Oboyan

Oboyan stands at the meeting of the Psel and Oboyanka rivers, where a high promontory offered a well-protected natural site for a fortress. The town was established in 1649 on an older fortified site, as the Russian state strengthened its southern frontier. Its wooden walls guarded the river country between Kursk and the Belgorod defensive line.

The garrison included musketeers, Cossacks and gunners. Defending the town also meant maintaining its timber fortifications: soldiers repaired towers, replaced decaying sections and built approaches to the walls. Around the fortress a district of villages developed along the Psel and its tributaries. The surviving descriptions of the fort in 1651 and later plans show how its builders made use of the ground between the two rivers.