Verkhoturye

Verkhoturye stands on the Tura River at a passage across the Urals. Russian authorities founded a fort there in 1598 on the site of the Mansi settlement of Neromkar, following the opening of the Babinov road from Solikamsk. A customs house was established around 1600–1601, and goods and furs moving between European Russia and Siberia passed through this controlled route.

The town also became a religious centre: the Nicholas monastery was founded in 1604 and a women's monastery in 1621. Major fires struck in 1674 and 1738. In the eighteenth century the development of a more southerly Siberian route through Yekaterinburg reduced Verkhoturye's importance as a transport gateway.