- Type
- Fortress
- Origins
- 1323 · 14th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Northwestern, Russia
- Heritage
- part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (an old town or a valley, for example)
- Coordinates
- 59.9538°, 31.0389°
History
In 1323 Prince Yury Danilovich built a wooden fort on Nut Island and concluded the Treaty of Oreshek with Sweden here. Novgorod replaced it with stone walls in 1352, and the present walls and towers date mainly from the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, after Novgorod fell to Moscow. The Swedes captured the fortress in 1612 and named it Nöteborg; in 1702 Peter the Great retook it and renamed it Shlisselburg, the "key city". For two centuries it served as a prison: the deposed Tsar Ivan VI was killed here in 1764, and Lenin's brother Alexander Ulyanov was executed here in 1887. In 1941–1943 a small Soviet garrison held the island for nearly 500 days against the Germans on the shore.
What to see
The island is reached by boat from Shlisselburg. Visitors walk the walls and towers, including the Sovereign's Tower gatehouse, the ruins of St John's Cathedral wrecked in the fighting of the Second World War, and the Old and New Prisons with the cells of political prisoners. A monument honours the fortress's defenders, and the walls overlook the Neva, Lake Ladoga and the Ladoga Canal.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q14690
Popularity: articles about this site in 20 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).