Villmanstrand

Villmanstrand, called Lappeenranta in Finnish, stands on a peninsula at the southern edge of Lake Saimaa. Founded in 1649, it grew at a meeting place of inland routes and became an important centre for the tar trade. The heights above the lake offered a natural position for a fortress, and after the Treaty of Nystad in 1721 the town found itself close to Sweden's new frontier with Russia.

Swedish engineers began fortifying the peninsula in the 1720s. In 1741 Russian troops defeated a Swedish army at Lappeenranta, captured the defences and devastated the town. The Treaty of Åbo in 1743 placed it under Russian rule. Late in the century General Alexander Suvorov strengthened the fortress as part of a broader defensive system, adding bastions and outworks and making the town a base for the Russian Saimaa rowing fleet.