The original castle was constructed in one summer, in the year 1492. It was named after
Muscovite Grand Prince
Ivan III. Its purpose was to fend off the
Livonian Knights. The castle is strictly quadrilateral, measuring , with walls 14 metres tall. Ivangorod was won back from the
Livonian Order later in the year by Muscovite forces under the command of Prince Ivan Gundar and Mikhail Klyapin. Three thousand troops arrived to retake the castle, rebuild it, and construct a new barracks and stronger bastions. For almost 10 years, the land around the castle was in constant warfare. The fortress and the land around changed hands repeatedly. The castle was reconstructed and fortified many times, becoming one of the strongest defensive structures in the 16th century. The castle was in development until the 17th century, becoming a large, sprawling fortress with several lines of defence. The
Treaty of Teusina (1595) returned the fortress to Russia. In 1612, the
Swedish Empire conquered the fortress, which was defended by a
voivode, Fyodor Aminev (b 1560s, d 1628) and his sons. By the
Treaty of Stolbova, Ingria was ceded to
Gustav II Adolf, king of
Sweden. In 1704,
Peter the Great captured the castle from Swedish troops, bringing the fortress back into Russian control. Inside the fortress, there are two churches: one is dedicated to the
Virgin's Assumption (1496) and the other to
St Nicholas (built in the late 16th century but later reconstructed). (1498) and the Virgin's
Dormition (1558) inside the fortress walls. After the early 18th century, the military role of the fortress dwindled due to technological advances. In 1728, a review was carried out of the fortresses in this area, which concluded that the installation had been neglected, and had a low fighting efficiency. An order was issued for restoration of the Ivangorod fortress, but after the inspection of 1738 the fortress was designated not adequate for defence purposes. In 1840, some improvements were carried out in the fortress (roofs were renewed), and further improvements took place in 1863 and 1911-1914. During
World War I, the fortress was captured by the Germans on 25 February 1918. The
Imperial Russian Army had been relying on it and similar fortresses to halt the
Imperial German Army advance during the
Great Retreat, but they ended up outmatched against modern military technologies such as
heavy artillery. From 1919 to 1940, the fortress belonged to
Estonia. During 1920 - 1921, the fortress was used as transit camp for former
POWs being repatriated to Germany and to Russia. Despite changing hands several times in the first half of the 20th century, the fortress played no significant role in fighting. During
World War II, after the
Soviet invasion and annexation of Estonia in 1940, the fortress was first controlled by the
USSR (1940–1941) and then by
Nazi Germany (1941–1944), which established two
POW camps within the fortress and left many of its buildings damaged after their retreat. In January 1945 Soviet authorities defined the Narva river as the new administrative border between the
Estonian SSR and
Russian SFSR, and as a result the Ivangorod fortress transferred from Narva to the
Kingiseppsky District of
Leningrad Oblast. In August 1991, after the restoration of the independent Republic of Estonia, the town and fortress remained with Russian SFSR, and thereafter with the
Russian Federation after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Currently, the fortress serves as a museum. == The museum ==