Pskov

Pskov is a town and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, placed approximately 20 kilometers east from the Estonian border, at the Velikaya River. Pskov is one of the oldest towns in Russia. The call of the metropolis, originally Pleskov, may be loosely translated as "of purling waters". It turned into historically known in English as Plescow. Its earliest mention comes in 903, which information that Igor of Kiev married a local woman, St. Olga. Pskovians now and again take this year because the metropolis's basis date, and in 2003 a exceptional jubilee happened to rejoice Pskov's 1,100th anniversary.

The first prince of Pskov was Vladimir the Great's youngest son Sudislav. Once imprisoned by using his brother Yaroslav, he became now not launched till the latter's demise numerous a long time later. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the metropolis adhered politically to the Novgorod Republic. In 1241, it become taken by way of the Teutonic Knights, but Alexander Nevsky recaptured it several months later all through a legendary campaign dramatized in Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 movie Alexander Nevsky.

In order to secure their independence from the knights, the Pskovians elected a Lithuanian prince, named Daumantas, a Roman Catholic converted to Orthodox faith and known in Russia as Dovmont, as their navy leader and prince in 1266. Having fortified the town, Daumantas routed the Teutonic Knights at Rakvere and overran a great deal of Estonia. His remains and sword are preserved in the local kremlin, and the core of the castle, erected by means of him, still bears the name of "Dovmont's city".