Viborg

Eric of Pomerania granted the town its charter in 1403, and Vyborg grew into one of the chief trading places of Finland and the centre of its eastern lands. In the 1470s Eric Axelsson Tott, lord of the castle, ringed the town with stone walls and towers, and they were soon put to the test: in the Russo-Swedish War of 1496–97 Daniil Shchenya laid a long siege to Vyborg and failed to take it. The town stayed Swedish for two more centuries and beat off a Russian siege as late as 1706, but in 1710 Peter the Great's army forced it to surrender after 77 days. The Treaty of Nystad confirmed the loss in 1721, and Vyborg became the seat of a Russian province, until in 1812 Alexander I joined it to his new Grand Duchy of Finland.