Oreshek

Oreshek stands on an island where the Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga. Its position guarded the waterway between the Russian interior and the Baltic approaches, making the small island a coveted stronghold on the frontier between Novgorod and Sweden.

Prince Yury built a Novgorodian fortress here in 1323, the year in which Novgorod and Sweden concluded a boundary treaty at the site. In the centuries that followed, stone walls and towers replaced the early defences. Swedish forces besieged the fortress from 1611 until its surrender in 1612; under Swedish rule it was known as Nöteborg. Peter I retook it in 1702 during the Great Northern War and renamed it Shlisselburg, the “key fortress.” Control of the island helped Russia secure the Neva route shortly before the founding of St Petersburg.