Although the paired architectural ensemble of monuments of federal and regional significance is often regarded as a single attraction, their history differs noticeably.
Vlasyevskaya Tower is a much older structure than Znamenskaya Church. During the time of Zemlyanoy Gorod, there were five towers here, but only two of them have survived to the present day. Vlasyevskaya was built of brick in the middle of the 17th century on the site of a burned wooden tower. It served as the city gates, and the road from it led to Uglich. In Peter the Great's time, a tax was even collected here. What do you think it was for? For wearing a beard and having an untidy appearance!
Later, a wooden chapel was added to the tower, which in the 18th century was replaced with a stone one, and in 1861 it was converted into a church. Later, one of the walls was decorated with an image of the Icon of the Sign, which is why the church came to be called Znamenskaya.
Gradually, both the tower and the church became "overgrown" with neighboring buildings, so now next to them are the people's film studio "Yunost", a building of the economics faculty of YarSU, and a bank. And the tower houses computer classrooms and the university television studio. Quite a symbiosis!
Interesting fact: when a water supply system began to be built in Yaroslavl at the end of the 19th century, a water tower was needed. Vlasyevskaya Tower took on this role, and a huge tank was installed at its top, holding 15 000 buckets of water. This volume was enough to supply 500 residential houses with water.
