Business transgressions in Suzdal, according to local legend, were once punished by church fines. In the worst cases, the merchant financed an entire new church. Perhaps because they were once so wily or perhaps because they were once so numerous in once-powerful Suzdal, the number of churches now seems ridiculously disproportionate to the number of houses. In the 16th and 17th centuries alone, merchants “donated” 30 churches. The tsars and other political leaders built many more as well as a handful of monasteries and nunneries in part out of piety and in part because Suzdal became sort of repository for unwanted wives and daughters and politically dangerous males.

Suzdal’s first written mention dates to 1024. As is the case with most in Russia, however, the town is likely much older. In the 12th century, it was made the capital of its region by Yuri Dolgoruky, Moscow’s official founder. For two centuries after, Suzdal was one of the most powerful towns of ancient Rus. While its power would eventually ebb away, it remained a powerful trade center under the Mongols and was one of the first to push the Mongols out. Today, its draw for tourists is architectural. Its many ancient buildings (religious, commercial, and residential) have survived WWII, Stalinist church purges and communist industrialization programs in perhaps the best condition and the highest numbers of anywhere in Russia. Well-preserved Suzdal has the feel of a real Russian village, like those you’ve read about in Gogol’s novels.

Highly recommended as a travel destination, there are several traditional restaurants that still serve soup and potatoes in clay pots and several other traditional dishes in a traditional atmosphere. Make sure you taste medovukha, a sort of lightly fermented honey drink indigenous to the area. Look for it in restaurants and for sale on the streets. Horseback riding is available in the center of town, and in winter, this turns into troika rides. Also, try to time a visit to the Spaso-Yevfimievsky Monastery, to hear the bell concert.

www.sras.org