Ladoga is a fortification of Ancient Russia in Northwest region

     First stone castles were erected in Ladoga and Lyubsha in the VII-beginning of the IX century. In the year 882 Oleg the Oracular built a stone fortress that was destroyed by a Norwegian jarl Arick in 997. The same year is mentioned together with the first reference to “posad” of Ladoga. . The archeologists who worked in Ladoga under the leadership of professor Kirpichnikov in 1972-1975 age-date the ancient Kremlin of Ladoga on the cape formed by Volhov and Ladozhka flowing into it of the first half of the X century. Novgorg prince Mstislav the Great erected the third castle in 1114. The ancient Russian chronicles reads that exactly this year “Pavel posadnik of Ladoga founded Ladoga, city of stone…” The fortress born a Swedish siege in 1164, not only once it performed its task to protect the northern boundaries of the country. In the early Middle Ages Ladoga headed the defense of Onega and Izhora lands brining along the retention of these territories within the Russian state.

     The Swedes attacked Ladoga repeatedly. In 1313 the enemy troops burst into the fortress embracing the absence of many defenders who took part in the campaign. However Ladoga remained unassailable during the war between the Swedes and the Novgord people in 1338.

     According to chronicles the fortress of Ladoga was restored in the middle of the XV century due to the implementation of firearms into the hostilities. A famous Novgorod archbishop, constructor and restorer of many castles and buildings Evfimy the II supervised the restoration. As the chronicles inform: in 1448 Evfimy “in small town Ladoga renewed a stone wall.”

     At the beginning of the XVI century a new fortress with five watchtowers was founded; in addition in 1581-1582 a Muscovy waywode Vasily Golovin attached to the stone fortress the Ground Town with three bastions. At that time the reconstruction of the fortresses of the newly annexed Novgorod land was going on according to the order of Muskovy Tsar.

     In the XVII century the fortress of Ladoga was invaded several times. In 1610 during the Swedish intervention Ladoga was occupied by the troop of condottieres of Yakov Delagardi. In 1611 the Swedes besieged and invaded the fortress. By Stolbovsky treaty of 1617 Ladoga was retrocede to Russia and up to the beginning of the XVIII the fortress served as the shield of the Russian State.

     In 1710 Ladoga has born the last siege in its history. It lost its defensive mission after the end of the Northern War. The garrison had been withdrawn; the fortress that protected northern boundaries of the country for over the centuries was forgotten.