Ostashkov is a town in
Tver OblastTver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990 it was named Kalinin Oblast in honor of Michail Kalinin....
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, 199 km west of
TverTver is a city in Russia, the administrative center of Tver Oblast. Population: 405,500 ; 408,903 . Tver, which is located north of Moscow, was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in Imperial Russia with population of 60,000 onJanuary 14, 1913...
. It sits on a peninsula at the southern shore of
Lake SeligerSeliger is a lake in Tver Oblast and, in the extreme northern part, Novgorod Oblast of Russia, in the northwest of the Valdai Hills, a part of the Volga basin. Absolute height: 205 m, area 212 km², average depth 5.8 m....
, one of the purest lakes of Europe. Population: 19,700 (2006 est.); 20,660 (
2002 CensusRussian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...
).
The island of
Klichen was first mentioned in a letter sent by Grand Duke
AlgirdasAlgirdas or Olgerd was a monarch of medieval Lithuania. Algirdas ruled the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1345 to 1377, which chiefly meant monarch of Lithuanians and Ruthenians...
of
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
to the
Patriarch of Constantinople-Current Ecumenical Patriarch:The current Ecumenical Patriarch is His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.-General Introduction:...
in 1371. After the island was pillaged by Novgorod pirates several years later, two of Klichen's surviving inhabitants, Ostashko and Timofey, moved to the mainland, where they founded the villages Ostashkovo and Timofeevo, respectively. The former belonged to the Moscow Patriarchs, and the latter - to the Joseph Volokolamsk Monastery. In 1770, both villages were merged into the town of Ostashkov.
Ostashkov is commonly regarded as one of the finest Russian provincial towns. Its main streets were laid out in
NeoclassicalNeoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture...
style after the plans of
Ivan StarovIvan Yegorovich Starov was a Russian architect from St. Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and many other towns in Russia and Ukraine...
(1772). Local landmarks include the Ascension Church (1689), the Trinity Cathedral (1697), the Monastery of the Sign (1673, 1730s, 1880s), and the mid-18th century Zhitnyi Cloister. There is also a fanciful column erected by people of Ostashkov in 1787 to mark a spot where a wooden fort (1587) used to stand. The town's pleasant architecture and attractive setting by the lake combine to make Ostashkov one of the most popular resorts in Western Russia.
The well known
Nilov MonasteryStolobny Island is an island on Lake Seliger in the Tver Oblast of Russia, about 10 km north of the town of Ostashkov.-Nilov Monastery:The island is the home of Nilov Monastery, which was founded by Saint Nilus in 1594, and previously welcomed up to 40,000 pilgrims each year...
is located on
Stolbnyi IslandStolobny Island is an island on Lake Seliger in the Tver Oblast of Russia, about 10 km north of the town of Ostashkov.-Nilov Monastery:The island is the home of Nilov Monastery, which was founded by Saint Nilus in 1594, and previously welcomed up to 40,000 pilgrims each year...
, about 10 km north from Ostashkov. It was the place where the
Ostashkov Special Camp of the
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including...
was located and where roughly 6,300 Polish policemen and prisoners of war were kept prior to their execution in
TverTver is a city in Russia, the administrative center of Tver Oblast. Population: 405,500 ; 408,903 . Tver, which is located north of Moscow, was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in Imperial Russia with population of 60,000 onJanuary 14, 1913...
. Approximately 4,300 of their comrades, held in Kozielsk were around this time executed in the Smolensk region, in what is now known as the
Katyn massacreThe Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass murder of thousands of Polish military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war by Soviet NKVD, based on a proposal from Lavrentiy Beria to execute all members of the Polish Officer Corps...
.
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