Stand on Susaninskaya Ploshchad and the fan of streets radiating away from the square tells you what kind of city this is: one rebuilt to a single plan after the fire of 1773, when Catherine the Great is said to have dropped her fan on the map and told the architects to follow its lines. Walk a block down Simonovskogo ul. and the scale changes again, from open square to monastery wall.
Kostroma suits travellers working the Golden Ring who want the monasteries and the riverside without a crowd, and anyone interested in how a Russian provincial city was laid out and then rebuilt. It rewards slow walking rather than a checklist.
1. Saint Hypatia Monastery
A large and important monastery established in 1330, holding the Bogoroditsky Cathedral and the Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Church, which was made without a single nail. The future Tsar Mikhail Romanov lived here, and it was here that an embassy from Moscow offered him the Russian crown in 1612; a wooden house of Mikhail Romanov is still preserved on the grounds, along with old wooden structures transported to the monastery walls from distant districts of the Kostroma Oblast.
It is open 09:00–17:00, with services daily at 08:00 and 17:00, and entrance is 50 руб. Give it the largest block of your day, and note that the Museum of Wooden Architecture sits inside it.
2. Museum of Wooden Architecture
An outdoor architectural museum at 1a Prosveshcheniya ul., gathering wooden churches, houses and a mill from the Kostroma region. It is the part of the monastery visit that takes longest, because the buildings are spread out and meant to be walked between.
Admission is included in the monastery entrance fee, so plan the two as one outing rather than two. It keeps the same 09:00–17:00 hours.
3. Bogoyavlensky (Epiphany) Monastery
A monastery founded in the 14th century, one block down Simonovskogo ul. from the square. It houses the Icon of Fedorovsky Bogomater, which according to legend was found hanging from a tree by a Russian prince, and its main cathedral dates back to 1559. The five-domed Epiphany Cathedral was the first stone edifice in the city.
Combine it with the square, since the two are a short walk apart, and treat the icon as the reason to come rather than the architecture alone.
4. Susaninskaya Ploshchad
The main square, named after Ivan Susanin, the peasant who became a hero after misleading Polish invaders into a bog, where they drowned. Several buildings of note face it, including the Fire Tower, a piece of 19th-century architecture that is now a museum, and a literature museum within a 19th-century guard house.
Start here to get your bearings, then follow the radiating streets outward. The square is also where the Trading Arcades begin.
5. The Trading Arcades
An 18th-century trading centre running along Sovetskaya ul. and Susaninskaya ploshchad, now housing shops and a market. It is one of the surviving pieces of the rebuilt city, and the arcaded central market with a merchant church at its centre is among the elegant structures in the "provincial neoclassical" style that Kostroma retains.
Walk it in the same pass as the square, and look for the merchant church in the middle of the market rather than at the edges.
6. Resurrection Church on the Lowlands
The only city church that survives from the 17th-century "golden age", standing near the Volga River. As the story goes, it was commissioned by a merchant who ordered ten barrels of dye from England but received ten barrels of gold instead, decided the unearned gold was the devil's gift, and spent it on building a church.
It sits by the river, so pair it with a walk along the embankment, where the rotunda is one of the structures left from the 18th-century rebuilding.
7. The Volga embankment and its rotunda
The city stands at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kostroma, and the embankment is where the 18th-century plan meets the water. The rotunda on the Volga embankment is named among the elegant structures of the "provincial neoclassical" style that Kostroma retains.
Come here at the end of a walking day rather than the start, and use it to link the Resurrection Church on the Lowlands with the rest of the centre.
8. The governor's palace and the fire tower
Both are named among the surviving structures of the rebuilt city, alongside the rotunda and the arcaded market. The Fire Tower on Susaninskaya Ploshchad is a museum, and the literature museum within the 19th-century guard house is on the same square.
These are exteriors and small museums rather than destinations in themselves, so fold them into a circuit of the square instead of setting aside separate time.
9. Krasnoye-na-Volge
Among the vestiges of the Godunov rule, the tent-like church in the urban-type settlement of Krasnoye-na-Volge, formerly an estate of Boris Godunov's brother, is worth recommending. Boris Godunov had the Ipatiev and Epiphany monasteries rebuilt in stone, and this church belongs to the same period of patronage.
It lies outside the city, so treat it as a half-day excursion rather than a stop on a walking route.
10. The 17th-century temples across the Volga
Two other 17th-century temples, of rather conventional architecture, may be seen on the opposite side of the Volga from the centre. They are a useful counterpoint to the Resurrection Church on the Lowlands, which is the more distinctive of the surviving 17th-century churches.
Cross the river for these only if you have already covered the centre, and combine the crossing with your embankment walk.
11. Monuments to Ivan Susanin
The heroic peasant Ivan Susanin became a symbol of the city's resistance to foreign invaders, and several monuments to him may be seen in Kostroma. The main square carries his name.
You will pass them without planning to, so treat them as markers on a walk through the centre rather than as a separate stop.
If you only have one day
Morning. Begin at Saint Hypatia Monastery when it opens at 09:00, and stay for the Bogoroditsky Cathedral, the Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Church and the wooden house of Mikhail Romanov. Move on to the Museum of Wooden Architecture inside the same grounds, since admission is included in the monastery fee.
Afternoon. Return to the centre and start at Susaninskaya Ploshchad, taking in the Fire Tower and the literature museum in the guard house, then walk the Trading Arcades along Sovetskaya ul. Continue one block down Simonovskogo ul. to Bogoyavlensky (Epiphany) Monastery and its 1559 cathedral.
Evening. Finish by the water: the Resurrection Church on the Lowlands and the rotunda on the Volga embankment, where the city's streets meet the river. If daylight and energy remain, cross to the opposite side of the Volga for the two 17th-century temples.
When is the best time of year to visit Kostroma?
The city has a continental climate with long, very cold winters and short warm summers. Plan around the warm months if you intend to walk between the sights, and expect the outdoor Museum of Wooden Architecture to be the least comfortable part of a winter visit.
How do you reach Kostroma?
The city is served by Kostroma Airport, and there has been a railway connection between Kostroma and Moscow since 1887.
How much does the main monastery cost, and when is it open?
Saint Hypatia Monastery is open 09:00–17:00, with services daily at 08:00 and 17:00, and entrance is 50 руб. Admission to the Museum of Wooden Architecture is included in that fee.
Which sights survive from the city's older churches?
Apart from the monasteries, most of the city churches were either rebuilt or demolished during the Soviet years. The only city church that survives from the 17th-century "golden age" is the Resurrection Church on the Lowlands, though two other 17th-century temples of rather conventional architecture may be seen on the opposite side of the Volga.
With the square, the two monasteries and the riverbank in hand, you have enough to start laying out your own days in Kostroma.