From Moscow's Profsoyuznaya Street, bypassing the Moscow Ring Road, the famous Ekaterininsky tract begins, in other words, the Old Kaluga Road, and a little to the side - the Moscow-Belarus federal highway (A101). Throughout its course - history itself, such cities as Roslavl, Yukhnov, Kaluga, Medyn, Maloyaroslavets, Obninsk, Balabanovo, Troitsk, as well as many small settlements, no less glorious and even more rooted in ancient centuries.
Start
Catherine's tract existed from the end of the fourteenth century, but was known as the Old Kaluga Road, since Catherine's reign would come much later. On it, Muscovites traveled to Kaluga, and Kaluga residents to Moscow. The dangerous road was at that time, not protected by anything. It was the Ekaterininsky tract that led to Moscow various invaders from the south and west, all the most devastating raids were made fromthis side.
Finally, in the 1370s, a new defensive line arose on the approaches to the capital, which could reliably block this direction, the city of Kaluga. And then the Ekaterininsky tract blossomed, like a river with lilies, small villages along both of its banks.
Neighbourhood
Nature here is the most picturesque! That is why this area fell in love with the most prominent people in Moscow. Starting from the seventeenth century, the princes and boyars chose land for a family estate where the Catherine's tract passed. Nobles, and rich merchants, as well as the learned class were built. As they say now, prominent figures of science, culture, art, not excluding representatives of the creative intelligentsia, left their traces here.
It must be admitted that in Soviet times, interest in the beauties of the Kaluga land did not fade. Until now, the old Ekaterininsky tract is a favorite place for fun "rides" of inquisitive cyclists of a young age. The history of this marvelous region also attracts older people who get to local attractions in jeeps.
Maloyaroslavets
For many centuries, the local land has seen all the wars that the country had to endure, and was devastated more than others. Nevertheless, where the Catherine Road passed, many amazing old estates, estates, temples, and monasteries remained. For example, the gates of the female St. Nicholas Chernoostrovsky Monastery in Maloyaroslavets keep traces of gun salvos of the Napoleonic army.
This is such a clear sign forunbelievers! Fragments of cannonballs and buckshot densely passed over the entire surface of the gate, to the very image of Christ, and only His face miraculously remained unharmed. Huge potholes are still visible today. And Christ still looks at the world - both tenderly and demandingly.
Valuevo and Krasnoe
Ekaterininsky tract has preserved many monuments of Russian history! The Moscow region and the Kaluga region were incredibly rich in sights. You can judge by the rest how much. For example, the Valuevo estate, built in the seventeenth century. The architecture is of stunning beauty, it is not for nothing that princes and courtiers, counts and chamber marshals lived here at different times: Meshchersky, Tolstoy, Shepelev and Musin-Pushkin.
No less beautiful is the Krasnoye estate, founded in the early eighteenth century. This village, even without a manor, was donated to Tsarevich Alexander, then the S altykovs settled here, and in 1812 it was here that Mikhail Kutuzov radically changed the situation of the war. It's only twenty-five kilometers from Moscow.
Move on
Not far away, also twenty-five kilometers away, is the place of the settlement of Alexandrovo, where the famous Morozovs' patrimony was (remember the eyes of the noblewoman from Surikov's painting), it has been mentioned in monuments since 1607. Here, already in the second half of the eighteenth century, another estate grew up - Shchapovo, which was founded by the Grushevsky brothers.
And a little later, a Decembrist nest appeared here - the estate was owned by Muravyov-Apostol, whose three sons went to Senate Square. Thenthe famous hero of the Patriotic War Arseniev lived here, and since 1890 - the manufacturer Shchapov. After two kilometers you will need to stop again. Ekaterininsky tract - a route with surprises.
More famous estates
The Polivanovo estate is also famous for its seventeenth-century architecture, which was later greatly improved by Count Razumovsky. Thirty-seven kilometers from Moscow - Dubrovitsy. This is not only an architectural masterpiece, but also a landscape one. Ensemble of stunning beauty. This area has been known in documents since 1182, when it was ruled by Prince Gleb Turovsky. And the estate was mentioned for the first time in 1627. Boyar Ivan Morozov was named the founder. At different times, the princes Golitsyn and Potemkin-Tavrichesky lived here.
Nearby, two kilometers away, Mikhailovskoye is a manor founded by General Krechetnikov in 1776. The village was called Krasheninnikovo. Further, this place was owned by Count Sheremetyev, who did a lot to restore dilapidated buildings. And, finally, thirty-eight kilometers from Moscow, the famous Voronovo estate, burned in 1812 so that the French would not get it. Earlier, in 1775, Catherine the Great herself visited this place, which is why the Old Kaluga Road began to be called differently. Such is the history of the Catherine's tract.
Today
The land of the Old Kaluga Road probably remembers everything that happened along the way, and from time to time even our contemporaries make it clear that not all of its mysteries have been solved and not all mysteriesdisclosed. More than one eyewitness account exists on the Internet that this road seems to glow from the inside on moonless nights. As if hinting at the number of not inveterate, and even unburied restless souls that remained on its sides. By the way, it is not so easy to find this old road today. There are countless country roads, the main Kaluga highway runs to the side, and no one has been using it for many years.
Birches
You can find her by special signs. The end of the eighteenth century was the beginning of a huge construction, including the road. Catherine the Great issued a special decree, thanks to which all major roads were accompanied by birch alleys on both sides. Great decree! Travelers are not afraid of heat or snow drifts.
Birches for the Ekaterininsky tract were chosen special - with dark bark, huge hollows and curved powerful branches, out of one hundred and twenty species, this one was chosen. For the most part, the first trees have long since died, but there remains a clearing that has not overgrown, and perhaps never will. Over the centuries, the road has been so trampled down that nothing grows on it. And the grooves on the sides of the road flow, clearly keeping the distance.
Kaluga Highway and surroundings of the old road
This route runs somewhat away from the Ekaterininsky tract, leaving behind only a direction that is guessed by the even rows of grown trees and is remembered along with the song,unfinished by the same head of "Hercules" from the "Golden Calf". And Kaluga Highway is a beautiful four-lane highway, well-lit and cherished by road repairmen. The landscapes around are purely Moscow region: impenetrable forests - sometimes coniferous, sometimes mixed - are interspersed with light birch groves.
Then suddenly the most picturesque plains and hills appear, escorting the traveler to the river valleys, of which there are quite a lot. There are no reservoirs. And the rivers are wonderful, each in its own way: Nara, Kremenka, Polyanitsa, Desna … In addition to them, there are many ponds and lakes with fish, both large and smaller. There is no railway nearby, and therefore there are quite a few places that are only slightly affected by civilization. There is also no large-scale industry in this area, it is ecologically clean, and the social environment has historically developed homogeneously. But, as noted by those who have been there, the infrastructure is well developed everywhere.
Coincidences and discrepancies
Ekaterininsky tract coincides with the new highway to the Big Ring of the railway, not far from the village of Lvovo. The most interesting thing here is that the Kaluga highway does not lead to Kaluga at all, but to Belarus.
It turned out this way because in Kresty it intersected with the road from Podolsk to the west - the former Warsaw road. When the railway ring was built, the role of the Kyiv Highway increased significantly, and therefore the section of the old road from Kresty to Kaluga itself gradually ceased to exist.
Two wars
History lovers are interested in Staraya Kalugaexpensive mainly because it was here that the most important battles took place, first in the Patriotic War of 1812, and then in the Great Patriotic War. Napoleon decided to retreat from the burned Moscow exactly along the Ekaterininsky tract, since the local area had not yet been plundered. On their way lay cities and villages untouched by the war. But Kutuzov first gave a battle near the village of Tarutino, and then at Maloyaroslavets, which put a big Orthodox cross on Napoleon's plans.
And in 1941, the Old Kaluga Road groaned under the tanks of the Wehrmacht units, when most of the settlements along the highway were burned to the ground and abandoned by the inhabitants. The hottest battles then took place at the crossing near Kuzovlevo across the Chernichka River. Now there is a memorial complex with a mass grave, where the defenders of Moscow are buried, who destroyed another plan to seize Russia, this time Hitler's - "Barbarossa".
