July 15, 2009. Moscow.

July 15, 2009. Moscow. Near Mozhaisk archeologists excavated Godunov’s Palace.

Small fragments of the walls and a shallow moat is everything left from a unique monument of architecture — Boris’ town that served as residence for Boris Godunov. The fortress with its magnificent church and a luxurious palace was founded four centuries ago and became one of the key front posts on the southern border of the State. Now archeologists work upon the site, reports Vesti Moskva agency.

Only hills on a high river bank of the Protva River are left from the residence of Boris Godunov near Mozhaisk after four hundred years. It is on this very site of today’s excavations where Godunov’s Palace was standing in XVII century.

“The whole earthwork on which we are sitting now belongs to XVII century. And beneath it under 2.5 meters of sand thrown out in XVII century there is a layer of the time of Slavic exploration of this territory and the time of the Tatar invasion,” explains Boris Yanishevsky, the head of the Mozhaisk expedition of the Archeology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In the layers of dirt the archeologists discovered traces of even more ancient settlements dating back to the early Iron Age. Some of the findings are over 2.5 thousand years old.

“It is, I guess, a kind of a nail. Or, perhaps, it is a blade,” archeologists discuss.

The native domain of Boris Godunov named in XVII century Tsarev Borisov town on the southern border of the Russian State was one of the front posts against the Crimean Tatars. And Godunov’s Palace, according to the researchers’ words, was, most likely, an unapproachable fortress.

“A very solid fortress; 250 meters high; it had four towers. It is very likely that there used to be underpasses here leading to Vereya, and from there — leading to the banks of the Zhut River; there were underpasses, they say, through which one could easily ride in a cart,” says Ivan Nickolaychenko, a folk lore historian.

But this very fact, according to archeologists, remains as one of the legends. The artifacts found on the site of excavations show that the supposed underpasses are nothing else but brick-burning furnaces. Of the so-called “Tsar’s brick” the fortress was built as well as a church nearby it. The tent-dome temple of Boris and Gleb was considered the highest in Russia.

“It is very beautiful, 74 meters high, with beautiful descending staircases, with whitestone parts. Unfortunately, in XIX century under Nicolas I the monuments were treated with carelessness. It was decided to dissemble the big church in order to build a church for common people, says Boris Yanishevsky, the head of the Mozhaisk expedition of the Archeology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Now, today’s dwellers of Borisovo village dream of restoring the unique temple. But in the nearest future only exhibitions of archeological finds are scheduled. Arrows, bullets, decorations and even coins that remained in the earth since the time of the Turmoil and “Copper Uprising” — altogether over eighty pieces. They will be submitted to the local and some Moscow’s museums.