Kostelnaya Gora - the historical center of Zelva

The first mention of Zelva, dated 1258, is found in the Ipatiev Chronicle. Later, information about Bolshaya Zelva is found in written sources in 1470, when the owner of the settlement, Mikhail Nachovich, laid the wooden church of the Holy Apostle Yakub and Michael the Archangel on the sandy (Kostelnaya) mountain above the pond. Today, the remains of the chapel, the construction of which began in the 40s of the 19th century, together with a stone church on the site of a wooden shrine, have been preserved.