Mozhaysk

Mozhaysk stands on the western approaches to Moscow, near the upper Moskva River. Its fortified centre guarded a road along which merchants and armies travelled between Moscow and Smolensk. The stone churches of its kremlin and the nearby Luzhetsky monastery gave the town a religious importance alongside its military role.

From 1389 Mozhaysk was the seat of Prince Andrey, son of Dmitry Donskoy, and remained the centre of an appanage principality until the late fifteenth century. At Andrey’s request the monk Ferapont founded the Luzhetsky monastery in 1408. In 1562 Russia and Denmark concluded a treaty at Mozhaysk during the Livonian War. The town again faced invasion in the Time of Troubles, when forces of the Polish prince Władysław besieged it in 1618 and its defenders held out. In 1812 the French invasion brought war back to the western road. The Battle of Borodino was fought about twelve kilometres west of Mozhaysk, after which Napoleon’s army passed through the town on its way to Moscow. The army returned through the district during its retreat; the Luzhetsky monastery was occupied and plundered. Mozhaysk’s position had once more placed it between an advancing army and the capital.