Peter and Paul Fortress

Peter and Paul Fortress

Introduction

The Peter and Paul Fortress is located on the right bank of the Neva River in the city center and is a famous historic building in St. Petersburg. The fortress was founded by Peter the Great on Hare Island in 1703, and after several expansions, this hexagonal fortress was built. The fortress walls are 12 meters high and 2.4–4 meters thick, with a length of 700 meters along the Neva River. The fortress houses structures such as the St. Petersburg Cathedral, the bell tower, St. Peter’s Gate, Peter the Great’s boat house, the mint, the arsenal, the Kronverk gun tower, and the Monument to the Decembrists. Among them, the most famous is the St. Petersburg Cathedral, which was built in 1703. Originally made of wood, it was rebuilt in stone on the same site in 1712 and took 21 years to complete. The cathedral features a tall spired bell tower, which remained the tallest structure in the city until the mid-20th century at 122 meters. Atop the bell tower sits a 3.2-meter-tall golden angel statue. Next to the cathedral is a small pavilion adorned with columns and a statue of the sea goddess, serving as the boat house that houses one of Peter the Great’s small boats. The fortress also contains six bastions and other military facilities, housing 3,000 cannons. Starting in the 18th century, every day at noon, the cannon at the Naryshkin Bastion would fire a blank shot to mark the time for the city’s residents, a tradition that continues to this day. From 1718 to 1917, the Tsar used the fortress as a state prison, where its thick walls contained numerous hidden artillery posts, as well as dark and damp solitary confinement cells. Many famous revolutionaries and democrats in history, such as Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky, and Gorky, were imprisoned here. Walking through the former prison corridors and peering through the guards’ observation holes into the cells still evokes the terrifying atmosphere of those times. On the eve of the October Revolution, the fortress became the headquarters for the insurgents. Following Lenin’s instructions, a lantern was hoisted on the flagpole of the bastion as a signal for the cruiser Aurora to bombard the Winter Palace, sparking the revolutionary uprising. Today, it serves as a museum. Transportation Address: Get off at Gorkovskaya Metro Station.

St. Petersburg, Russia