Vyatskoye Village. Tentative List for UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The Vyatskoye village is situated on the banks of the Ukhtomka river in the Yaroslavl region, 35 km from the city of Yaroslavl.

Vyatskoye, the unique architectural heritage monument, is a 18-19th century town-planning complex with more than 50 sites including former merchant and peasant houses, tea-houses and taverns, as well as almshouses. The aspiration to live in a house that is better and unlike all others can be clearly seen in the architectural decoration of the villagers’ buildings. The locals decorated their houses according to their own ideas of beauty, so each building in Vyatskoye is unique and inimitable.

The Vyatskoye Historical and Cultural Complex, opened in 2010, allows visitors to get in touch with the sights of “unknown” Russia. To date, more than 30 historical and cultural heritage monuments have been restored and included in the activities of the Complex. They are used as a basis for 12 museums on various subjects, a restaurant/museum, a hotel/museum, cinema and conference halls.

The works of Nikolay Nekrasov, a writer and great Russian poet, are closely associated with the village. In the poem Who Is Happy in Russia, he uses Vyatskoye as a real-life example when describing the village of Kuzminskoye. On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the poet, a monument to Nekrasov was inaugurated in the village.

The rich cultural heritage and the love of many generations of residents for their hometown made Vyatskoye famous; it even received the title of the most beautiful Russian village. Oleg Zharov, the founder of the Vyatskoye Complex, was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 2011 for his efforts to restore this wonderful village.

Based on вятское-село.рф.