Narva

Narva stands on the western bank of the river of the same name, at a meeting of trade routes between Livonia and Russia. Its castle was founded under Danish rule in the thirteenth century, and the town received Lübeck rights in 1345. Across the river rises Ivangorod, built by Ivan III of Moscow in 1492: the two fortresses faced one another across a frontier that merchants and armies alike sought to cross. Although its trade was linked to Hanseatic networks, opposition from Tallinn kept Narva outside the league, and it remained a small town in the early sixteenth century.

Russia captured Narva in 1558 during the Livonian War, turning it into an outlet for goods from Pskov and Novgorod. Swedish forces took both Narva and Ivangorod in 1581. Under Sweden the town was strengthened with new bastions, and its castle gained an arsenal. Its merchants and soldiers shared a place whose prosperity and security depended upon command of the river crossing.

In 1700, at the beginning of the Great Northern War, Charles XII of Sweden defeated Peter I's army outside Narva. The victory did not secure the town for Sweden: Peter returned with a stronger army and captured it in 1704. Russian engineers continued work on the bastions after the conquest, using the Swedish plan already begun before the war.