Pochep is a town in Pochepsky District

Pochepsky District

Pochepsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the 27 in Bryansk Oblast, Russia. Its administrative center is the town of Pochep. Population: 46,972 ; Population of Pochep accounts for 40.5% of the district's population....

 of Bryansk Oblast

Bryansk Oblast

Bryansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Bryansk. Population: 1,278,087 .-History:...

, 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 84 kilometres (52.2 mi) southwest of Bryansk

Bryansk

Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Moscow. Population: -History:The first written mention of Bryansk was in 1146, in the Hypatian Codex, as Debryansk...

. Population:

History

The origin of Pochep is unknown but it was mentioned in the 15th century as an important town of the Great Duchy of Lithuania. It fell into the hands of Muscovy in 1503 and remained of little significance until the 1710s, when Hetman

Hetman

Hetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....

 Ivan Skoropadsky

Ivan Skoropadsky

Ivan Skoropadsky was a Hetman of the Ukrainian Cossacks, and the successor to the famous Hetman Ivan Mazepa.- Biography:...

 made a grant of it to Prince Menshikov. The latter founded the fort of Alexandropolis in the vicinity and launched manufacture of sails for Russian ships in Pochep.

Hetman's residence

The industry declined following Menshikov's downfall and the town stagnated until 1750, when it passed to another Hetman, Kirill Razumovsky

Kirill Razumovsky

Count Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky was a Ukrainian Registered Cossack from the Kozelets regiment in north-eastern Ukraine, who served as the last Hetman of Left- and Right-Bank Ukraine until 1764; Razumovsky was subsequently elected Hetman of the sovereign Zaporozhian Host in 1759, a position...

, who planned to build his summer residence there. The only monument to these plans is the delightful Church of the Resurrection, built to a confident Baroque design by Antonio Rinaldi in the 1750s.