Oreshek Fortress
A fortress on an island at the source of the Neva, founded in 1323.
Novgorodians founded the fortress on Orekhovy Island in 1323, where the Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga. The reason was the Swedes, who thirty years earlier had built Vyborg Castle and threatened trade routes, including the route 'from the Varangians to the Greeks'. For almost a hundred years, from 1612 to 1702, the fortress belonged to Sweden and was called Noteborg. Peter the Great retook it by storm and named it Shlisselburg — 'key-town'. Later it became a dreadful political prison, and during the Great Patriotic War a handful of defenders held the fortress for 500 days under fire, preventing the Germans from reaching the right bank of the Neva.
Walks in Peterhof / Day trips
🛶 Ladoga: Oreshek and Staraya Ladoga
To the origins of Rus: a fortress at the source of the Neva and a village older than almost all Russian towns.