Short answers, pulled from the story.
According to the Hypatian Codex, the Varangian leader Rurik arrived at Ladoga in 862 and made it his capital before later moving to Novgorod. Because Rurik's successors went on to establish Kievan Rus, Staraya Ladoga is sometimes called the first capital of Russia and regarded as one of the original centers from which the name Rus spread across East Slavic territories.
Dendrochronology suggests Ladoga was founded in 753. It was one of the most important trading ports in Eastern Europe until around 950.
Two major medieval trade routes ran through Ladoga. The route from the Varangians to the Greeks connected the Baltic Sea to Constantinople via the Volkhov River and Novgorod. A second route ran down the Volga River to the Khazar capital of Atil and on to Baghdad, known as the Volga trade route.
The oldest Arabian medieval coin found anywhere in Europe was unearthed at Ladoga. It is also estimated that between 90% and 95% of all Arab dirhams discovered in Sweden passed through Ladoga.
Staraya Ladoga has two mid-12th-century churches, St. George and Mary's Assumption, which still stand in their original form. St. George's retains visible 12th-century frescoes. A third mid-12th-century church, dedicated to St. Climent, now stands in ruins.
Nicholas Roerich painted studies there in the summer of 1899 and called the landscape the finest in Russia. Ivan Aivazovsky, Orest Kiprensky, Alexey Venetsianov, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev, and Alexander Samokhvalov also worked in Staraya Ladoga. Vassily Maximov, a member of the Peredvizhniki group, was born and died there.