 The village emerged as a stopover station on the highway between Moscow and Ryazan (present-day M5 road), and its population and economy traditionally tended to horses.The House of Romanov stables, established in Bronnitsy by 1634, evolved into stud farms supplying riding horses to the cavalry.In the 1780s the administrative reform of Catherine the Great turned the village into a proper small town with a grid plan and a growing merchant community.