this place. Peter had originally selected that place from love of one Alexius, who was buried there, and who is said to have been famous for miracles; and after his death, being buried in this place, miracles were likewise done at his tomb, so that the place itself acquired such a celebrity, from a certain notion of its sacredness and religious character, that all the princes who succeeded Ivan thought that the seat of empire ought to be held there. For on the death of Ivan, his son of the same name retained his seat there; and after him, Dimitry; and after Dimitry, that Vasiley, who married the daughter of Withold, and left behind him Vasiley the Blind. Of him was born Ivan, the father of that prince, at whose court I was ambassador, and who first surrounded the fortress with a wall; and his descendants, nearly thirty years after, have brought the work to completion. The ramparts and battlements of this fortress, as well as the prince's palace, were built of brick, in the Italian style, by Italians, whom the prince had sent for from Italy with the offer of large remuneration, There are also, as I have said, many churches in it, nearly all of wood, except the two handsomest, which are built of brick. One of these is consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, the other to St. Michael. In the church of the Blessed Virgin are buried the bodies of the two archbishops who were the cause of the prince's transferring thither the seat of empire and the metropolis; and principally on that account they have been enrolled among the number of the saints. The other church is used as a burial-place for the princes, There were also many churches, being built of stone, at the time that I was there.
The climate of the country is so wholesome, that, from the sources of the Don, especially northwards, and a great way towards the east, no plague has raged there in the memory of man. They sometimes, however, have a disorder of the bowels and head, not unlike the plague, which they call "the heat": those who are seized with it die in a few days.
