The town of Zvenigorod, some 19 miles due west of Moscow, is one of the area’s most picturesque area, and at the center there is the St. Savva-Storozhevsky Monastery. Although the earliest written reference to Zvenigorod does not occur until 1339, it is possible that a settlement existed there as early as the reign of Yury Dolgoruky (1090s-1157), who is considered Moscow’s founding prince.