Slobodskoy

Slobodskoy stands on a high bank of the Vyatka. Archaeological evidence points to early fortifications, and the settlement appears in a chronicle in 1489, when Moscow's army captured the Vyatka towns. A charter of 1505 announced the appointment of a new governor. Its wooden kremlin was protected by a steep bank, a ravine, ditches and an earthen rampart, while a separate fortified settlement housed many of the townspeople.

A charter of 1522 mentions streets and the yards maintained in the town by people from the surrounding country, including Udmurts and Tatars, for use during sieges. At the end of the sixteenth century a monastery was founded north of the settlement and became a separate defensive complex. Its wooden gateway tower, built in 1610, belonged to the network of buildings that guarded Slobodskoy and its approaches.