The History of Ladoga

Historical chronology
Old Ladoga fortress
Old Ladoga Village of Leningrad region

• 753 — stone-earthen fortress;
  
  
• 862 — According to the chronicles “Notes of the past times” after a representative of the local Slavic dynasty prince Gostomysl had died, a rich Scandinavian Rurik together with his brothers and heretoga was invited to Ladoga;
  
  
• 882 г. — the construction of the stone fortress by Oleg the Oracular (destroyed in 997 by Norwegian jarl Erick in 997);
  
  
• 1114 г. — The head of Ladoga Pavel builds a new stone fortress that would bear a siege of Swedish army of two thousand soldiers 50 years after;
  
  
• 1164 г. — the church of St. George was built in commemoration of the victory over the Swedes and in honor of the holy patron of the town. Until the present days an ancient wall painting with the world famous fresco “Wonder of St. George and the serpent” preserved in the church interior.
  
  
• The XII century is marked with an exceptional reach of stone construction. Not less than 6 stone churches were built during the short period of time, the area of the settlement reached 14-15 hectares;
  
  
• 1495 г. — a new fortress was founded with five watchtowers at the beginning of the era of the fire-arms. Powerful walls had a thickness from 3 to 7 meters. At that time the third construction stage in Ladoga began… According to the book of chronicles of the year 1500 the settlement of Ladoga comprised 116 yards and several streets;
  
  
• 1581—1582 гг. — At the end of the War the military of Swedes besieged the fortress but the garrison resisted;
  
  
• 1584—1585 гг. — Muskovy voivode Vasily Golovin built out the Ground Town with three bastions to the stone fortress;
  
  
• The second wooden church dedicated to the holy warrior Demetrius of Thessalonica was built inside the stone fortress in the XVII century;
  
  
• 1610—1617 гг. — Ladoga is under the Swedish occupation.
  
  
• 1617 г. — The signing of Stolbovsky treaty. The city was given back under the authority of Moscow and became a frontier town for the following 85 years;
  
  
• 1702 г. — Peter the Great choose Ladoga to be the place of the assemblage of the first regular Russian army. 14 regiments under the command of B. Sheremetiev were gathered there;
  
  
• 1704 г. — Ladoga was renamed to Old Ladoga. The administrative center according to the order of Peter the I was placed into the newly founded town New Ladoga;
  
  
• 1717 г. — A military garrison was withdrawn from Old Ladoga. People who remained were occupied mainly with agriculture, fishing and the Volhov navigation services.
  
  
• 1718—1725 гг. — The disfavored wife of Peter the First Evdokia Lopuhina was kept in durance in Assumption convent.
  
  
• At the beginning of the XVII-first half of the XIX centuries an enlightener, maecenas, the hero of the War 1812 squire A. Tomilov (1779-1848) collected an incredibly rich collection (about 6 thousand items) of paintings of Russian and foreign artists in his settlement Uspenskoe in the center of Old Ladoga. Today this collection is exhibited in the State Russian museum in St. Petersburg.
  
  
• 1861—1873 гг. — Architect A. Gornostaev constructed the church of St. John the Chrysostom;
  
  
• 1880-е годы — the beginning of the preplanned archeological excavations in Old Ladoga. N. Brandenburg headed the first expedition, precisely measured and fixed the stone walls and towers of Ladoga fortress, researched the remains of the ancient churches of Ladoga and excavated two of them.
  
  
• 1984 г. — following the order of the council of ministers of Russia an architectural and archeological conservation area of Old Ladoga of national level was created on the basis of local historical museum and the monuments of history and culture of Old Ladoga.