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Plan of the Peter and Paul Fortress with signatures. The Grand Ducal Tomb and the Monument to Peter I. Tomb of the Romanov Family

Per day!

Peter-Pavel's Fortress- this is the oldest fortress of the city, its historical core. It is located on the Neva River in St. Petersburg on Zayachy Island.

History of the Peter and Paul Fortress

The beginning of its construction dates back to May 27, 1703, at the very beginning of the Northern War. The founder of the fortress, like the entire city, is considered the Emperor Peter I. The Peter and Paul Fortress was intended to block enemy troops on the river, although it was never used for this purpose. Initially, the fortress was called St. Peter Burch.

Over time, the fortress became the heart of St. Petersburg - the capital of the Russian Empire.

The first fortress was approved to be built according to the project of a French engineer Joseph Gaspard Lambert de Guerin... It looked like an irregular hexagon with six bastions and curtains connecting them, and was located along the perimeter of Hare Island. An earthen moat was built outside the fortress in the eastern part. And from the north of the fortress - Kronverk.

The fortress was built from wood, earth and sod. The work was carried out very quickly, but with terrible conditions for workers who died from cold, hunger and disease. The work was complicated by the constant floods. But by October 1, 1703, it was completed.

The earthen fortress stood for only three years. According to the project Domenico Trezzini it was decided to rebuild it into a stone one. From 1706 to 1740, the earthen ramparts were demolished and new bastions made of brick and stone appeared in their place. In 1708, by order of Peter I, the construction of the front gate in the fortress began, according to the design of the same Domenico Trezzini. At first they were made of wood, but later they were converted from stone, keeping the original idea of ​​the architect.

July 12, 1703, on the day of Saints Peter and Paul, was laid wooden church... And already in 1712-1733, according to the project of Domenico Trezzini, a stone church was erected in its place, which was named the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the fortress was also called Peter and Paul after the name of the cathedral.

During subsequent renovations, the Peter and Paul Fortress underwent only minor reconstructions. Additional external structures (Ioanovsky and Alekseevsky ravelins) were erected in the 1731-1740s during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. In 1779-1786, during the reign of Catherine II, the outer facade of the walls facing the river was faced with granite. And the Nevsky Gates were ceremonially decorated.

From the beginning of the 18th century, the Peter and Paul Fortress became a prison, the so-called “Russian Bastille”. Special prison buildings were built, especially important state criminals were brought here.

During the 18th-19th centuries, many different buildings were built on the territory of the fortress: the Engineering House, the Mint, the Treasury, the Depot of Weights and Measures, the Grand Duke's Burial Vault, the House of Fund Capital, the Church House, the Trubetskoy Bastion prison and others.

Only at the beginning of the twentieth century, under Emperor Alexander I, the Peter and Paul Fortress became accessible to visitors. The first excursion was held in the imperial necropolis in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

After 1917, no buildings were built on Hare Island anymore.

Since 1954 buildings Peter and Paul Fortress belong to the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, exhibitions are held here, expositions are constantly open.

The architectural ensemble of the Peter and Paul Fortress

Internal buildings and institutions of the Peter and Paul Fortress:

  • Peter and Paul Cathedral (1712-1733) with the tomb of the emperors
  • Grand Ducal Tomb (1897-1908)
  • Chief officer's guardhouse
  • Engineering house
  • Main treasury
  • Cartwheel
  • Prosecutor's house
  • Arsenal at kronverk
  • Artillery shop
  • Chief officer's house
  • Platz Major House
  • House of equity capital

Other objects of interest:

  • Monument to Peter I
  • 12 chairs

Fortifications of the fortress:

  • Fortress gate: Vasilievsky, Nevsky gates, Ioannovsky, Kronverksky, Nikolsky, Petrovsky
  • Bastions: Gosudarev, Naryshkin, Trubetskoy, Zotov, Golovkin, Menshikov
  • Ravelines: Alekseevsky, Ioannovsky
  • Curtains: Vasilievskaya, Ekaterininskaya, Kronverkskaya, Nevskaya, Nikolskaya, Petrovskaya
  • Batardo and turret
  • Cavalier
  • Counterguards
  • Kronverk
  • Fortress moats
  • Lost

Museum of the Peter and Paul Fortress

On the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress on Zayachy Island there is the main exhibition complex State Museum history of St. Petersburg.

Visit to the Peter and Paul Fortress and Museum

A visit to the Peter and Paul Fortress and Hare Island is free.

The territory of the Hare Island is open for visits every day from 06:00 to 21:00, and the Peter and Paul Fortress (within the boundaries of the fortress walls) - from 9:00 to 20:00. The rest of the exhibitions and museums are open from 10.00 to 18.00 (times may vary).

From the time of its foundation and at least until the 1930s, St. Petersburg was the flagship of Russian industry. In the capital of the empire, both giant factories and shipyards were concentrated, as well as factories that provided the needs of one of the largest cities of the then world. In fact, St. Petersburg was a whole industrial region worthy of the Urals and Donbass. And to inspect its old industrial zones today you need at least three days... I open the cycle about old industrial Petersburg (a continuation of the cycle about old industrial Moscow) with a post about the Peter and Paul Fortress, where, in addition to all the well-known sights, there is one of the oldest Petersburg factories - the Mint, which is still operating.

I don't think it makes much sense to tell the story of Petropavlovka, this St. Petersburg Kremlin. The heart of the city, founded on May 27, 1703 (that is, exactly 300 years before the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg) on ​​Zayachy Island, practically opposite Winter Palace.

As you know, the best fortress is the one that no one even tries to take. So Petropavlovka in its history has not fired a single combat shot - but the Noon shot every day since 1864 (not counting the break in 1934-57) has been fired from here (in 1730-1864 - from the Admiralty). In 1712-33 Trezzini built the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which became the burial vault of emperors until the Soviet era tallest building Russia (121m). Since the 18th century, the main political prison of the country has been here, where the Decembrists, Narodnaya Volya, Dostoevsky and many others have visited. Well, since 1724, a mint has been continuously operating in the fortress, the black pipe of which is visible in the frame above.

Well, just Petropavlovka is the main dominant of the St. Petersburg landscape. Of the "big three" St. Petersburg cathedrals, Peter and Paul Cathedral seems to me the most beautiful.

The plan of the Peter and Paul Fortress is also known, probably, to everyone. 6 bastions, connected by curtains, outside there are two ravelins (Alekseevsky in the west and Ioannovsky in the east), in the center is the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Classics included in school history textbooks. Mint - in the western part of the fortress:

This is how the walls and bastions look from the outside - the granite cladding from the side of the Neva appeared only in 1779-85, while from the side of Petrogradka the walls remained virgin red-brick. It seems that I have already grown to the level of ruin, when granite seems vulgar and brick is correct:

The courtyard between the Trubetskoy bastion and the Alekseevsky ravelin is the most scary places fortresses, old political prisons. The roofs and the chimney of the mint protrude from behind the bastion, and moreover, in the 18th century it was the Trubetskoy bastion that was the mint until a separate building was built in 1796-1805.

More precisely, the chain of metamorphoses was somewhat more complicated: before the Mint moved to St. Petersburg, the prison was in the Trubetskoy Bastion, where Tsarevich Alexei was imprisoned (1718). Then the bastion became a mint, the fortress briefly lost its prison functions, until in 1769 a new prison was built in the Alekseevsky ravelin. The current building is from 1797, and its cells remember the Decembrists, Narodnaya Volya and even Dostoevsky himself. In 1825, the prison "revived" in the Trubetskoy Bastion, where it operated before the revolution (from the 1870s - as a pre-trial detention center). From Alekseevsky, the prison was moved to Shlisselburg in 1884.

In addition to the prison, there are also the ruins of the walls. When they were so poked and who - I don't know, but I really want to believe that they are not modern "restorers":

As you can see, the lighting is twilight. I came to Petropavlovka after her official closing(at 21:00), but it so happened that on that day there was some kind of hitch, the gate was not locked on time, and I was not the only one so smart, and the fortress was overcrowded with tourists at an inopportune time. While they were being caught and driven out, I managed to inspect everything that I had planned and even a little more. I entered through the St. John's Gate (1740) on the eastern side of the Hare Island:

Lanterns with a double-headed eagle on the bridge and an angel on the Peter and Paul Cathedral:

A hare on one of the piles, as if hinting at the name of the island:

John's gate, inside view. We are behind the Ioannovsky ravelin. Blood red brick walls are the main background inside the fortress:

Ioannovsky Ravelin was originally separated from the fortress in the same way as Alekseevsky, but it was greatly rebuilt in the 1890s. The moat was filled up, which is now reminded of the botardo (the walls separating the moat from the river), new buildings appeared, one of which in the 1930s belonged to the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, one of the first Soviet design bureaus that was engaged in the development of a rocket engine.

Particularly impressive are the "living" double-headed eagle and the bas-relief "The overthrow of Simon-Volkhov by the Apostle Peter", which means "The fall of Sweden by the emperor Peter".

Outside gates and entrances to bridges are locked at 23:00, and these gates at 21:00. That is, according to the schedule, I was not supposed to be here, but still sometimes I am very lucky. At dusk I entered the fortress yard and climbed one of the curtains:

The route "Nevskaya Panorama" is laid here, which is actually paid, but the cashier left on schedule.

The views from the curtains to the Neva and the houses behind it, and to the fortress itself, are magnificent. They impressed me indescribably back in 2004, when I was in St. Petersburg for the first time. You can make a separate post on them, but I will limit myself to this view - in one frame there are three masterpieces of world importance - the Winter Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Admiralty. Little known fact, but the latter is also one of the St. Petersburg Molochs - after all, Peter the Great founded it as a shipyard that operated until 1844 (the current building was built in 1823) - wooden sailing ships were built between the "wings" of the Admiralty:

Inside the fortress there is the Engineering House (1748-49, on the right) and the Printing House (that is, a printing house, inside the corresponding museum):

Chimneys of the Engineering House:

Behind the trees is the Petrograd Mosque, one of the most interesting buildings of St. Petersburg, built in 1909-13 with the participation of Bukhara craftsmen (although the blue ribbed domes are the corporate identity not of Bukhara, but of its eternal rival Samarkand):

Ahead is the main Naryshkin bastion in the fortress, protruding towards the Neva and crowned with the Flag Tower (1731). The flag here until the Soviet era was raised every day at dawn, lowered at sunset, but now it is on the tower continuously. From here the midday cannon shoots. In the background - the Kunstkamera, the spit of Vasilievsky Island and the cranes of the distant port:

Here "Nevskaya Panorama" ends:

Below - the Nevsky Gate (1780) above the Commandant pier (1762-67), before the development of the Petrograd side at the beginning of the 20th century - the main entrance to the fortress:

The Naryshkin Bastion courtyard with cannons. There is a staircase leading up there, along which I wanted to go down, a guard blocked my way, saying that the fortress was already closed. Considering that there were crowds of tourists around, this sounded at least strange, so we had to go to the courtyard bypassing:

But from the bastion, I photographed excellent views of the Mint - an operating factory inside the fortress, the current buildings of which were built in 1796-1805:

In general, the history of the Mints in Russia is rather complicated. The first of them began to operate even during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (quite late by European standards) in Moscow, survived several reincarnations, and in general the coins of medieval Russia were "famous" for their disgusting quality. At the end of the 17th century, Peter the Great organized a new one, the building of which in the courtyard of the Historical Museum has survived to this day. In 1724 the courtyard was transferred to St. Petersburg, but for the next 150 years the coin was minted by several courtyards throughout the country, and the largest was. The heyday of the Petersburg court fell on 1874-1942, when it became the only producer of Russian and Soviet coins - before the evacuation to Krasnokamsk, where orders and medals were produced during the war. At the same time, a new mint was urgently built in Moscow, and by the end of the twentieth century, it was he who strongly pressed the St. Petersburg counterpart.

Nowadays, ordinary coins are mainly minted in Moscow, while St. Petersburg specializes in orders, medals, and commemorative coins. And now it is one of the most integral enterprises in Russia - almost three hundred years of almost continuous work, more than two hundred - in the same building.

I walk to the Mint past the curtain with the "Nevskaya Panorama" and the Engineering House:

I even bought into this museum sign and thought that the main street of Petropalovka is called this way:

Nevsky gate, inside view. A couple of minutes later, the police noisily drove a tourist out of here:

It was possible in a straight line past the gate, but I turned to the Peter and Paul Cathedral past the Commandant's House (1743-46). The heart of the fortress, where the commandant lived with his family (appointed by the emperor himself), and here was the administration of prisons and the court of justice, which passed most of the historical prisoners.

The Grand Ducal Tomb (1896-1908) in the backyard of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which in turn is the imperial tomb:

The central square of the fortress and the cathedral, unbelievably high. Its spire remains the tallest building in St. Petersburg, and in all of Russia there are only two dozen skyscrapers higher, as well as pipes, television towers and communication towers. "Not in Russian, piercingly tall ..." - this is what Alexei Tolstoy said about him at the beginning of "Walking in agony", describing the atmosphere of the feverish pre-revolutionary Petersburg.

At the foot of the cathedral there is the Botny House (1762), where the famous "Grandfather of the Russian Fleet", the "Saint Nicholas" boat, found in 1688 by Peter the Great in the barn palace (now in the Naval Museum on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island), was kept until 1928.
Details of the cathedral - the restoration of the rotunda ended quite recently, and without the ugly cocoon the fortress is much more beautiful:

And opposite the cathedral - the Mint building by Antonio Porto:

True, the main building was in the woods, so here is a photo from Wikipedia. The St. Petersburg Mint is considered a masterpiece of Russian classicism in industrial architecture:

I decided to go around the circle, and went along a deserted street between the curtain and the workshops, to the Trubetskoy bastion:

It is possible that behind this tree can be seen the oldest factory chimney in Russia - although now the pipes have become almost synonymous with the industrial landscape, they began to be built only at the end of the 18th century, when ordinary chimneys could no longer cope with the volume of factory emissions. I could not find any data on the oldest pipe in Russia, but most likely it is located in St. Petersburg, where they saved much less on factory buildings than in distant industrial areas:

Opposite there is a very beautiful chimney of the Trubetskoy Bastion. As already mentioned, in 1724-1805 it was here that the Mint itself was located. The exposition inside now tells about the prison and its historical prisoners, I examined it in 2004, and this was one of the strongest impressions from old Petersburg.

Between the courtyard and the ravelins. The pipe ahead is no older than the late 19th century, but rather even the 1920s. I think it puzzles many tourists, at least in 2004 it surprised me very much.

Moreover, there is a characteristic factory hum on the street, and you can see the light in the windows. The windows are covered with very dense grilles, through one of which I nevertheless tried to photograph the insides of the Mint - everything there is very modern:

Then I went around the circle, walked past the guard looking at me puzzled, and ended up at the locked gate. Fortunately, there was also a museum worker nearby, for whom the guards opened the gates. They verbally scolded me, and I apologized: "I see - tourists are wandering, so I think - openly!" In general, being locked up for the night in the Peter and Paul Fortress would be very strong!

Well, in the next series I will show the places where tourists rarely go - Kirovsky Zavod, Gunpowder on Okhta, many kilometers old industrial zones of the Obvodny Canal and Obukhovskaya Oborony Avenue, the industrial suburb of Kolpino. Be brave, the story about old industrial Petersburg will be very long!

CAPITAL JAM-2011
Moscow

Peter and Paul Fortress Map

The first few years, the main construction work was carried out on the Hare Island. Here the fortress of St. Peter-Burh grew up, which was the nucleus of the future city. Its location was determined by Peter himself, who assessed the strategic expediency of the location of the outpost in the Neva delta.
A year later, all six bastions (protruding from the fortification wall) appeared. Although the bastions were earthen, taking care of the stone construction of the new city was one of the most important for Peter. A special decree of 1714 in Russia prohibited the construction of buildings made of stone, and all stone-makers were sent by order to the Neva banks. Peter established a kind of "stone" duty: each ship, each wagon train arriving in the city, had to bring a certain amount of building material.

Peter and Paul Fortress Map

The fortress was supposed to be a closed chain of bastions and curtains (walls connecting the bastions). The construction of fortifications took place under the supervision of the tsar's closest associates, and therefore the bastions were named after them - Naryshkin, Trubetskoy, Zotov, Golovkin, Menshikov.

One of southern bastions was under the direct supervision of Peter, therefore he received the name Tsar. On the eastern side of the island, in the curtain that connected this bastion with Menshikov, the main fortress gate was built. They were defended by a ravelin (an external auxiliary building triangular in plan), named after St. John. To get into the fortress, you need to go through the Ioannovsky wooden bridge, the Ioannovsky gate and enter the Peter gate, over the arch of which is placed a double-headed eagle made of lead. The gate is decorated with a large bas-relief "The Overthrow of Simonavolkhv" by the German sculptor and carver G.K. Osner. It is believed that this work depicting the Apostle Peter, who, by the power of his prayer, casts down a pagan sorcerer from heaven, in allegorical form glorifies the victory of Tsar Peter over the Swedish king Charles XII. The Artillery Zeikhhaus (1801) is located on the right behind the Petrovsky Gates, and the Engineering House (1749) is on the left.
By 1787, the entire fortress was dressed in granite. In 1840, all the fortifications were rebuilt into stones. On the Naryshkin Bastion, a signal Flag Tower and a cannon were installed, the shot of which announced the approach of noon - a tradition that has survived to this day.
Not far from the Peter and Paul Cathedral is the Commandant's House (1743-1746). For 200 years, 32 commandants have been replaced. This position was often lifelong. It was received by honored military generals who enjoyed the special confidence of the sovereign.
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1. Peter and Paul Fortress - the heart of St. Petersburg, the point where the history of the city began on May 16, 1703. This is how it looks from the spit of Vasilievsky Island.

2. The fortress is located on the island of Lust-holm, which in Swedish means "Merry Island".

3. Finnish name islands - Yanissaari, which means Hare. In honor of this, among the water of the channel separating the island from the land, a figurine of a hare is installed on a wooden pile, attacked by tourists with coins.

4. The first thing that a visitor sees when entering the island via one of the two bridges, Ioannovsky, is the so-called "Small Beach", where the townspeople sunbathe on the grass. Swimming in this area is not recommended.

5. From the rear, the fortress is covered by the fortification-kronverk, now occupied by the military museum.

6. You can also get to the island through the Kronverksky bridge, and inside the fortress - through the Nikolsky gate.

7. The Peter's Gate, to which the Ioannovsky Bridge leads, looks much more magnificent.

8. The gate is decorated with carved wooden figures and bas-reliefs.

10. The gate still serves as an inspiration to artists, including those who are just learning.

11. To the right and left of the gate, the brick walls of the Petrovskaya curtain, resting on the Tsar's bastion, rise.

12. Inside the Tsar's bastion, the first in time to be built, there is a long corridor - a porch, open to visitors.

13. It would make a wonderful photo gallery.

14. In the thickness of the walls of the corridor there are narrow and long ventilation vents.

15. The porch ends with an extensive casemate with an exit to the courtyard. Somewhere here, for some time after the death of Peter I, the famous small boat - "The Grandfather of the Russian Fleet" was kept.

16. General form bastion. In the center there is a stone ramp - a ramp for rolling guns onto the top of the rampart.

17. At the top of the bastion there is a memorial sign in honor of the “zoo” of the city.

18. At the arrow of the bastion there is a granite turret for the guard. Part of the bastion overlooking the Neva was faced with granite during the reign of Catherine II.

19.The bastion offers an excellent view of the historical Center cities, this route is called "Nevskaya panorama".

20. Novo-Mikhailovsky Palace of Grand Duke Mikhail, son of Nicholas I. And in 1928-1931, Mikhail Tukhachevsky lived there.

21. Domes of the Resurrection Cathedral.

22. Ahead is the Naryshkin Bastion and the Flag Tower on it.

23. Between the Gosudarev and Naryshkin bastions is the Nevskaya curtain, also encased in granite.

24. The Nevskaya pier is located here, to which the gates of the same name lead. Now there are crowds of tourists and pleasure boats, and two hundred years ago the convicts started their way to the Shlisselburg Fortress from here.

25. Planks are installed inside the gate, marking the water level during severe floods. The flood of 1777 is known for the fact that during it in the Alekseevsky ravelin, Princess Tarakanova allegedly died, posing as the daughter of Empress Elizabeth and Alexei Razumovsky, which he portrayed on his picture artist Flavitsky. The flood of 1824 - the worst in the history of the city, marked the death of Alexander I, and Pushkin described it in The Bronze Horseman.

26. Let us finally enter the territory of the fortress. To the right of the Nevsky Gate is the Engineering House, which has come down to us practically not rebuilt since the middle of the 18th century.

27. Boiler room is hidden behind the Main Treasury. This is a cozy, but little-visited corner of the fortress; tourists almost never come here.

50. Nearby is the house of the Ober-commandant of the fortress.

51. In this house in 1843 was born the famous commander Mikhail Skobelev, the grandson of the commandant of the fortress, Ivan Nikitich Skobelev.

28. A significant part of the fortress is occupied by the Mint, the largest in the world.

29. Here and now, rubles are minted, marked with the letters "SPMD".

30. Cathedral Square, covered with paving stones, is located in front of the Mint. On it stands the Botny House, built in 1761 to store the boat of Peter I.

31. Now inside the box office, souvenir shops, as well as a copy of that very boat.

32.

33. On the roof of the house there is a sculpture of a girl with an oar, an allegory of Navigation.

34. And since 1819, this terracotta sculpture, created by the sculptor DI Jensen, stood on the house. Now it can be seen in the Museum of the History of the Peter and Paul Fortress, located in the Nevsky Curtain.

35. The same museum contains original wooden bas-reliefs from the Petrovsky gates.

36.

37. The museum displays many old maps and engravings depicting the fortress.

43. Samples of antique glass.

44. Icon-offering to the deceased Tsar Alexander III.

40. It is impossible to do in such a museum without models of the fortress.

41. The models clearly show the canal passing to the right of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Its purpose is to supply the defenders of the fortress with drinking water in the event of a siege.

42. Now the canal is filled up, but its collectors have survived under the walls of the fortress.

45 There are many other smaller scale models in the museum.

46. ​​A fragment of the curtain of the original earthen fortress is shown here.

47. Small bridge.

48. The bridge across the moat at one of the four botardos of the fortress.

47. Ferry crossing.

50. An interesting detail: the floor in the hall, where a film about the construction of the fortress is shown on the screen, is covered with wooden block tiles.

51. And under the very windows of the museum, the Neva splashes, they swim and sunbathe there.