Torzhok

Torzhok, city, Tver oblast (region), western Russia, on the Tvertsa River, 37 miles (60 km) west of Tver. The first recorded mention of Torzhok dates from 1139. In the 14th century it became the centre of a small rural district in the Novgorod Feudal Republic, on the trade route between Novgorod and the principality of Suzdal. In 1478 the Muscovite state incorporated Torzhok. During a military campaign of Wladysław IV Vasa (lived 1595–1648), the Polish monarch, Poles largely destroyed the town. In the 18th century it successively became part of Izhora Land (Russian territory after a war with Sweden in 1702–03), the province of Novgorod, and the Viceregency of Tver.

Examples of traditional Russian wooden as well as Neoclassical styles of architecture are found in Torzhok. These include the wooden Voznesenia (Ascension) Church (17th century), and the Excursion Palace and the Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Cathedral from the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively. Of note is the Boris and Gleb Monastery complex built in the 18th- and 19th-century Neoclassical style.

The Torzhok technique of gold embroidery (raised floral patterns using gold and silver threads), which developed in the 13th century and flourished in the 18th, is still practiced. Since the 1950s, Torzhok also has manufactured machinery, railroad cars, printing inks, leather goods, and wood products. Situated in a flax-growing region, the city produces flax-retting machinery and has the All-Russian Flax Research Institute. Torzhok is the natural gas distribution centre on the Moscow–St. Petersburg pipeline. Pop. (2006 est.) 47,796.