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Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg in 1703 and the very first building to be constructed was the Peter and Paul Fortress. Today the fortress is one of St. Petersburg's major tourist attractions and has become the emblem of the city. It is also home to the headquarters of the St. Petersburg City History Museum, which displays collections throughout the fortress complex.
 | St. Petersburg City History Museum |
The Peter and Paul Fortress is currently home to the headquarters of the St. Petersburg City History Museum. Your entrance ticket to the museum allows you to visit the Peter and Paul Cathedral (where all of Russia's Emperors from Peter the Great to Nicholas II are buried), the Commandant's House featuring the city history collection and various temporary exhibitions, further exhibitions at the Engineer's House, Trubetskoy Bastion Prison and Gazodinamicheskaya Laboratory plus the Old Printing House exhibit. The Museum also maintains further expositions at other sites in the city, including "Leningrad During the War and Siege Years" (at Angliyskaya Naberezhnaya 44) and the Aleksandr Blok Apartment-museum (at Ulitsa Dekabristov 57).
| Admission |
All the museum's buildings are open Thursday to Monday, 11 am to 6 pm, Tuesday - 11 am to 5 pm. Ticket offices close one hour earlier.
The museum is closed on Wednesdays, but the grounds remain open.
A Museum ticket allows you to visit the Peter and Paul Cathedral (containing the tombs of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas II and other tzars) plus permanent and temporary exhibits located throughout the fortress grounds.
Tickets can be bought at the ticket office near the Ioannovsky Gate or at the Boat House near the cathedral.
From 6 pm to 7 pm, Thursday to Tuesday, admission to the Cathedral is free.
| A Brief History of the Fortress |
The Peter and Paul Fortress was the first structure to be built in Peter the Great's newly founded city of St. Petersburg in May, 1703. Located on one of the city's 42 islands, the fortress has six bastions named after some of the prominent individuals who supervised their construction, including one dedicated to Tzar Peter himself. The original walls were built of clay and the present-day brick walls were added later between 1706 and 1740. All construction work on the fortress was carried out under the close supervision of St. Petersburg's first architect Domenico Trezzini and the Tzar himself. Construction on The Peter and Paul Cathedral began in 1712, but was only completed some 21 years later in 1733, eight years after Peter the Great's death. For a long time the Cathedral was the city's main church and until 1917 it was the burial and resting place of the Russian tzars.
Though ideally positioned to sustain an enemy attack, the fortress was never actually involved in any fighting. It was, however, used to house the city garrison and a section of the complex was soon converted into a high security political prison. Peter the Great's rebellious son Alexei was its first inmate.
The fortress soon began to play a significant role in the lives of the people of St. Petersburg. Not only did it help them to keep track of the time with its traditional 12 o'clock cannon shot, introduced by Peter the Great himself, but blank cannon shots fired from the fortress also helped to warn of the infamous floods that have always threatened the lives and property of the city's residents
In 1917 the fortress became one of the city's major revolutionary centers. On October 26, 1917 members of the Provisional Government were arrested at the Winter Palace and brought to the Peter and Paul Fortress. These deputies were to be some of the last inmates of the Old Regime's infamous political prison.
During the Soviet era the fortress was turned into a museum. In 1932 the Gas Dynamics Laboratory was built into the complex and was to witness some of the first Soviet rocket engines ever to be built. During the Blockade of 1941-44, when the entire city of Leningrad was under siege from Nazi troops, the fortress was severely damaged but was subsequently restored to its former glory.
| Petrovskiye Gate (Petrovskiye Vorota) |
The Petrovskye (Peter's) Gate was built between 1717 and 1718 by St. Petersburg's first architect Domenico Trezzini. The gate, distantly reminiscent of a triumphal arch, is decorated with a large relief by K.Osner. The relief's biblical storyline - "Apostle Peter striking down Simon the Wise" - was to commemorate the Russian victory over Sweden in the Northern War. Note the two-headed eagle, the Russian Coat of Arms, immediately above the arch.
| The Peter And Paul Cathedral (Sobor Petra i Pavla or Petropavlovsky Sobor) |
The Peter and Paul Cathedral was built between 1712 and 1733 by Domenico Trezzini on the same site as a wooden church erected in 1703, the year that Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg. First to be built was the cathedral's bell-tower with its gilded spire, which quickly became the focal point of the fortress and the surrounding area. The rest of the Cathedral was completed later and is perhaps one of the more unusual Russian Orthodox Church buildings in the city.
The bell-tower makes the Peter and Paul Cathedral the tallest building in St. Petersburg (122.5 meters or 404 feet 3 inches high). The gilded spire of the Cathedral is topped with a weather vane depicting an Angel with a Cross. The bell tower also shows an old clock face, newly restored and chiming precisely on the hour!
The cathedral's interior is decorated in the baroque style of the early 18th century. The elaborately decorated gilded iconostasys (icon wall) was made in Moscow between 1722 and 1726 entirely from wood. All of the Russian tzars from Peter the great onwards (with the exception of Peter II and Ivan) are buried in the Cathedral. Peter the Great's tomb sits in the South-Eastern corner of the church near the icon wall and is adorned every day with fresh flowers, while the newly installed tombs of Nicholas II and his family lie in the South-Eastern corner, in the St. Catherine's chapel.
Admission to the Cathedral is from 11 am to 6 pm with a museum ticket. From 6 pm to 7 pm, Thursday to Tuesday, admission to the Cathedral is free.
| "The Angel" as a Symbol of the City |
The weather vane sitting atop the gilded spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral has over the years become a symbol of the city of St. Petersburg. Locals often refer to it simply as "the Angel". Constituting the highest point in downtown St. Petersburg (at 122.5 meters - 404 feet 3 inches) the Angel is said to both watch over and protect the Venice of the North.
A careful program of restoration of both the Angel and its mechanism was completed in 1996 and now visitors to the fortress can again see the Angel keeping vigil over Peter the Great's city.
| The Grand Dukes Mausoleum (Velikokniazheskaya Usypalnitsa) |
By the turn of the 20th century the interior of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was already filled with tsarist tombs, so a new Mausoleum was constructed between 1896 and 1908 to accommodate any further Imperial graves. However, very few members of the Romanov dynasty were buried there as the Revolution of 1917 ended their rule over Russia.
| The Commandants Cemetery (Komendantskoye kladbishche) |
Between 1703 and 1917 all the commandants of the Peter and Paul Fortress were buried within its walls, in the Commandants' Cemetery near the eastern wall of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
| The Commandant's House (Komendantsky Dom) |
The house was built in the 1740s to accommodate the commandant of the fortress. It was in this house in 1826 that the Decembrists' Uprising was investigated and where those rebels were tried by the Supreme Criminal Court. Five of the uprising's organizers were later executed while others were sent to do hard labor in Siberia.
Nowadays, the Commandant's House serves as an exposition hall, displaying permanent and temporary exhibitions on the history of St. Petersburg.
| The Engineers House (Inzhenerny Dom) |
The Engineers' House was built between 1748 and 1749 to accommodate the engineers of the St. Petersburg garrison. Today it is occupied by a temporary exhibition organized by the City History Museum.
| The Statue of Peter the Great (by Mikhail Shemiakin) |
Mikhail Shemiakin's statue of Peter the Great is one of the most controversial monuments to be erected in St. Petersburg in the last 10 years. The American sculptor of Russian descent presents the "alter ego" of Peter the Great in his statue, who apart from being a great reformer was also a cruel and ruthless man. Feel free to compare this statue to the more famous and patriotic Bronze Horseman on Ploschad Dekabristov.
| The Prison of Trubetskoy Bastion (Tyurma Trubetskovo Bastiona) |
Having never taken part in any real wartime action, it was decided to convert part of the fortress complex into a high-security political prison. Peter the Great's own rebellious son Alexei was among the first inmates of the prison. This "Russian Bastille" was to see many prominent inmates, including the leaders of the Decembrists Uprising, the writer Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Vladimir Lenin's elder brother Alexander. Many of the above were imprisoned in the Trubetskoy Bastion, built between 1870 and 1872, which was converted into a museum this century to showcase the horrors of the Tsarist regime and which now offers tours to curious visitors.
| The Neva Gate (Nevskiye Vorota) |
The Neva Gate and the adjacent pier were added to the south wall of the fortress much later than the original structure, when it had lost its strategic military significance. The gate was designed by the architect Nikolai Lvov in 1787 in stern neo-Classical style.
The gate only developed its sinister reputation when the fortress became a busy political prison, and the Neva Gate marked the point where prisoners were loaded on to boats to take them to execution elsewhere (usually - in the Schlisselburg fort up the Neva River).
Inside the gate one can see various plaques showing the water levels of some of the city's severest floods. The neighboring pier provides a stunning view of the Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya (embankment) waterfront. In summer private boats are available here for hire.
| "The Old Printing House" (Staraya Pechatnia) |
The Old Printing House, located nearby the Neva Gate, is a new addition to the City History Museum and boasts an impressive collection of old but still operational printing equipment. Here visitors can browse through the museum's collection, investigate different methods of printing, buy prints of St. Petersburg and watch as artistic prints are created right in front of your eyes.
| A walk along the Southern Wall |
Visitors are now allowed access to the southern walls of the fortress and can enjoy some fascinating views of the city and some great photographic opportunities. A special elevated "path" with wooden floor and railings was built early in the year 2000. The walk starts from the southeastern corner of the fortress and ends near the Naryshkin Bastion, in the middle of the southern wall. You will be able to see the Troitsky (Trinity) Bridge across the Neva River, the Marble Palace, the impressive panorama along Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya (Palace Embankment), including the Winter Palace / Hermitage Museum, the tower of the Admiralty and much more...
A separate ticket is required to gain access to the walk around the southern wall of the fortress. Tickets can be purchased in a booth near the entrance onto the path.
| The 12 o'clock Cannon Shot |
If you find yourself in the vicinity of the Peter and Paul Fortress at noon don't be surprised to hear a loud cannon shot from the Naryshkin Bastion. It was Peter the Great himself who introduced the practice of firing a cannon from the fortress every day at noon. The tradition dwindled during the 19th century, but was enthusiastically revived in 1957. It was recently announced that the cannons are to be moved to the Gosudarev (southeastern) Bastion of the fortress and will no longer face the Hermitage Museum.
| The Gas Dynamics Laboratory |
Built in the 1930s and located near the main entrance to the fortress, this exhibition tells the story of the pioneering Gas Dynamics Laboratory. Many of the Soviet regime's greatest achievements in the fields of rocket engine and missile building were based on research carried out within the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress. (Admission to the Laboratory is included in the City History Museum ticket)
| The Mint (Monetny Dvor) |
The Mint was established in the early 18th century by Tsar Peter the Great. It is one of only two places in the entire country where Russian coins, medals and badges are minted (the other place being the capital, Moscow). The Mint, now a busy high-security plant, has remained within the fortress walls out of a healthy St. Petersburg respect for tradition.
So don't be surprised to see walls with covered in electric wires, close-circuit cameras and the occasional heavily armored truck!
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