Danilov

Danilov was first mentioned in 1457 ('the Danilov wastelands' in a charter of Vasili II); in 1592 the Danilovskaya sloboda appears, and town status came in 1777. Local legend says the townsfolk presented Peter the Great with silver chess pieces — in memory of that, the 1778 coat of arms bears a chess field. Surviving are the Ascension church, the St Nicholas church, the Alexander Nevsky church, the chapel of the Smolensk icon, merchant Vorokhobin's house and the late-19th-century fire depot complex. Lost are the 1713 Smolensk cathedral (dismantled in the 1940s) and the Resurrection cathedral (now a House of Culture). On Gorushka stands the 1918 Kazan monastery with a recreation area. Danilov is a major railway hub of the Northern railway (lines to Yaroslavl, Buy, Vologda): the town fits conveniently into a route between Lyubim, Poshekhonye and Vyatskoye.