Mstyora (urban locality)
Coordinates: 56°22′39″N 41°55′48″E / 56.37750°N 41.93000°E
Mstyora or Mstera (Russian: Мстёра) is an urban locality (a settlement) in Vyaznikovsky District of Vladimir Oblast, Russia. Municipally, it is a part of Mstyora Urban Settlement, of which it is the administrative center. Population: 4,859 (2010 Census);5,598 (2002 Census);6,307 (1989 Census).
It grew up as a settlement attached to the nearby monastery of the Epiphany (Богоявленский монастырь), on land belonging to the Romodanovskys, in the early 17th century. After the abolition of the monastery in 1764, it became a village, named after the Mstyora River (then known as Mstyorka); the name is probably from Merya Mustajarvi (compare Finnish musta, meaning "black", and järvi, meaning "lake"). Like the nearby villages of Kholuy and Palekh, it was a center of icon production in the traditional style, but in contrast to the opulence of Palekh icons, those of Mstyora "sought to emulate the fifteenth and sixteenth century austerity" and "were greatly favored by Russia's Old Believers' sect."
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