Alūksne is the highest elevated Latvian city, located in East Vidzeme Upland at 217 m[4] above sea level.

The region around Lake Alūksne was originally settled by Finnic-speaking tribes, and from the 8th-12th centuries by Latgalians.

The date of settlement at the current location of the town, then known as Olysta, Alyst, and Volyst, is given in the chronicles of Pskov as 1284.

[citation needed] The Latgalian inhabitants of the settlement were conquered by the German crusaders of the Livonian Order in 1224.

[5] In 1284, they built a wooden castle named Marienburg (after Mary, the mother of Jesus) on a nearby island, which served to protect trade routes from Riga to Pskov.

The Russian army led by Sheremetyev captured the town during the Great Northern War in 1702, doing great damage to the area and deporting all the inhabitants, including Glück and his foster daughter, Marta Skavronska, who later became Empress Catherine I of Russia.