Area 17 km² | Town of district significance Rylsk Local time Saturday 5:22 PM | |
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Municipal district Rylsky Municipal District Weather 6°C, Wind NW at 11 km/h, 38% Humidity Points of interest Dom voyevody Shemyaki, Pamyatnik GI Shelikhovu, Dom kuptsov Shelikhovykh | ||
Rylsk (Russian: Рыльск) is a town and the administrative center of Rylsky District in Kursk Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Seym River (Dnieper's basin) 124 kilometres (77 mi) southwest of Kursk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 15,671 (2010 Census); 17,603 (2002 Census); 19,472 (1989 Census); 19,000 (1974).
Contents
Map of Rylsk, Kurskaya Oblast, Russia
History
It was first mentioned in a chronicle in 1152 as one of the Severian towns. It had become the seat of an appanage principality by the end of the 12th century before coming into the hands of Lithuanian rulers sometime in the 14th century. The Polish king Casimir IV made a grant of it to Dmitry Shemyaka's son Ivan, who had settled in Lithuania. Ivan's son Vasily defected to the Grand Duchy of Moscow, but Lituanians held the town until 1522. During the Time of Troubles, it was one of the first towns to welcome False Dmitry I as the Tsar. After the Ukraine's integration into the Russian Empire, Rylsk capitalized on the trade between Little Russia and Great Russia. A great number of merchants resided in the town, whose population remains almost the same as a century ago.
Soviet authority in Rylsk was established in November 1917. During World War II, the town was occupied by the German Army from October 5, 1941 to August 31, 1943.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Rylsk serves as the administrative center of Rylsky District. As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Rylsky District as the town of district significance of Rylsk. As a municipal division, the town of district significance of Rylsk is incorporated within Rylsky Municipal District as Rylsk Urban Settlement.
Attractions
The town does not retain many marks of antiquity. Its oldest buildings are three churches of the monastery of St. Nicholas, all erected in the mid-18th century. Some of the most prominent buildings in the town were commissioned by the Shelikhov merchants, the most famous of which, Grigory Shelikhov, was born in the town and has a monument erected to his memory on the central square. The foremost of the town's churches are the Uspensky Cathedral (1811) and the Pokrovsky Cathedral (1822), both designed in a vernacular Neoclassical idiom and furnished with very lofty belltowers.