Peter and Paul Fortress - St. Petersburg, Russia

History of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Guide, attractions and places of interest, opening hours ...

 

Since the construction of this unique fortification, the history of St. Petersburg has actually begun. That is why, quite naturally, the Peter and Paul Fortress is the oldest architectural monument in the list of sights of the Northern capital.

May 27, 1703 on the Holy Trinity, according to the drawings, personally executed by Peter I, on the island of Vesyol or Zayachy, at the mouth of the Neva, in its widest spill on 3 sleeves: Malaya Neva, Bolshaya Neva and Bolshaya Nevka, which was supposed to protect the North capital under construction.

Alexander Danilovich Menshikov was ordered to direct all the works. Since initially all fortifications were made of wood and earth, by October the construction had already been completed.

The first flood showed the fallacy of this approach, it simply washed away the bulk of the erected earth bastions. In this connection, three years later, that is, in 1706, the famous architect D. Trezzini begins to dress the banks of the Neva in stone.

In parallel, the construction of a church was started in the name of the apostles Peter and Paul, later converted to the Peter and Paul Cathedral (it became the cathedral in 1731, it is also known as the Grand Ducal Tomb, Russian emperors and empresses are buried here). The work was rather protracted, and was finally completed after the death of Peter the Great.

The fortress plan was drawn up with Peter's personal fate. The Peter and Paul Fortress resembled the natural contours of the island in the form of an elongated hexagon.

In all corners stone bastions were built. Their width reaches twenty meters, and the height - up to twelve. They consisted of 2 walls: internal (vallgang) with a thickness of 2 m. And external (escarpovoy) with a thickness of up to 8 m. Between them was broken broken brick, crushed stone, earth, sand.

The names of pentagonal bastions were given in honor of Peter I's associates who supervised the construction of this or that fortification. Hence Naryshkin, Menshikov, Trubetskoi, Zotov, Golovkin, and one in honor of Peter, the Sovereign Bastion, arose. Each was equipped with half a hundred guns.

In accordance with the fortification science of those times, the bastions were joined by curtains (walls).

In Konnoq, Petrovskaya, Vasilievskaya and Nikolskaya there are gates with the same names. The main ones, for the solemn entrance, of course, were the Petrovsky ones.
In the curtain named after Catherine (the deaf was built), barracks and armory casemates were placed. For secret sorties in the rear of the enemy standing near the fortifications, underground passages (saps or sorts) and disguised passages (patterns) were prepared.

For defense from the enemy, two triangular ravelins were built from the sea. Alekseevsky was named in honor of Peter's father, and John's - in honor of his elder brother. They were built in the 1730s.

On the land side, one of the additional protections was a crown - shaft from the ground in the form of a crown. In the 70's - 80's of the XVIII century, from the side of the Neva River, the fortress walls were lined with granite for seven hundred meters.

The history of the Peter and Paul Fortifications has developed in such a way that they did not take part in any military operations and until the very beginning of the twentieth century were used as the main state prison for dangerous political criminals (hence the well-known expression "to enclose in the fortress").

At different times, the prisoners of Peter and Paul's ravelins were Peter's brother Alexei, Radishchev, Princess Tarakanova, the Decembrists. The five leaders of the uprising in the Senate Square were publicly executed on the crown of the fortress.

The Peter and Paul Fortresses, by right of birth, are headed by the sights of St. Petersburg. Today, here is the main exhibition complex of the State Museum of the History of the city, which unites the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the buildings of the Trubetskoi Bastion Prison, the Grand Ducal Tomb, the Engineering House, the Commandant's House, the Church House, the Bottle House, bastions, ravelins and curtains.

There are always festive events here, and guides tell entertaining stories of tourists from the life of the fortress. Also, the fortress became a real "testing ground" for films: many films were shot here, including "Treasure Island", "The Nose", "The Incredible Adventures of Hussars in Russia" and many others.

A shot from the cannon at noon from the Naryshkin bastion has long been one of the main symbols of St. Petersburg.

Address and coordinates

St. Petersburg, The Hare Island
Tel .: +7 (812) 230-64-31
Official site - The State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg

Coordinates:
Latitude: 59 ° 57'4.15 "N (59.951154)
Longitude: 30 ° 18'56.76 "E (30.315766)

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Peter and Paul Fortress

The museum works daily, except Wednesday. Wednesday-day off.

1. On Tuesday the work of cash desks and expositions is completed an hour before the specified time of work.

2. On Sunday the Peter and Paul Cathedral opens an hour later.

3. The tour desk operates for an hour longer than the ticket offices.

4. Cashless payment office (for contractual organizations) in the courtyard of the house No. 7 operates daily from 10:00 to 17:40, Tuesday - to 16:40 (Wednesday-closed)
Information center and cash desks in Ioannovskoe Ravelin 10.00-17.00

Information center and ticket offices in the Botniy Dom 10.00-17.30

Peter and Paul Cathedral 10.00-18.00

The prison of the Trubetskoi bastion 10.00-18.00

Expositions: "History of Petersburg-Petrograd. 1703-1918", "History

Peter and Paul Fortress, "" The Street of Time. "11.00-18.00

Exhibition halls in the Nevsky Curtain, Ioannovsky Ravelin, in the dying and casemate of the Sovereign Bastion 11.00-18.00

On the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress, temporary exhibitions, excursion routes, cultural and educational programs and lectures are held along the main expositions.

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     How to get there?

The nearest metro station

● Gorkovskaya (about 400 meters) No. 30 on the map
● Sports (approximately 1100 meters) № 31 on the map

tram number 6, 40, bus number 46, fixed-route taxi No. 46, 76, 183, 223

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