Dmitrov was founded by Yuri Dolgoruky in 1154 deep in the woods at the site where his son Vsevolod was born. Its name is explained by the fact that Vsevolod's patron saint was Saint Demetrius.
In the 13th century, the town marked a point where converged the borders of Muscovy,Tver, and Pereslavl-Zalessky. The town itself belonged to the princes of Galich-Mersky, located much to the north, until 1364, when it was incorporated into Muscovy. Both Dmitry Donskoy and his grandson Vasily II granted Dmitrov as an appanage to their younger sons, so the town was a capital of a tiny principality. In 1374, it achieved town status.
The reign of Ivan III's son Yury Ivanovich (1503�1533) inaugurated the golden age of Dmitrov. It is during his reign that the black-domed Assumption Cathedral in the kremlin and a smaller monastery cathedral of Sts. Boris and Gleb were built. Thereafter, the town passed to Yuri's brother, Andrey of Staritsa. In 1569, it was seized from Vladimir of Staritsa, added to the Oprichnina and consequently declined. The town suffered further damage during the Time of Troubles, when it was ransacked by the Poles.
In 1812, Dmitrov was briefly occupied by the Grande Arm�e but in 1941 the Wehrmacht soldiers were stopped on the outskirts of the town. The Anarchist prince Peter Kropotkinspent his last years there. In the 1930s, the local kremlin was excavated by Soviet archaeologists. Apart from the Assumption Cathedral, chief landmarks of the Dmitrov District are the cloisters of Sts. Boris and Gleb, of St. Nicholas on the Peshnosha River, and of the Virgin's Nativity at Medvezhya Pustyn', all three dating back to the 16th century
