Maryovo

Maryovo stands beside the Maryovka in the wooded country south of Lake Ilmen. On a hill above the river an old fortified site has yielded pottery like that found in tenth-century layers at Novgorod. The district, known as Moreva, lay among the small border territories claimed by competing powers.

In the fifteenth century Moreva remained within the Novgorod Republic, but agreements assigned part of its revenue, the so-called black marten tribute, to the Lithuanian grand prince. Moscow’s expansion altered the balance. Ivan III granted Moreva and other districts, together with the town of Demon, to Prince Fyodor Belsky after the latter fled from Lithuania. Nearby Molvotitsy was another fortified centre of this frontier, belonging to the household of Novgorod’s St Sophia.