Oreshek Fortress

About museum

Oreshek Fortress was founded in 1323 by Prince Yuri Danilovich on the small Orekhovy Island at the source of the Neva. It guarded the route to Lake Ladoga and was intended to protect the Novgorod lands from Swedish expansion. The Orekhovets peace treaty (1323) between Novgorod and Sweden was concluded here. In the early 16th century the fortress formed an elongated polygon with seven towers and a citadel — an inner fortress with three towers. In the 18th–19th centuries Shlisselburg Fortress was used as a prison for political and criminal offenders. In 1917 all prisoners were freed by the uprising people. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II) the fortress stood firm. Today Oreshek Fortress is a branch of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg; here you can see fragments of the first stone fortress of 1352, the walls and towers of Oreshek from the 16th century, earthen bastions of the 18th century and prison buildings of the 18th–20th centuries, two of which house historical exhibitions.