Kurba

Kurba was the principal village of the domain of the Kurbsky princes, descendants of the appanage princes of Yaroslavl. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it formed their hereditary estate. Several country trading roads met here, and its inhabitants engaged in commerce and crafts. After Prince Andrei Kurbsky fled from Ivan IV's Russia, his family's estate was confiscated and passed through several hands. From 1743 the village belonged to the Naryshkin family; its trading households gave it a character approaching that of a small town.