Spas-na-Kholmu

Spas-na-Kholmu began as a trading village in the lands north of Bezhetsk. It first appears in the records in 1518, when Prince Simeon of Kaluga gave it to the Antoniev Monastery. The village remained a monastic estate until Catherine II's secularization of church lands in 1764 placed it under the state. In 1776 it became a town and an uyezd center, receiving the name Krasny Kholm. Agriculture, shoemaking and leatherworking supported its inhabitants, while flax, hides, leather, shoes and eggs were among the goods traded there.