Murom Travel Guide

This water tower was built in 1864. At that time, Murom was one of the VERY few Russian towns with a water-supply.

Murom is 5hr from Moscow by train. Most of them arrive in the evening, and one (#112 Moscow-Kazan') in the morning (5am). If you do not mind sleeping for 4 hours, this is the most economic option - you will not need to stay overnight. The train station is far from the town center, you will need to walk for about 40 minutes or to take a local bus.

Favorite thing: If you want to explore not only the capitals and big cities of Russia, but feel the spirit of the country, you might choose Murom as a site to visit. This city is relatively small now, but once it played an important role in the Russian state, and was the residence of Russian princes Gleb and Konstantin. It is one of the 5 oldest cities in Russia, that will celebrate their 1140 anniversary this year, so, it was founded in 862.

Fondest memory: This city is one of the examples how Christianity was spreading in Russia: not through bloodshed, but by way of personal example of christian life. When Prince Gleb was sent to rule Murom in 11th century (and Gleb was Christian of course), the pagan population did not let him in and closed the doors of the city Kremlin (at that time Murom was surrounded by a wall). Gleb decided not to fight with them, but settled within one kilometer off the Kremlin. Gradually, the conflict was settled. Later Prince Konstantin ruled Murom, and again he had problems with the population who were reluctant to adopt christianity. Konstantin was requested to send his 9 year old son, Mikhail, to the Muromers as hostage, to prove that Konstantin did not have any hostile intentions against the city. Mikhail went to the Kremlin, but was killed by the perfidious Muromers. Even in this case Konstantin did not send his troops to take revenge, because it was not in line with the Christian religion. After this case, gradually, the Muromers started to realize that the new religion is not evil to them, and they accepted it.