Behind the walls of this old city you’ll find well-landscaped parks, a magnificent old cathedral, a smattering of museums and a youthful population breathing new life into this historic town. Its elegant music hall is the jewel of the town, and the regular concerts held here as well as its annual music festival keep Smolensk well connected to flourishing musical traditions of centuries past.
Set on the upper Dnepr River, 390km southwest of Moscow, Smolensk was first mentioned in 863 as the capital of the Slavic Krivichi tribes. The town’s auspicious setting gave it early control over trade routes between Moscow and the west and between the Baltic and Black Seas – or in other words ‘from the Varangians to the Greeks’. Smolensk became part of Kyivan Rus, but after being sacked by the Tatars in about 1237 it passed to Lithuania. Moscow captured Smolensk in 1340, Lithuania in 1408, Moscow again in 1514, Poland in 1611 after a 20-month siege, and Russia in 1654.
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