Yama

Yama stood on the Luga River in the Vodskaya lands of Novgorod. In 1384 the Novgorodians under Patrikas built a fortress here against the Swedes, naming it Yama or Yamsky Gorodok after the local Finnic name Jaama. It withstood Swedish siege in 1395 and attacks by the Teutonic Knights during the war of 1444–1448. By the fifteenth century it had become an important economic center of the Vodskaya district, with 201 homesteads recorded in the town.

Sweden obtained Yama at the end of the Livonian War, returned it in 1595, and acquired it again under the Treaty of Stolbovo. Russian armies devastated the town during the war of 1656–1658, leaving the citadel standing; the Swedes dismantled that in 1681. Russia took the site during the Great Northern War in 1703, when it was renamed Yamburg. It subsequently became an uyezd town in 1784.