Zemlyansk

Zemlyansk stands near the meeting of the Zemlyanka and Visly Kolodez, northwest of Voronezh. It arose as a fortified settlement on Russia's southern frontier, built by Ukrainian migrants under the voivode Gavriil Ostrovsky. Its service population included Cossacks, musketeers, soldiers and gunners, whose duties joined the defence of the town to the cultivation of the surrounding land.

Construction began in 1661 and the wooden fortress was completed the following year. Its rampart and ditch protected the garrison from raids across the steppe. In 1678 the defences were enlarged, with a ninth tower added and the ditch deepened. A surviving inventory of 1745 records the handover of the town and its keys from one voivode to another, preserving a detailed account of the old frontier stronghold.