Legends from time immemorial tried to explain the name of the ancient Zvenigorod: talked about bell ringing ( because the city arms is a famous cloister bell, cast in 1667), that he first met the enemy raids and ringing warned Moscow of the danger. Actually founded Zvenigorod Slavs, who came from Kiev and Galich, in the XI century built in the South of the two cities with the same name. The oldest of them stood at the banks of the river. In her noise the hearing of our ancestors could catch the tinkling of bells. Can be in the name of Zvenigorod near Moscow sounds of the gentle murmur of the Moscow river.
Not without reason, Zvenigorod consider it a coeval of Moscow. But his initial story was lost in the dark ages and was not marked by the extant Chronicles. In documents the city is first mentioned in the time when it became the centre of a large inheritance, a part of Moscow Principality. To the XI-XII centuries the Slavs already densely populated valley of the Moscow river. After the peasants of the earth "mastered" the feudal lords. On the occupied territories of the princes needed the support points, guards, gatherers of tribute. So there Zvenigorod.
The center of the ancient settlement became the Kremlin on the Western outskirts of the present city. Zvenigorodsky long call this place a Town. A high hill with steep slopes on three sides by deep ravines, with a fourth bordering the Moscow river waters. The upper area of the Town dominates the surrounding area at 24 meters. In the middle of the XII century Zvenigorod was a stronghold in the North-Eastern...