Lukoves'

Lukoves', also known as Lukovets, stood on the Sheksna near the mouth of the Suda. Its early settlement history preceded the period when a large trading village occupied this bend in the river. An eighteenth-century description placed its houses on both banks, with a church precinct and market square forming the centre of exchange.

Two churches and a clock-bearing bell tower stood inside the enclosure. Twenty-four merchants' shops flanked its gates, while storehouses occupied the corners. The long, narrow market space had three descents to the river, connecting the commercial centre directly with the waterfront. Four annual fairs gave the village a recurring place in the trading calendar. The right bank also held the manor, clergy houses and two peasant settlements; another settlement with its own church stood across the Sheksna. Lukoves' thus combined estate and parish institutions with a commercial landscape organised around access to the river.