RYAZAN  , a

town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, 124 M. by rail S.E. of Moscow, on the elevated right bank of the Trubezh, a mile above its confluence with the Oka . Pop . (1897) 44,552 . A wide prairie dotted with large villages, - the bottom of a former lake, spreads out from the base of the crag on which Ryazan stands, and actually has the aspect of an immense lake when it is inundated in the spring . Ryazan is the see of an archbishop of the Orthodox Greek Church . The cathedral, first built in the 17th century, was reconstructed in 1776 . The Krestovozdvizhensk church contains tombs of the princes of the 15th and 16th centuries . The capital of Ryazan principality was Ryazan—now Old Ryazan, a village close to Spask, also on the Oka . It is mentioned in annals as early as 1o97i but continued to be the chief-- town of the principality only until the 14th century . In the 11th century one of the Kiev princes founded, on the banks of a small lake, a fort which received the name of Pereyaslav-Ryazanskiy . In 1294 (or in 1335) the bishop of Murom, compelled to leave his own town, settled in Pereyaslav-Ryazanskiy . The princes of Ryazan followed his example, and by and by completely abandoned the old republican town of Ryazan .

In 1300 a

congress of Russian princes was held there, and in the following year the town was taken by the Moscow prince . It continued, however, to be the residence of the Ryazan princes until 1517 . In 1365 and 1377 it was plundered and burned by the Tatars, but in 146o, 15131 1521 and 1564 it was strong enough to repel them . Earthen walls with towers were erected after 13o1; and in the 17th century a kreml or citadel still stood on the high crag above the Trubezh .