1776-1787. Architectural monument.
Stable yard of the former Gavrilovo-Posad Palace Stud Farm.
GPKZ is a special place, one of a kind. Here you can see the beauty of Opolye, and the continuous history of horse breeding since the time of Ivan the Terrible, and the architecture of the era of Catherine the Great. The rearing horse from the weather vane on the tower of the stud farm migrated to the coat of arms of Gavrilov Posad, becoming a full-fledged symbol of the city.
There is indirect confirmation that the sovereign's stable was established in the era of Ivan the Terrible, in 1565. Since it was the sovereign's, it means that Ivan Vasilyevich had a personal relationship to this institution. By the way, the formidable tsar was a passionate horse lover.
1587 is the first written hint about the presence of horses in Gavrilovskoye.
And in 1632-1633, under Mikhail I, a direct mention of the stud farm appeared in the census books: "Yes, in the village of Gavrilova new settlement, the Sovereign's stable yard, the clerks' yard, the groom's groom's yard, 2 backyard groom's yards, 11 stable groom's yards and 17 people in them." Since the first half of the 17th century, the village of Gavrilovskoye was called the Sovereign's palace settlement of uncultivated peasants. The peasants, having served their time at the stud farm, settled nearby and opened shops or craft workshops. This led to the flourishing of trade, an increase in the number of residents, and later helped to obtain the status of a city: in 1789, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the Gavrilovskaya settlement was renamed Gavrilov Posad and endowed with city rights. The presence of the palace stud farm indirectly contributed to this.
Under Catherine II in 1787, a new stable building was built, which has survived to this day, and under Nicholas I, in 1829, the farm was closed. The longest break in the stud farm's work began - until 1886. Not because the grooms worked poorly or the horses were no longer needed - the losses of horses in the war of 1812 were more than significant. But Nicholas I needed premises for the mounted troops - dragoons, hussars, and later "gunners" (artillerymen) were quartered in the city, and the horses were kept at the stud farm.
In 1886, a new and, perhaps, the main stage in the development of the State Stud Farm began. The resumption of its work was a private initiative of Prince A.B. Golitsyn, but the plant, nevertheless, received the status of a state factory stable, Vladimirskaya. And the work that eventually made the GPKZ famous throughout the country began. Here they began to breed a new breed - an extremely hardy, powerful workhorse for the heavy Russian lands. In a word, heavy draft horses.