17 kilometres from Moscow, on the Plescheyev lake lies the city of Pereslavl'-Zalesskiy. On this land, in 1152, prince Yury Dolgorukiy founded a city at a crossing of trade routes.
Pereslavl' was once affluent and famous; actually the city's very name is translated from Old Russian as 'one who has taken on glory'. Pereslavl's most famous prince was Aleksandr Nevskiy, who was born here, and later left to rule in Novgorod. There is a monument to Nevskiy in the city's Red Square. After it was adjoined to the Moscow principality in 1302, Pereslavl' saw almost all the grand princes and tzars. During Ivan the Terrible's reign, the city became the administrative base of oprichniki, the government elite selected by the tzar.
Wishing to transfer the capital from Moscow to Vologda, the tzar considered Pereslavl' a strategic post. Nikitskiy convent, not far from the road to Vologda, was in 1561-64 turned into an impregnable fortress. In the beginning of the 17th century, Pereslavl'-Zalesskiy was taken by Polish-Lithuanian invaders, which were kicked out in 1609 by the armies of Skopin-Shuyskiy. Together with Minin and Pozharskiy's militia, the inhabitants of Pereslavl' took part in the liberation of Moscow.
The end of the 17th century brought great excitement to the city. In 1688, Peter I began to build on Plescheyev lake an 'amusement fleet', which was the forerunner of the Russian fleet. One of the surviving petrovian boats, the Fortuna is at the 'Botik' museum.