Ulla

Ulla stands at the confluence of the Ulla and Western Dvina, on the river route through the lands of Polotsk. Known from the fourteenth century, it passed through the hands of several prominent Lithuanian noble families over the following centuries. During the Livonian War Ivan IV ordered a fortress built here; its garrison repelled a Lithuanian force in early 1568, but Roman Sanguszko captured and burned the castle that September.

Stephen Báthory later restored the fortress, and Ulla received Magdeburg rights in 1577. The castle was destroyed during the Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667. The first partition of the Commonwealth divided the settlement in 1772, with one bank passing to Russia and the other remaining in the Commonwealth. The whole town came under Russian rule in 1793.