Lebedyan

Lebedyan stands on both banks of the Don, 53 kilometres north-west of Lipetsk. It has been known since 1605 as the Lebedanskoye Gorishche hamlet, and in 1613 became a 'sovereign town' with a voivode. The name is explained by the swans (lebedi) on the Lebedyanka river — or as a borrowing through ancient chronicle forms. Its main pride is equestrian history: in the 19th century the fairs thundered here, Russia's first hippodrome opened in 1826, the Lebedyan Racing Society started, and in 1847 the Agricultural Society was founded. The Trinity Monastery of 1621 is a true monastery-fortress with three 17th-century churches; the Novo-Kazansky cathedral with its 60-metre bell tower rises over the Don. Lebedyan is the birthplace of the writer Yevgeny Zamyatin (his house-museum is on Sitnikova street; the town is easily recognised in his 'A Provincial Tale'; in 1926 Boris Kustodiev came here to work). A local legend is Tyapkina Gora with the robber Tyapka, and 'the world's shortest metro': a 200-metre tunnel dug by hand by a pensioner from 1989 to 2011.