Historical Geography Journal ISSN 2782-6511 (Print) | ISSN 3034-5286 (Online)

Sergey V. Bogdanov
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Tver’ State University (Russia, Tver’)
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1462-5856
Е-mail: serg_bogdanov@mail.ru

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UDC 94(470.331)«16»
DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2025-4-4-100-121

ABSTRACT. The article undertakes an attempt to create graphical model for the topography of Tver’s Zatveretsky township (posad) within the second half of the 17th century. The relevance of such study is due, on the one hand, to the lack of a documented plan for the pre-regular (street) layout of Tver’, on the other hand, to the controversy in the researchers’ propositions for the reconstructions of Tver’s topography of the middle and second half of the 17th century. The aim of modeling is to reconstruct the pre-regular topography of Tver’ on the basis of data from the cadasters’ books of the 17th century and archaeological data, and to localize such focal points of cityscape as the churches. The model simulation is carried out by constructing a graphical plan of one of Tver’s townships — Zatveretsky — on the basis of information on the city courtyards and sites mentioned in the Tver’ cadasters’ book of 1685–1686. The latter, unlike the previous cadasters’ and census books concerned with Tver’, contains information on the sizes of courtyards, empty courtyards and courtyard sites, «monasteries» (church cemeteries), which, in some cases, allows localizing more accurately the city-forming objects — churches, or reconstructing the directions of the streets of Tver’s Zatveretsky posad. As a result of the work carried out, firstly, a graphical model for the topographic plan of the Zatveretsky posad of Tver’ in the second half of the 17th century has been proposed, which shows the lines of streets together with courtyards (such a reconstruction differs significantly from the one proposed by A.V. Shchenkov); secondly, the localization of the unsaved wooden churches of the Zatveretsky posad of Tver’ has been ascertained, where «monasteries» — cemeteries — were established in the second half of the 17th century. These results of the study may have applied significance for implementing archaeological researches on the territory of a contemporary city.

KEYWORDS: topography of medieval Russian cities, pre-regular buildings, Tver’, churches, streets, cadasters’ books

For citation: Bogdanov S. V. [Towards the Reconstruction of the Topography of Tver’s Zaveretsky Posad in the Second Half of the 17th Century: Temples, Cemeteries, Streets]. Istoriko-geograficheskiy zhurnal [Historical Geography Journal], 2025, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 100–121. DOI: 10.58529/2782-6511-2025-4-4-100-121 (In Russian).

Received 14 August 2025
Accepted 1 December 2025

© 2025 The Author

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