Toropets

Toropets stands among lakes on the Toropa, a river flowing toward the Western Dvina. Its earthen ramparts recall a medieval princely town on routes between Novgorod, Smolensk and the Baltic basin. Merchants and churches gave the town a life beyond its defensive role, while the surrounding lakes shaped its approaches.

A centre of its own principality from the twelfth century, Toropets suffered repeated attacks from Lithuania. In 1245 Alexander Nevsky's forces recovered the town and defeated the retreating Lithuanian army near Zhizhets. Later Toropets came under Lithuanian rule. Moscow's forces captured it in 1500, and the truce of 1503 assigned it to the Russian state. It subsequently became a trading and craft centre on the western frontier.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries merchants helped build the churches that marked the town's skyline. The Trinity Nebin Monastery was founded in 1592, while the Korsun Cathedral was rebuilt at the turn of the nineteenth century. Its venerated icon was associated by tradition with Alexander Nevsky's marriage in Toropets in 1239, linking the town's sacred history with the memory of its princely past. The icon was honoured in the cathedral for centuries, and its story became part of the town’s account of the prince and his bride. Leatherworking also developed in the eighteenth century, adding another craft to the town’s commercial life.