abstract:A posad () was a settlement in the Russian Empire, often surrounded by ramparts and a moat, adjoining a town or a kremlin, but outside of it, or adjoining a monastery in the 10th to 15th centuries. The posad was inhabited by craftsmen and merchants and was its own distinct community, separate from the city it adjoined.
There aremanyfirst-ratearchitecturalmonuments at SergievPosad outside the laura, such as the Chapelof St Paraskeva-over-the-Well – auniquestructureof the turn of the 17th and18thcenturies.
If you need to escape the city, you have easy access to the historic Golden Ring towns of Sergiev Posad, Suzdal and Vladimir, where you will be rewarded with a slice of rural Russian life far from the frenetic city pace.