The name of this medieval town has a very interesting history as well as the town itself. Pereslavl-Zalessky was founded by the Slaves who migrated from the Kiev region, which was a capital of Russian principality. They brought the fame of Kiev with them and it was perpetuated in the first part of the name: Pereslavl means "that who adopted fame". The second part of the name - Zalessky - means "situated behind the forest", as the recent founded town was isolated from Kiev and other southern towns by the forest.

Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, who founded Moscow in 1147, built a mighty system of fortification works around Pereslavl-Zalevsky. This outstanding example of ancient Russian fortification works has come down to us in a good condition, giving Valovoe Koltso (Rampart Ring) Street going in a circle around the town center its name. Next to the ramparts, on Krasnaya Square (its name, meaning "red", used to mean "beautiful" in olden times), stands a building which is as old as the town itself, the whithestone Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour (1157), one of the oldest masterpieces by Russian masters to have survived. A monument to Prince Alexander Nevsky, a distinguished military leader, stands on Krasnaya Square before the ancient cathedral (Pereslavl-Zalessky was the birthplace of this great man). The ensembles of four monasteries - the St.Theodor Monastery, the Monastery of St.Nikita, The Trinity-St.Daniil Monastery, and the Goritsky Monastery of Dormition - have also come down to us. The Goritsky Monastery now houses a museum.

Although Pereslavl-Zalessky is more than a thousand miles away from the nearest sea, it can by right be called the cradle of the Russian navy. It was on lake Pleshcheevo, that the young Tsar Peter the Great decided to build a "toy flotilla" in the 1680th. And thus the Russian navy came into being. The story of the "toy flotilla" is the subject of the display which is to be seen at the Botik Estate Museum where one of the Tsar Peter's first boats, the Fortuna, is preserved.