Shlisselburg (Russian: Шлиссельбург; IPA: [ʂlʲɪsʲɪlʲˈburk]; German: Schlüsselburg) is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated at the head of the Neva River on Lake Ladoga, 35 kilometers (22 mi) east of St. Petersburg. From 1944 to 1992, it was known as Petrokrepost. Population: 13,305 (2010 Census preliminary results);[1] 12,401 (2002 Census);[2] 12,589 (1989 Census).[3]
The fortress and the city center are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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The first fortification was built in 1299 by Lord High Constable of Sweden Torgils Knutsson but was lost to the Novgorodians in 1301. A wooden fortress named Oreshek (also Orekhov) ("Nutlet") was built by Grand Prince Yury of Moscow (in his capacity as Prince of Novgorod) on behalf of the Novgorod Republic in 1323. It guarded the northern approaches to Novgorod and access to the Baltic Sea. The fortress is situated on Orekhovets Island, whose name, refers to nuts in Swedish and (Pähkinäsaari, "Nut Island") in Finnish and Russian.
After a series of conflicts, a peace treaty, was signed at Oreshek on August 12, 1323, between Sweden and Grand Prince Yury and the Novgorod Republic which was the first agreement on the border between Eastern and Western Christianity, running through present-day Finland. A modern stone monument to the north of the Church of St. John in the fortress commemorates the treaty .
Twenty-five years later, King Magnus Eriksson attacked and briefly took the fortress during his crusade in the region (1348–1352).[4] It was largely ruined by the time the Novgorodians retook the fortress in 1351. The fortress was rebuilt in stone in 1352 by Archbishop Vasilii Kalika of Novgorod (1330–1352), who, according to the Novgorod First Chronicle, was sent by the Novgorodians after several Russian and Lithuanian princes ignored the city's pleas to help them rebuild and defend the fort.[5] The remnants of the walls of 1352 were excavated in 1969 and can be seen just north of the Church of St. John in the center of the present fortress.
The fort was captured by Sweden in 1611 during the Ingrian War. As part of the Swedish Empire, the fortress was known as Nöteborg ("Nut-fortress") in Swedish or Pähkinälinna in Finnish, and became the center of the north-Ingrian Nöteborg county (slottslän).
In 1702, during the Great Northern War, the fortress was taken by Russians under Peter the Great in an amphibious assault: 250 Swedish soldiers defended the fort for 10 days before they surrendered. The Russian losses were 6000 men against 110 Swedish losses. It was then given its current name, Shlisselburg, a transcription of Schlüsselburg. The name, meaning "Key-fortress" in German, refers to Peter's perception of the fortress as the "key to Ingria".
During the times of Imperial Russia, the fortress was used as a notorious political prison; among its famous prisoners were Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Mikhail Bakunin and, for 38 years, Walerian Łukasiński. Ivan VI of Russia was murdered in the fortress in 1764, and Lenin's brother, Aleksandr Ulyanov, was hanged there too.
Out of ten towers, the fortress retains only six (five Russian and one Swedish). The remains of a church inside the fortress were transformed into a memorial to the fortress's defenders. The fortress has been the site of an annual rock concert since 2003. There is also a museum of political prisoners of the Russian Empire, and a small collection of World War II artillery.
The town on the mainland opposite the island fortress was founded in 1702 by Peter the Great. It does not retain many historical buildings, apart from a handful of 18th-century churches. Perhaps the most remarkable landmark is the Old Ladoga Canal, started at the behest of Peter I in 1719 and completed under the guidance of Fieldmarshal Munnich twelve years later. The canal stretches for 104 versts; its granite sluices date from 1836.
During World War II, the town (not the fortress) was seized by Nazi Germany. The recapture of Shlisselburg in 1943 by Soviet forces reopened access to besieged Leningrad. Between 1944 and 1992, the town's name was Russified as Petrokrepost (literally: "Fortress of Peter"). Shlisselburg regained its former name after the fall of the Soviet Union.
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