Vorotynsk

Vorotynsk stood in the upper Oka country near the Vyssa, where earthworks mark an old fortified site. The Vorotynsky princes held lands between the Oka and Ugra under Lithuanian authority before entering the service of Moscow. Their estates occupied a frontier where rivers and forts separated competing powers.

In 1480 Khan Ahmad halted near New Vorotynsk before the confrontation on the Ugra with Ivan III’s forces. The opposing armies withdrew without a general battle. Soon afterwards the Vorotynsky princes transferred their allegiance to Moscow. Prince Dmitry Vorotynsky is associated with the foundation of the Saviour monastery near the mouth of the Ugra, probably in the early sixteenth century. Its churches stood close to the river landscape made famous by the stand of 1480.