Siege of Riga (1656) 1656
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 21 August 1656 – 5 October 1656 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1656 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Latvia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Second Northern War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 56.9489, 24.1064 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The siege of Riga by the Russian army under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was the main event of the Russo-Swedish War. The fortifications of Riga consisted of a wall with ditch and 5 bastions around the old town. In 1652 Swedes had started construction of a new wall with 12 bastions around suburbs, but by 1656 the work had not been completed. The Russian vanguard consisting of the Vladimir v. Vizin reiters, Daniel Krafert infantry and Iunkmann dragoons approached Riga on August 20 and threw back the Swedes under count of Pärnu, Heinrich von Thurn into the city. Von Thurn was either killed, or captured in the action. The Swedes evacuated the suburbs and withdrew to the old town. A few days later, the main army under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich arrived on the ships on the Duna River, and laid siege to Riga. The Russian army occupied three camps, two on the east bank of the Duna in Riga's suburbs, and a Corps under Ordyn-Nashokin on the west bank of the Duna, opposite the Kobrun entrenchment.
As Russia had no full-fledged navy to intercept reinforcements coming to the Swedish garrison across the Baltic, Riga managed to hold out until October, when foreign officers commanding a small Russian flotilla defected to the other side and the Russians had to lift the siege.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Riga (1656) (revision 1378544310), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Riga (1700) 1700 · 0 km
- Siege of Riga (1709–1710) 1709 · 0 km
- Siege of Riga (1812) 1812 · 0 km
- Crossing of the Düna 1701 · 5 km
- Battle of Riga (1215) 1215 · 12 km
- Capture of Daugavgrīva 1608 · 12 km
Other battles of the Second Northern War
- Battle of Krosno 1655
- Battle of Wojnicz 1655
- Siege of Danzig (1655–1660) 1655
- Siege of Jasna Góra 1655
- Siege of Kraków 1655
- Battle of Chojnice (1656) 1656
- Battle of Filipów 1656
- Battle of Gołąb 1656
- Battle of Jarosław (1656) 1656
- Battle of Kcynia 1656
All 24 battles of the Second Northern War →
Browse more: battles in Latvia · Europe · Early modern battles