Kleshchin

Kleshchin (Клещин) was a Meryan[1] (and later Slavic) town on the eastern shore of Lake Pleshcheyevo in Zalesye.

[2] In 1152, Grand Duke George I of Vladimir had Kleshchin transferred 4500 meters to the south, renaming it Pereslavl-Beyond-the-Woods.

Ivan the Terrible presented it to the nearby Nikitsky Monastery in 1562.

The site is fortified with a system of earthworks - about 3 meters (9.8 ft) high - that used to support a wooden palisade with four gate towers.

The so-called Bald Hill in the vicinity of Gorodishchi is believed to have housed a pagan sanctuary from which the sacred Blue Stone of the Meryans was overthrown and broken to pieces.