monastery in Polotsk (now Vitebsk Region of Belarus). From there, in the 16th-17th centuries, it was moved to the city of Toropets (now Tver Region), where it was kept in the Korsun-Mother of God Cathedral, and after 1921, in the local history museum. In 1937, the icon was transferred to the Russian Museum for permanent storage due to the emergency condition of the work and the need for restoration work.

In honor of NASA's 55th anniversary, an exhibition opened 31 July 2013 at the Tver State Museum branch in Toropets, revealing the secrets of the lives of two scientists widely known in the world of cosmonautics. One of them is a native of Toropets, who made a career in the USA after the war - Paul Lawrence. The other is the creator of the legendary Soviet shuttle "Buran" Yuri Semenov. Scientist and researcher Paul Lawrence is one of the developers of the Shuttle. Before World War II, he lived in Toropets and was named Sevir Bogdanov. Sevir and his mother were taken away by the Germans to work in Germany, where the woman died. At the end of the war, Bogdanov went to the US. He called himself Paul Lawrence. From 1959, he worked at NASA. Yuri Semenov left a noticeable mark on the development of world cosmonautics. He was the designer of the space shuttle "Buran", an outstanding Soviet and Russian scientist - the successor of Sergei Korolev. As children, Yura and Sevir lived at the same time in Toropets.

The plan of cultural events to celebrate the 950th anniversary of the first chronicle mention of Toropets in the Tver Region includes more than 70 festivals, concerts, exhibitions and competitions. This was reported to TASS 15 March 2024 by the office of Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of Staff of the Government Dmitry Grigorenko, who heads the organizing committee for the preparation and celebration of the 950th anniversary.

"A program of key events to celebrate the 950th anniversary of the first chronicle mention of Toropets has been prepared and approved. It includes 75 events that will take place by the end of 2024 not only in the Tver Region, but also in Moscow and St. Petersburg. These include presentations of the city's tourism potential at the international exhibitions "Russia" and MITT, holding the "Days of the Tver Region" event in Zaryadye Park, and interregional sailing competitions," the deputy prime minister's office

Special attention in the program is given to events connected with the 185th anniversary of Modest Mussorgsky - the composer was born in 1839 in Toropetsky district. In March, a concert dedicated to Mussorgsky's 185th anniversary would be held at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky, and in May - June - the exhibition "Mussorgsky's Russia. History, Fates, Myths" would be held at the Russian National Museum of Music.