Burtseva Gora in Roslavl
The
Burtseva Gora (Burtsev’s Upland, The Earth Bank) is situated in the centre of
modern Roslavl on the right bank of the river Stanovka. The height above the
river achieves 15-18 metres in the north and it decreases till 10 metres high in
the south. The area on the hill is oval; it occupies 160 metres long from north
to south and 110-120 metres from east to west. An 8-metre ditch surrounds the
upland in the north, west and south. The hill is fortified by a bank of earth
which is 6,5 metres high.
In the year of 1137 Knyaz Rostislav Mstislavich Smolensky founded Roslavl (the original name was
Rostislavl), the upland served to be the best place for a future fortification
where the knyaz had a residence. As a
result, the place became one of the centres of power and money.
The Town Earth Bank of XII-XVI centuries represented a boundary fortress of Smolensk princedom; later on it was already a fortress of the Russian Empire. At first there were only wooden buildings and a wooden fortress with towers and embrasures for cannons. Around the Bank there was a ditch with water.
The Town Earth Bank of XII-XVI centuries represented a boundary fortress of Smolensk princedom; later on it was already a fortress of the Russian Empire. At first there were only wooden buildings and a wooden fortress with towers and embrasures for cannons. Around the Bank there was a ditch with water.
It’s
known that before the Mongol-Tatar Yoke (XII) Rostislavl had two churches. One
was situated on the territory of the Earth Bank and the other one was located
within an unfortified area where common citizens and craftspeople used to live.
That is an important sign of a cultural and spiritual ways of life of the town.
Later a prison appeared in one of the towers of the fortress on the Earth Bank.
It was named “The Red Tower”. Cruel tortures were also a sign of a developed political
life of the Medieval History.
During a
few centuries the town belonged either to The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth or
to the Russian State. A polish king, Sigismund III, approved Roslavl coat of
arms in 1623.
 |
| Rostislavl's coat of arms, 1623 |
The town
might have been encircled by a fortress wall. However, there are no documents
approving of this.
In 1695
the Russian-Turkish war broke out. That’s why Smolensk and Roslavl military
forces were sent to the South of the country. The guarding of the Earth Bank
was entrusted to common citizens, so the peaceful period for the town began.
However, when it turned out that the Swiss had decided to invade our country in
1706, Peter the Great ordered the fortifying of the Smolensk-Roslavl-Bryansk
direction.
After
1812 the Earth Bank was granted by Alexander II to the town governor,
Mitrofanov. Later Nickolai Ivanovich Burtsev, a school supervisor, became its
owner. He remained the owner for 40 years. Burtsev laid out the garden, planted
the linden alley around the Bank. The name of the hill got the title of the
Burtseva Gora thanks to its owner. Then merchant Mukhin bought the land in 1856
and sold it in 1867 to Sadovsky.
In the middle of XIX century the Burtseva Gora became a place of recreation for the citizens. There used to be a restaurant and the “Green Theatre”. There was also a brick chapel named by St.Kostantin and St.Elena there. It was built in 1855.
After the Revolution of 1917 the Earth Bank was also used as a rest place. There wasn’t any entrance with the arch leading from a nowadays park. People had to go up the wooden stairs.
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