Shlisselburg (from 1944 to 1992 it was named Petrokrepost) is a town in the Leningrad Region. It is located 24 km to the east of St. Petersburg and 5 km to the north of Kirovsk. It is a pier on the left bank of the Neva River, at its sources from Ladoga Lake. It has a railway station on the opposite river bank. The town with the population of 13 170 people (as of 2010) takes the overall area of 16 sq. km.

The city appeared in the early 18th century as a large port on the way to the capital of the Russian Empire. In 1730 the town’s coat of arms was approved: a blue field - a silver town wall with a gold key and the imperial crown over it. In 1780 Shlisselburg got the status of a district town of the St. Petersburg Province.

The downtown is located in the network of the Ladoga bypass channels. Near the inflow of the Staroladozhsky Channel into River Neva there are unique engineering constructions preserved: a four-chamber granite lock (1836) and a bridge on granite columns (1832). Other town constructions of the 18-19th centuries are also noteworthy: the Blagoveshchensk Cathedral with a belltower, the Nikolsky Church, the Chapel of the Kazan Mother of God, and Gostini dvor. The Peter the Great monument created by the sculptor M.M. Antokolsky was set up in the town.

On September 8, 1941 Shlisselburg was seized by fascist armies. At the break of the Leningrad blockade in January, 1943 the town was destroyed, and was restored in post-war years.

On an island by the mouth of Neva near Shlisselburg there are walls and towers of the Oreshek Fortress, which repeatedly withstood fierce fights with Swedes in the 14th – 17th centuries. In 1612 the fortress passed under the power of Sweden and was renamed into Noteburg (i.e. Nut Town in Swiss). However, during the Northern War the fortress was returned to Russia and since 1702 has been known as Shlisselburg, which means “the Key town”. In the 18th-19th centuries the fortress was used as the state political prison.

During the Great Patriotic War the Soviet soldiers heroically defended the fortress for nearly 500 days. Attacks of the enemy’s artillery caused considerable harm to Oreshek, and restoration works have been conducted here since 1966.

In the fortress there is a grave of the soldiers who perished during an attack of Noteburg in 1702, and a memorial in honor of the heroic fortress defenders was built there in 1941-1943.