Tver

The city is situated where three rivers meet, splitting the town into northern and southern parts by the Volga, and divided again into quarters by the Tvertsa river, which splits the left (northern) bank into east and west halves, and the Tmaka River which does the same along the southern bank. According to one hypothesis, the name of the Tvertsa is of Finnic origin, Tiheverä.

Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian Empire, with a population of 60,000 by 14 January 1913. The city was known as Kalinin from 1931 to 1990.

Aside from the White Trinity Church (1564), built of limestone (rather than usual brick) and located in a district of traditional log houses away from the city center, there are no pre-Petrine buildings left in Tver. The central part, featuring the Volga embankments and bridges, is graced with Catharinian and Soviet edifices.