Ladoga

Ladoga stands where the small Ladozhka enters the Volkhov, above the great lake of the same name. Its fortress guarded a harbour on the waterway to Novgorod, while burial mounds and early finds recall the town’s long connections with Scandinavia and the eastern trade. Medieval stone churches, including St George’s with its frescoes, bear witness to its place in the religious life of the Novgorod lands.

For centuries Ladoga was a northern outpost of Novgorod. Swedish forces captured and burned it in 1313; in 1338 the fortress withstood another siege, though the settlement outside its walls was destroyed. The rise of other fortresses farther west and a decline in trade diminished its importance. By the fifteenth century fishing supported many inhabitants, while church institutions held much of the land. The fortifications were rebuilt around the turn of the sixteenth century and strengthened again in the 1580s.

During the Time of Troubles forces in Swedish service seized Ladoga in 1610, but Russians recovered it the following year. Negotiations held here in 1616 prepared the way for the Treaty of Stolbovo, which ended the war with Sweden in 1617. After Peter I founded New Ladoga nearer the lake in the early eighteenth century, the older town became known as Staraya Ladoga. Its ancient fortress no longer guarded the same frontier, but the river still flowed past its walls.