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People have lived in Uglich for about a millennium give or take a century or two. It was a small independent principality in the thirteenth century, but was absorbed into the larger Moscow principality in 1328. Uglich was important to the defense of Moscow and both Ivan III and Ivan IV had their brothers take charge of the town. The citizenry of Uglich assisted Ivan IV in his victory over the Tartars at Kazan. On the death of Ivan IV, his ten year old son, Dimitry Ivanovich, died under questionable conditions in Uglich. Boris Godunov was suspected of killing the boy to help clear his way to the throne. Dimitry's death and the subsequent death of Ivan's heir, Feodor, triggered the Time of Troubles when some people believed that Dimitry was still alive. When the Romanov's came to the throne in the seventeenth century they made Uglich a place of pilgrimage and built the red walled, blue domed, Church of St. Demetrios on the Blood on the spot where Dimitry died. The town itself is a wonderful ancient community full of real people's homes with some of the most interesting old windows in the world. There are some elements of the Soviet past and a few more of the neo-classical tradition, but mostly it appears to be a purely Russian place with lots of fantastic old wooden houses - the kind that are unfortunately disappearing from the landscape through neglect. There are a lot of churches too.
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