Travel Guide to Suzdal: 2020 Map and Tourist Information

Suzdal Main Attractions

Suzdal Walking Routes

There are several main attractions in Suzdal: the Kremlin, the Museum of Wooden Architecture, Trade Square and monasteries. Suzdal itself is a huge open-air museum. Its medieval architecture and wooden houses are perfectly written to natural landscape.

Picturesque Kamenka river flows around Suzdal main attractions. It is especially good in June when water lilies bloom.  

There are many walking routes in Suzdal. We made a simple map with a route from one attraction to another (see picture). We recommend starting from the Kremlin. Then you may visit the Museum of Wooden Architecture to see traditional life. After, follow the broad walk through the Il’insky meadow to visit monasteries. Don’t forget to take amazing photos at viewpoints.

There are 5 monasteries in the town that are located next to each other within walking distance. The Pokrovsky Monastery is known as the final resting place for women of aristocratic families.

The local churches stand out for their unusual architecture. The most beautiful in the city are the church of St. Antipius and the five-domed cathedral of St. Lazarus on Old Street.

Savior Transfiguration Cathedral has amazing frescoes of the 16th century and the paintings of the famous masters of the 17th century. Golden Gate inside the Christmas Church is famous for its art, too.

Trade Square or Suzdal Cloth Hall

Trade Square is the main square of the city. It’s near the Kremlin, just behind the ramparts. Many years ago, this is the center of the so-called “Posad”. This word meant a place where people lived, built houses and did their crafts. The place with bustling everyday life.

In the 18th century, people built there a church. The bell tower has a high spire rare for Suzdal. At first, the bell tower was low, but people made it higher.

Trading went in the colorful shopping galleries built in the 19th century. Today, you may see such galleries in many Russian cities.

In contrast to the old times, people sell souvenirs: towels with city views, handmade plates, and decorated jewelry boxes. And still one of the most common purchases is the Suzdal mead produced according to special old recipes. This is one of the city’s specialties.

Don‘t forget to look under your feet! There’s ancient pavement that is rare in modern Russia.

Suzdal Kremlin

The millennial white-stone Suzdal Kremlin is located in the most ancient part of the city. It was built in the 11th century to protect the city from enemies.

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin is the oldest building of the Suzdal Kremlin. People built it in the XIII century. Golden Gate inside the Christmas Church is considered as an apogee of Suzdal-Vladimir applied art.

In the 17th century, stone buildings of the Bishops’ Chambers were built nearby. They included residential and farm buildings.  Until the end of the 18th century, the Suzdal Kremlin served as the residence of the Vladimir-Suzdal bishops.

Today it is a museum complex, a monument of ancient Russian art and architecture.

Suzdal Kremlin Map

1. The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos (the late 11th century.)

2. Archbishop's Chambers and Museums

3. The Church

4. Chambers of the 17th century (restaurant, exhibition and souvenirs)

5. The bell tower

6. St Nicholas' Church

7. Kremlin Walls

8. Boat Trip starting point (about 1 hour)

9. Road to Museum of the Wooden Architecture

The Bishops' Chambers

The Bishops’ Chambers Bishops’ Chambers are located to the west of the cathedral. They were built as a residence for the church heads of Suzdal. This was the first stone building in the Kremlin. They also include a refectory, a bishop’s refectory church, and residential buildings with rooms for the household.

At the end of the 17th century, all the buildings of the Bishops’ Chambers were combined into a single complex.  It has the richly decorated galleries, secret passages, stairs, and halls. 

Earthen berm

On the north side of Suzdal, the Kamenka River protected the town. The Kremlin was surrounded by ramparts over a kilometer with gates, towers, and log walls. In the 15th century, fortifications were strengthened and filled up. In the 17th century, a chopped pine wall with 15 towers and gates was raised.

Suzdal earthen berm, an ancient monument of Russian defensive architecture, surround the Kremlin. It was built at the end of the 11th century and has not changed over the past centuries. According to researchers, it consists mainly of clay with a wooden frame. The height reaches almost 9 meters in some places.

All wooden fortifications were burned down in the 18th century. 

Museum of Wooden Architecture

Old wooden buildings, which survived in the vicinity of Suzdal, are gathered in the Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life. This complex of architectural monuments is located near the Kremlin under the open sky.

The museum exposition reproduces a small village with huts, churches, outbuildings, and windmills of the 17-19th centuries, which were brought here from different parts of the Vladimir region.

Two wooden churched built with no single nail rise over the museum village. You may go inside houses of a simple farmer, a wealthy peasant, and a merchant. The interiors of houses contain samovars and furniture, dishes and toys, wooden spinning wheels and weaving looms.

Monastery of Saint Euthymius

The Savior-Evfimiev Monastery is situated on a high bank of the Kamenka River. It was established in 1352 to protect Suzdal from enemies. The first wooden buildings burnt down during the 17th century. After the monastery was rebuilt and defensive towers were added.

By the end of the 17th century, the Monastery became one of the largest in Russia.  In 1766, a political prison was established in the monastery. In the 20th century, a political isolator was located here. During USSR times, more than 8,000 people passed the filtration camp. Until the 1960s, a labor camp for juvenile offenders was located on the territory of the monastery. Only in 1968, the Spaso-Evfimiev monastery became a museum.