Kresttsy

Kresttsy stands on the Kholova River in the Lake Ilmen basin. It first appears in the Second Novgorod Chronicle in 1393 as the parish settlement of Khresttsy, in connection with the construction of a church of the Mother of God. The settlement belonged to the Novgorod Republic’s Derevskaya district and passed into the Russian state with Novgorod in 1478.

A relay station established in the late fifteenth century gave rise to the settlement known as Krestetsky Yam. It was devastated during the oprichnina in 1569 and again during the Swedish intervention of the early seventeenth century, but revived by the middle of that century. Its position on the road between Moscow and Saint Petersburg later supported trade and postal traffic. Kresttsy received town status in 1776. The Church of Saint Catherine followed in 1777, and a travelling palace was built in 1778–1783: imperial journeys left a visible architectural mark on this old relay settlement.