Устройство и происхождение крепости Ландскрона на Неве
The Structure and Origin of the Landskrona Fortress on the Neva

Summary/Abstract: The Landskrona fortress was built by the Swedish knights on the Neva River in the Novgorod Land in 1300. The Russian troops reached this stronghold and destroyed it in 1301. Architects from Rome took part in the fortress building and it was strongly fortified, as the Chronicle says. Large-scale excavations took place on the remains of Landskrona in 2006—2010.Landskrona was not a typical fortification made on a cape, as the documents witness. It was a regular fortress with two or three lines of moats and a square earth-wooden platform, with a wooden fortified structure in the centre. The wooden framework provided the basis for further regular constructions and prevented destruction of the platform. The plan of underground wooden structures marks the general design of the fortifications above the ground surface. The platform should have provided the conditions for construction of a regular stone fortress with a Convent House in its centre.This type of castles has been known since the late 13th century in the lands of the Teutonic order in Eastern Prussia and earlier in Southern Italy. In the 14th century, it appears in other lands of the Baltic States, including Livonia. Landskrona was one of the earliest and largest fortresses of that type in the Eastern Baltic region.

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