Fortress of Izborsk: A Medieval Frontier Fortress in Russia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Russia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Pskov Republic, Russian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page19 sections
History
The Fortress of Izborsk is a medieval stone stronghold in Russia, in the town of Izborsk. It grew from an Eastern Slavic settlement and was rebuilt in stone in 1330 to defend the western frontier of the Pskov lands. Its history reaches back to the Krivichs, an Eastern Slavic tribal population associated with the early settlement of the Pskov region, and its later development reflects the military importance of the northwestern Rus lands.
Krivich settlement and early town
Krivich tribes occupied the area from at least the sixth century. The fortified settlement later known as Truvorovo Gorodishche was established on a lakeside promontory at the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century. The Primary Chronicle mentions Izborsk in 862 in connection with Truvor, a semi-legendary early Rus ruler described in medieval chronicle tradition as Rurik’s younger brother.
During the ninth century, the settlement’s defenses enclosed about 4,500 square metres. In the tenth century, Izborsk developed from a Krivich tribal centre and early town into a medieval town with craft production and trade. By the eleventh century, it had become dependent on Pskov, which developed it as a northwestern outpost.
The early settlement included a small oak-walled inner fortress, or detinets, where the veche, a popular political assembly, met. The prince’s residence and military quarters were also located there, while the wider population lived outside the walls. Before the present fortress was established, the town occupied the site now called Truvorovo Gorodishche.
Transfer to Zheravya Hill
In the early fourteenth century, the town was moved about 1.5 kilometres to a new position on Zheravya Hill. The new fortress initially relied mainly on wooden defenses, although the circular Lukovka Tower was built in stone beside the eastern wall. In 1330, Pskov posadnik Sheloga, a senior civic and administrative official in the medieval political system of Pskov, rebuilt the fortress in stone with the people of Pskov and Izborsk.
The enlarged stronghold was intended to protect the western frontier of the Pskov lands. It withstood eight sieges before the fifteenth century. German forces captured Izborsk in 1233 and again in the summer of 1240, when attacking knights took the fortress on the second day of the siege. Pskov forces expelled them after Alexander Nevsky’s victory over Livonian forces on the ice of Lake Peipus in 1242. That victory became a major event in the defense of the northwestern Rus lands.
Livonian forces, military and religious formations active in the eastern Baltic, besieged the fortress for eleven days in 1342 but failed to capture it. German forces attacked again in the summer of 1367. Their eighteen-day siege included the use of battering rams, yet the attackers withdrew without taking the town.
Expansion and later military history
Around the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the fortifications were rebuilt in limestone. The landward wall followed a convex curve and became double-layered, while a deep water-filled ditch was dug along the defenses. Additional stone towers were erected for artillery. The enclosed area then measured 2.4 hectares, and the walls extended for up to 850 metres with a thickness of as much as 3 metres.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the walls were thickened around the entire perimeter. Their width increased from an average of 2.5 metres to about 3.7 metres on the side sections and up to 5 metres on the landward side. The fortress then had an irregular triangular plan with rounded corners, an area of about 15,000 square metres, and six conical towers. Most of the towers projected toward the field, and the intervals between them were no more than 60 metres, allowing fire to cover the surrounding approaches.
The fortress was taken by the forces of Stefan Batory in 1581. Batory, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, led campaigns against territories in the Pskov region and the eastern Baltic. Izborsk later resisted the forces of Alexander Lisovsky during the Time of Troubles, a period of political crisis and military conflict in Russia. Its military importance declined after the Northern War.
Repair, religious association, and preservation
By the nineteenth century, the fortress was in substantial disrepair. In 1842, on the order of Emperor Nicholas I, its walls were repaired and a new cathedral bell tower was built. The fortress is now part of the Izborsk Museum-Reserve and is a federally significant cultural-heritage property of the Russian Federation. Archaeological research and restoration continue, while the surviving walls and towers remain part of the local natural-historical complex.
The site is associated with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Pskov diocese, the church’s regional jurisdiction. A chapel dedicated to the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God was built beside the fortress walls in 1931. Its design was by Alexander Vladovsky, an Estonian-Russian architect.
Remains
Earlier settlement and first defenses
Truvorovo Gorodishche
Truvorovo Gorodishche occupies a lakeside promontory and preserves the setting of the settlement that preceded the fortress on Zheravya Hill. In the ninth century, its defenses enclosed about 4,500 square metres. The inner stronghold had oak walls, and the settlement’s organization placed the princely residence, military quarters, and meeting place of the veche within this protected area. Burial mounds associated with the earlier Krivich settlement remain visible in the surrounding area.
First stone fortress
The first stone fortress is generally dated to the eleventh or twelfth century. Its western gates connected it with the settlement, while eastern gates led toward Gorodishchenskoye Lake, where a landing place and market were located or may have been located. In the thirteenth century, access included a road along a stream reinforced with stone slabs. Winding internal streets were between 3.5 and 5 metres wide and bordered by houses.
On the landward side, an earthwork reached about 6 metres in height. The stone wall on the promontory side was up to 3 metres thick and about 3 metres high. A small tower attached to the defensive wall was built from rough stone slabs. Its walls were at least 1.5 metres thick and supported a log-built upper structure with a conical roof. Beside the tower, a concealed tunnel about 0.8 metres wide and 1 metre high was sealed externally with stone slabs.
Fourteenth-century fortress and underground defenses
Lukovka Tower
Lukovka was attached to the eastern wall of the second fortress and later became enclosed within its expanded circuit. The circular tower has an external diameter of 9.5 metres and rises about 13 metres. Its lower loophole levels were later blocked. It was the principal stone element of the fortress when the new defenses on Zheravya Hill were still mainly wooden.
Underground passage
A narrow underground passage lay on the southeastern side of the second fortress. It extended for up to 40 metres and ran about 16 metres below ground, linking the fortress-town with the foot of the promontory. Stone slabs formed its walls and gabled vault. At the outlet, the passage was enclosed in a log structure and converted into a well.
Expanded walls and towers
Walls, ditch, and combat platforms
The later limestone fortifications formed an irregular triangular enclosure with rounded corners. Their landward section was thickened and doubled, and a deep water-filled ditch followed the defenses. Combat platforms inside the fortress were connected by wooden stairways, allowing movement along the fortified circuit. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the walls reached about 5 metres in thickness on the landward side.
Ploskushka Tower and Talavsky zahab
Ploskushka, also called the Talavskaya Tower, occupied the northwestern corner. It was the only tower with a rectangular plan, measuring 8.5 by 9.5 metres and standing about 15 metres high. Five fighting levels were contained within the tower. It was joined to the Talavsky zahab, a fortified entrance passage between defensive walls, which measured about 4 metres wide and 36 metres long. The tower also functioned as a passage gate.
Western and southwestern towers
Most of the other principal towers were circular. Vyshka stood on the western landward wall and was the highest tower. Its wooden upper structure served watch duty, and a concealed passage to the field survives there. Ryabinovka, on the same wall, had six levels of loopholes. Temnushka, or the Dark Tower, stood on the southwestern landward wall and also had six loophole levels. It adjoined the Nikolsky zahab, a fortified passage designed to expose attackers to defenders’ fire before they reached the main gate.
Southern Bell Tower and former towers
The southern Bell Tower retained a belfry until the 1870s. The former Flat Tower stood outside the Nikolsky zahab, and its foundation survives. The former wooden St George’s Tower stood above the Nikolsky Gate. The fortress entrances consisted of the Nikolsky and Talavsky zahabs, while the inner Nikolsky Gate of the Nikolsky passage remains.
Cathedral within the fortress
St Nicholas Cathedral
St Nicholas Cathedral stands inside the fortress opposite the Bell Tower. It dates to 1341, or more broadly to the first half of the fourteenth century, and belongs to the Pskov architectural school, a regional medieval building tradition using local stone and distinctive domed church forms. The cathedral has a four-pillar structure, a dome, an apse, and multiple archivolts, or layered arches, characteristic of that tradition.
