The original castle was constructed quickly and took only one summer during the year 1492. The name of the fortress comes from the Muscovite Grand Prince Ivan III and it was built for the purpose of fending off the Livonian Knights. The castle has only four sides, measuring 1600 square feet, with a height of 14 metres. In the years 1496 to 1499, during the Russo-Swedish War, the whole population within the fortress was destroyed after seven hours of fighting by the Swedish forces. Not that long after though the Swedes fled once they learned the Muscovites were coming back to retake the castle under the command of Prince Ivan Gundar and Mikhail Klyapin. Up to three thousand troops arrived to take over the Ivangorod castle and once they had done that they started rebuilding and constructing the new barracks and bastions.
