Situated father down the Volga than Yaroslavl, the town of Kostroma was first mentioned in the Chronicles in 1237. Kostroma is actually a name of a pagan god. On their way to sacking Yaroslavl in 1238, invanding Mongol-Tatars first stopped in Kostroma for a dress rehearsal. Nethertheless, by the mid-13th century, the town had recovered and was an important port of the Vladimir principality.

Nowadays Kostroma is often used as a setting in films and literature, as it is regarded as preserving the face of a typical Russian provincial town. Kostroma is also famous for its Ipatievsky Monastery, where the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty accepted the throne. The monastery stands across the Kostroma river, approximately six kilometers from the city center.

A Tatar prince named Chet, who was a Godunov ancestor, converted to Cristianity and founded Ipatievsky Monastery in 1332. The Godunov subsequently adopted the monastery as their personal holy place, donating large sums of money for its continued growth and improvement. During Boris Godunov's reign (1598-1605), the monastery unsurprisingly became the country's wealthiest.

Boris's death in 1605 by no means spelled the end of the monastery's prosperity, but set in motion a chain of events which ultimately resulted in the monastery becoming one of the most significant in Russian history. During the foreign intervention that was sparked by Boris Gogunov's death (the Time of Trouble) a young boyar named Michael Romanov, who was distantly related to Boris, took refuge in the monastery along with his mother, Sister Marfa. Once the Poles were cleared out of Moscow, an Assembly of the Land, consisting of Cossacks, Church officials and military leaders chose Michael to be the next tsar, and a new dynasty was born.

The Romanov family remained indebted to the monastery, bolstering its wealth to their reign. By the end of the 17th century, the monastery owned 22,000 hectares of land and 17,000 serfs. It was also a regional cultural center, housing a library of rare books and manuscripts. When an explosion in 1649 destroyed the monastery's Trinity Cathedral, built in stone by the Godunovs in 1590 to replace the original 14th century wooden church, the Romanovs promptly had it rebuilt. The rather austere, gold-domed structure made of white stone is still the focal point of the monastery. Inside the cathedral, 17th century frescoes rendered by renowned Kostroma painters cover the walls. The graves of most of the Godunov family are housed here also.

The Soviets turned the Ipatievsky Monastery into the Kostroma Museum of History and Architecture, a comparatively sterile designation, but one that at least enabled the monastery's preservations. By the time you get there, though, it may have been given back to the Orthodox Church. Regardless of what it's called or who holds the ownership papers, the compound contains several worthwhile exhibitions. In a block of monks' cells, a small museum featuring icons and antique handicrafts generates more interest than most of its kind. The red brick Archbishop's house, across from the Trinity Cathedral, houses one of the most moving exhibitions to be found anywhere, the Romanov Family Exhibition, an intimate portrayal of the life and times of the last tsar, Nicolas II, and his family.

Finally, a favorite destination of many tourists is Kostroma's open-air Museum of Wooden Architecture, located in a serene setting adjacent to the monastery's fortress walls. Here, amidst picturesque streams and woods, stands a variety of hand-crafted wooden structures from around the Kostroma region. Small churches, barns, windmills, boathouses, and series of peasant dwellings ranging from the modest to the opulent are open for tourists' inspection.