From the Middle Ages, Priozersk was known as Korela to Russians and Käkisalmi to Karelians and Finns. The town was a part of Vodskaya pyatina of the Novgorod Republic. Novgorod taxation documents from 1500 list 183 houses in Korela, suggesting an estimated population of 1,500–2,000. The Swedes captured Korela twice: in 1578 for seventeen years and in 1611 for a hundred years. In the Swedish Empire, the fortress was called Kexholm and the whole region became known as the County of Kexholm. Russia definitively secured the area during the Great Northern War; the town's Swedish name was retained, however, as Keksgolm (). Unfortunately, wars and devastating fires in 1300, 1580, 1634, and 1679 took their toll on the civilian population. Consequently, when the town gained its first court house in 1800, the population was only 400.