Kingisepp

Saint Catherine's Cathedral in Kingisepp

Flag

Coat of arms

Kingisepp (Russian: Кингисепп, formerly Yamburg (Я́мбург)) is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It is along the Luga River. It is 138 kilometers (86 mi) southwest of St. Petersburg, 20 kilometers (12 mi) east of Narva, and 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of the Gulf of Finland. In 2010, 48,488 people lived there.

History

The town was first mentioned in 1384. The Novgorodians built a fortress there against the Swedes. It was called Yama, after the ethnic Finno-Ugric group) name Jaama. The citadel withstood sieges by the Teutonic Knights in 1395 and from 1444 to 1448. At the end of the Livonian War, it was assigned to Sweden, but returned twelve years later, in 1595.

In 1703, the town was finally taken by the Russians during the Great Northern War. In 1708, Peter the Great granted the town to Alexander Menshikov as the Duke of Izhora.

The city name was kept unchanged until 1922, when the Bolsheviks renamed in honor of the Estonian communist leader Viktor Kingissepp.