Kovernino

Kovernino lies in the forest country north of the Volga, a district known for painted wooden wares. Khokhloma work is thought to have arisen in nearby villages in the seventeenth century. Turned wooden vessels were coated with clay, oil and tin powder, painted with plant patterns, then varnished and heated to give them a golden appearance.

In 1712 Peter I granted the newly settled Rybnovskie clearings and neighbouring districts to Prince Yakov Dolgorukov. A wooden church was brought to Kovernino from Belyayevo in 1754. Old Believers were among those who found refuge in the forests beyond the Volga, and local tradition connects their skills with the development of the painted craft, which flourished in the surrounding local villages during the eighteenth century.