Gorbatov is a town in Pavlovsky District

Pavlovsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Pavlovsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is an administrative district , one of the 47 in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia....

 of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Population: The oblast is crossed by the Volga River. Apart from Nizhny Novgorod's metropolitan area, the biggest city is Arzamas...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located on the bank of the Oka River

Oka River

Oka is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir, and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as to the town of Kaluga. Its length exceeds...

 in the Meshchera Lowlands

Meshchera Lowlands

Meshchera Lowlands , also referred to as simply "Meshchera"/"Meshchyora" is a spacious lowland in the middle of the European Russia. It is named after the Finno-Ugric Meshchera tribe, which used to live there...

. Population:

The region was settled by the Meshchera tribe during the Middle Ages. The village of Gorbatovo was first documented in 1565 as a votchina

Votchina

Votchina or otchina was an East Slavic land estate that could be inherited. The term "votchina" was also used to describe the lands of a knyaz.The term originated in the law of Kievan Rus...

of Prince Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky

Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky

Prince Alexander Borisovich Gorbatyi-Shuisky was probably the most celebrated and popular general of Ivan the Terrible. The town of Gorbatov in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast bears his name....

 after whom it takes its name. Its growth was owing to the manufacture of ropes and cherry

Cherry

The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....

 cultivation. In 1779, Gorbatovo was merged with Meshchera sloboda

Sloboda

Sloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement"....

and chartered as a town. Modern Gorbatov is one of Russia's smallest towns.