Nyen
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
fortress built in 1611 at the mouth of the Neva river in Swedish Ingria
Swedish Ingria
Swedish Ingria was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1580 to 1595 and then again from 1617 to 1721, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Nystad....
on the site of the present day St. Petersburg in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
History
"Nyen" was properly Swedish for the Neva river, and officially the fortress was always known as Nyenskans, even though the concepts were in flux in common parlance. The term "skans" is Swedish for "bastion." Near the fortress of Nyenskans a town, Nyen, soon developed which was granted town privilegies and became the administrative centre of Swedish IngriaSwedish Ingria
Swedish Ingria was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1580 to 1595 and then again from 1617 to 1721, when it was ceded to the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Nystad....
in 1642. Population in town was largely Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, secondly Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
but also some Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, according to church records. In 1656 a Russian attack badly damaged the town, and the administrative centre was moved to Narva
Narva
Narva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, by the Russian border, on the Narva River which drains Lake Peipus.-Early history:...
. An important Swedish emporium
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
, Nyen was burned down in 1702 in order not to become a threat to the fortress in the event of a Russian invasion.
On May 1, 1703, during the Ingrian campaign of the Great Northern War
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...
, the fortress of Nyenskans was taken by Peter the Great
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
and renamed Schlotburg (Shlotburg), "Neck-town", after the long narrow section of the Neva river where it was located (German "Schlot" corresponds to "(funnel)neck, narrows, chimney"). This fortress stood in contrast to Schlüsselburg
Shlisselburg
Shlisselburg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated at the head of the Neva River on Lake Ladoga, east of St. Petersburg. From 1944 to 1992, it was known as Petrokrepost...
, "Key-town" (previously known as "Nöteborg" in Swedish), at the other end of the Neva river. The last Swedish commandant of Nyenskans was Colonel Johan Apolloff, preceded by Colonel Alexander Pereswetoff-Morath (the sons of Russian noblemen, bayors
Russian bayors
Bayors, , a Swedish transmogrification of ‘boyar’, designating in the early modern era all Russian noblemen in general, and particularly a group of Russian noble families who had entered Swedish service in the late sixteenth–early seventeenth centuries and were incorporated into the Swedish...
, who had entered Swedish service in the first decades of the 17th century).
Having fallen into Russian hands the fortress functioned only for some weeks, and very soon the tsar founded the fortress and city of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
near the site. Nothing remains of Nyen above ground (as the land has been used for industrial development), but on June 15, 2000 a monument was opened on the site of the fortress, at the mouth of the Okhta
Okhta
-Geography:*Okhta River , a river in Russia*Bolshaya Okhta and Malaya Okhta, municipal okrugs of Saint Petersburg, Russia-Buildings:*Okhta Center, a future business center in Saint Petersburg, Russia...
river to a design by V. A. Reppo. In the early winter of 2007 remains of the fortress bastions were identified during archaeological excavations, which were necessitated by the threat of irrecoverable exploitation of the entire site.
In May 2003 (on the occasion of the tricentennial of Saint Petersburg), the museum "700 years: Landskrona, the Neva Mouth, Nyenschantz" was opened at the site of the fortress.