Demon

Demon stood on the Yavon River in Novgorod's Derevskaya Pyatina, amid lakes and forest routes. Its fortress protected a waterway from Lake Ilmen along the Pola and Yavon toward Lake Seliger, as well as approaches to Novgorod from the east.

Recorded in medieval Novgorodian sources, Demon lay near lands contested by Novgorod, Moscow and Lithuania. Muscovite forces failed to take it in 1441 but destroyed the fortress in the 1470s. After Novgorod fell to Moscow, the old stronghold lost its frontier role. A later settlement nearby became known as Demyansky Pogost, the predecessor of Demyansk.