In the second half of the XII century in Vladimir, five external gates were built, used as combat and travel towers. Until now, only the most important of the five Golden Gates used to enter the city have been preserved.

There was an unofficial reason for the construction of the gate. With their help, Andrei Bogolyubsky intended to show once again that the capital of the North-Eastern Russia is not inferior to Kiev in either wealth or influence. However, with its main purpose, the gates also cope well and in 1238 managed to hold back the onslaught of the Tatar-Mongol horde. Tatars eventually penetrated the city through a break in the wooden wall, but the Golden Gate, despite all their efforts, remained unassailable.

There is a legend according to which during the completion of the construction of the Golden Gate, when the workers were already dismantling the scaffolding, the gates of the gates collapsed and buried under themselves twelve people. None of the eyewitnesses doubted that they immediately died under the weight of stones, but Prince Andrew ordered to bring the miraculous icon of the Mother of God and began to pray to the Mother of God, asking her to save the workers. When the dam was disassembled, of course, it turned out that the people lying under them were not only alive, but even almost not injured.

After that, the prince ordered to build a tiny white-stone church of the Virgin's Robe right on the gate. Attack of the Tatar-Mongol wax, she experienced somewhat less safely than the Golden Gate, and for a long time stood closed. Only in 1810 the Gate Church was rebuilt and illuminated, so a few decades later the gates escaped becoming a water tower.

Golden Gate in Vladimir, view from the city

Golden Gate

Golden Gate in Vladimir Vladimir at night

The Golden Gate in Vladimir