History

In European history Narva has been known as a traditional center of international trade. The waterway along the Narva River had already been utilized during the epoch of the Vikings (VIII - XI centuries) and represented an offshoot of the famous river waterway from the Baltic to the Mediterranean that was referred to in an ancient Russian chronicle as "The Way from Varangians to Greeks". Later (beginning from the XIII century) the land route from Tallinn to Novgorod via Narva had been intensively used. There, near the river crossing, a trade settlement sprang up in the XII century. Eventually this was granted the status of a town in 1345 by the will of Valdemar VI Atterdag, the King of Denmark. This is how the town of Narva came into being.



Medieval Narva played a great role in the trade system of the Baltics which had been formed under the aegis of the Hanseatic League, as well as that of the Germanic Order. From the end of the XV century (after the Novgorod Republic had been joined to Moscow),the historic role of intermediary in Russian and European trade relations which Novgorod had previously played was gradually shifted to Narva. In the second half of the XVI century, during the Livonian War, Narva was conquered by the armed forces of Russian Czar Ivan IV (the Terrible), and for about 20 years the town was the main center of the sea trade in the Baltics. Another (and the most important) flourishing of Narva as a commercial town occurred in the XVII century, when it belonged to the powerful Kingdom of Sweden. That period was the "Golden Age" for commerce in Narva.

Also contributing to the town’s prosperity was the fact that trade routes were passing via Narva that linked the Baltics not only with Russia, but also with oriental countries such as Persia and Trans-Caucasus.