Tarusa

Tarusa stands where the Tarusa River meets the Oka. It was the centre of a small principality among the upper Oka lands and came within Moscow's sphere by the late fourteenth century.

In the sixteenth century Tarusa was a fortified point on the Oka defensive line south of Moscow. A petition from 1611 described raids that devastated the town and district during the Time of Troubles. In 1776 Tarusa became a district town in the Kaluga administration.