Alexandrov Kremlin — a Brother of the Moscow Kremlin

Moscow Prince Vasily III was the first to choose Alexandrov as a resting place in the early 16th century. The country palace and the Trinity Cathedral appeared here just during his reign. The Kremlin got a new function under Ivan the Terrible: it was used to sign agreements with other states and receive ambassadors. It was here from where the Tsar set out on a campaign to Veliky Novgorod, and on return he ordered to install the gate in the Kremlin, brought from the plundered Novgorod Cathedral Church of St. Sophia.

Nowadays, more than 20 exhibitions devoted to the history of the Sloboda and the town as a whole are arranged in the Trinity Cathedral, the Church of the Assumption (Uspenskaya Church) and the Church of the Intercession (Pokrovskaya Church), as well as in the Hospital and Cell chambers. The exhibition in the Church of the Intercession tells about the life in the Kremlin in the 16th century: the Dining Chamber, where ambassadors were received and lavish feasts were held, is reproduced here. The same church contains a gallery of portraits of Ivan the Terrible from different eras. The Kremlin has one of the best viewing platforms of the town — an open gallery of the Crucifixion Church.

Near the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda there is a Church of the Transfiguration which, like the Kremlin, appeared on the tsar’s will. The future Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (Elizabeth of Russia) lived in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda for 10 years. She was very fond of these places and in 1740-ies ordered to build a stone church near the sloboda, later consecrated in honor of the Transfiguration. The church was closed in the Soviet era, but the cross, topped with a crown, has survived. The temple started to be rebuilt as late as in 2010, and divine services have been resumed in it.