Asafovy Islands: the story of one flooding

The Asafov Islands are the most charming place in the Ivanovo region. To search for beauty and new sensations, you should not leave for thousands of kilometers. There are these places, covered with a lot of legends transmitted from generation to generation, in the center of Russia, only five hours drive from Moscow, and have their own amazing history.

Yurievets: history of education

The town of Yurevets, one of the 115 most ancient cities in Russia, was founded in 1225 in the very bend of the Volga, on its right bank. That is how in ancient times cities were built: on steep river banks, a convenient place for a survey.

It was believed that the name of this place was received in honor of the Christian patron of St. George the Victorious - a symbol of military valor in Ancient Rus. The museums of the city tell a lot of interesting things; The time of their work from 10 to 18 hours, on Sundays - to 17. The weekend is Monday.

The legend of the bandit Asaph

Here lived Ermak Timofeevich - conqueror of Siberia, as well as filmmakers Row and Tarkovsky. This place, located at the intersection of the Great Highway in the North and the Volga River, was not accidentally chosen by Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, grandson of Yuri Dolgoruky: on the shore were low, up to a hundred meters high, mountains. They were quite steep, which was considered a significant advantage in case of an attack by an external enemy. But the quiet and quiet life was periodically broken: the Tatars plundered the city, the Poles burned it. And then a gang of bandits settled in the caves, the leader of which was Asaf. They hid in sandy hills, overgrown with age-old trees. The place was very eerie, surrounded by dense forests and swamps. Robbers were engaged in robbery of merchants, attacked wealthy monasteries; Most of the looted people shared with the poor population, for which they were in high esteem. The local authorities, tired of the bold antics of the bandits, decided to liquidate the gang, calling for execution of a whole regiment of soldiers. The cloister of the bandits was surrounded, the caves were searched, but the leader Asaph was not there. He and his friends left these territories and did not return here. The place where his parking was located was called the Asaph Mountains, later they turned into Asafov Islands. There is a version that here are buried treasures left by the gang Asaf.

Asafovy Islands, Yurievets: history of flooding

In the Asafov mountains, the mountains turned into the 50s of the last century during the construction of the Gorky reservoir, at the time of raising the water level in the Volga by three meters. At the bottom of the "Gorky Sea" were churches, monasteries, villages, the Annunciation Cathedral built in 1700, and the Asafov mountains, high enough, turned into the five Asaph islands, located three kilometers from Yuryevets. The largest is Asafov - and three are less located in the east, and the wooded island Obryvisty - in the south. Their total area is 65.4 hectares.

In memory of the disassembled and flooded temples on May 6, 2000, on the shallows in the middle of the Volga River, monks of the St. Nicholas-Shartom Monastery established a cross, and the Krivoyzersky monastery, flooded in number, was captured in Levitan's pictures "Quiet Cloister" and "Evening Bell".

Uniqueness of the Asaph islands

Asafovy Islands (photo is shown below) - a place created by nature, truly amazing and unique in its beauty, with sand dunes and micro-lakes, overgrown with stunted pines and birches.

Each tree is unlike the other and has a bizarre unique shape created by strong off-season winds. This place with white sand of islands creates a feeling of calm and silence. Gray herons, hiding in the reeds of island lakes, wildly ducking on the water wild ducks and fish, the abundance of which can envy the most fish places. Together with the natural inhabitants of the fauna, the streams of fishermen, hunters, tourists and simply tourists rushed to the islands with many sandy beaches. Indeed, sand dunes 4 km long and about 200 meters wide (3 meters in the narrowest place) are very reminiscent of the Riga seashore. A few dozen people can relax on small beaches, covered with pine forest from all sides; Large islands contain from one hundred to two hundred people.

Flora of Asaph islands

Asafov Islands are closely studied by Russian geographers and biologists. When studying the flora of this area, about two hundred vascular plants were found, including many rare species, which indicates a high floral diversity. Deren white and bearberry bear are included in the Red Book of the Ivanovo region. The number of such rare plants as lily of the valley, needle-shaped marsh, rice-type lees, juniper, fragrant tooth, is sharply reduced due to trampling by the guests of the islands.

Rest in the Ivanovo region is spontaneous in nature, uncontrolled, which causes a strong clogging of plots, cutting and damage to trees, numerous fireplaces. In addition to the human factor, these territories are also exposed to natural influence: strong winds and erosion of the coastline. Currently, the Asafov Islands are a specially protected area of the Yurievets district.