Cathedral Square and the Water Tower

The red-brick tower stands in the middle of a square set aside for trade after the great fire of seventeen sixty-three. The fire destroyed the old Gostiny Dvor—a row of shops and warehouses for local and visiting merchants. Governor Yakov Sievers, who oversaw the city's reconstruction, chose this vacant plot for the new stone Gostiny Dvor. The merchants received shops, trade moved to this side of the Polist, and the square became Market Square.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, almost anything could be bought here except water that could reliably provide the city's residents with drinking water. The mineral springs were salty, the water of the Polist was muddy, and Porusye carried water from the swamps. Townspeople used rain ponds and waited for water carriers with barrels.

Ivan Vanyukov, the son of a Staraya Russa merchant and the city mayor—the elected head of municipal self-government—sought a modern water supply for Staraya Russa. He began his municipal service on the board of the volunteer fire society, so a water reserve also meant the ability to put out the city's frequent fires. During Vanyukov's tenure, the city commissioned the Bryansk Plant Company to build a water-supply system.

Engineers found fresh water near the village of Dubovitsy and laid about ten versts of pipes from there. Water-dispensing kiosks and fire hydrants were installed on the streets, and a tower was built on Market Square. Pumps raised water into a riveted tank on the upper tier. It held ten thousand buckets; its height created pressure, and the water flowed through the city network.

On November fourteenth, nineteen oh nine, the water-supply system was ceremonially opened. One hundred buckets cost the enterprise thirteen kopecks, and residents were charged twenty-five. This difference paid for the system's upkeep and the people responsible for keeping it in working order: the master received nine hundred rubles a year, and the locksmiths received three hundred each. In January of the following year, Vanyukov was awarded a gold medal for improvements to the city, and in summer he was elected an honorary citizen of Staraya Russa.

During the war, the tower lost its upper tier and reservoir. After repairs, water was not returned to it: it housed a gas-cylinder refilling point and a shop before the building was abandoned. Restorers recreated the lost tier from old images, but a circular viewing platform was made where the tank had stood.

The square acquired its present name in twenty fourteen. Resurrection Cathedral stands opposite, beyond the Pererytitsa, and citywide celebrations are held on Cathedral Square itself. The tower now houses a tourist center and exhibition halls. All that remains of the ten-thousand-bucket tank is a model; small groups climb one hundred twenty-six steps to the place where it supplied pressure to the city water system.