Pavlovo

Pavlovo stands on the high bank of the Oka, where the river bends through the wooded country west of Nizhny Novgorod. A royal charter of 1566 refers to the village and its inhabitants' fishing rights in the lakes of the Oka floodplain. Pavlovo also became known for metalworking: a survey counted eleven smithies in 1621, and the craft grew around the river settlement. Its smiths supplied tools and other iron goods to a much wider market.