A Town Born

Historically, Ermak’s victory was secured by construction of new fortification posts at the Russian boundaries. According to the annals, in the summer of 1587, 500 Cossacks landed on the bank of the Irtysh river, and built a small burg out of the boats they came in. The burg was located on the Trinity cape, which was so called since the foundation of the burg coincided with the Trinity holiday. The burg was called Tobolesk, and later its articulation was reduced to Tobolsk.

In 1594 Tobolsk was no longer subordinate to Tyumen, and in 1596 it was virtually declared the capital of Siberia. Voivodes appointed from Moscow administrated the newly joined territories. Some of the voivodes were of a high rank. The population of the town grew rapidly and numbered a large regiment, craftsmen and tradesmen.

In 1594 a wooden Kremlin was built in the place of a provisional fortress in the upper part of Tobolsk. The importance of Tobolsk was boosted even further, since in 1621 it became the center of the Siberian eparchy. When the first archbishop Cyprian arrived in Tobolsk, a large archbishop house and the Sophiyski cathedral were built. At the beginning of the XVIIth century people began populating the lower part of Tobolsk, where the Znamenski male monastery was moved to. Simultaneously with the growth of Tobolsk as an important administrative and spiritual center, the significance of the Tobolsk Kremlin was also increasing as a symbol of priority of the Russian state over the newly joined territories.

Till the end of the XVIIth century timber had been the main building material in the town. The wooden town was several times demolished by devastated fires, as in 1643, 1646-1648, 1677, and 1680. By this one can judge how often the lay-out of the town had been changed.