Peter and Paul Fortress

Interesting facts

Peter the Great's own son, Tsarevich Alexei, was imprisoned in the fortress in 1718 and died there that year.

Fyodor Dostoevsky spent about eight months in solitary confinement here in 1849 while awaiting trial as a member of a radical circle.

Nikolai Chernyshevsky wrote his influential novel What Is to Be Done? while held in the fortress in the early 1860s.

Other prisoners included the Decembrists, the writer Alexander Radishchev, Maxim Gorky and Lenin's elder brother Alexander Ulyanov.

The angel on top of the cathedral spire, which also serves as a weathervane, is about 3.2 metres tall.

On the night of the October Revolution, a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora preceded the fortress guns firing about 30 shells at the Winter Palace.

In February 1917 soldiers of the Pavlovsky Guards Regiment stormed the fortress and freed its prisoners.

The Saint Petersburg Mint inside the walls occupies a building designed by Antonio Porta under Emperor Paul I and still strikes coins.

For generations, residents set their watches by the noon cannon shot fired from the walls.

During the Siege of Leningrad the fortress was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe and was restored after the war.

Why it is worth it

Saint Petersburg began here. On 27 May 1703 (16 May Old Style) Peter the Great founded a fortress on Hare Island on the Neva, and the city counts its birthday from that day. The earthen defences were soon replaced in stone to designs by the Swiss-Italian architect Domenico Trezzini, and work went on from 1706 to 1740. The result is a six-bastion star fortress; the bastions are named after Peter himself and five of his closest associates, among them Menshikov, Naryshkin and Trubetskoy. Paradoxically, a fortress built to guard Russia's new outlet to the Baltic never fired in battle.

Instead it became the state's most feared jail. From the early eighteenth century until the early 1920s the Trubetskoy Bastion held political prisoners, and during the revolutions of 1917 the fortress changed sides several times. In October 1917 its guns fired on the Winter Palace, and in January 1919 four grand dukes of the Romanov family were shot inside its walls. The fortress has been a museum since 1924 and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the historic centre of Saint Petersburg.

At its centre is the Peter and Paul Cathedral (1712–1733), whose gilded spire topped by an angel rises to 122.5 metres and remains a signature of the skyline. The cathedral is the burial place of the Romanov imperial family, with a separate Grand Ducal burial vault beside it. Other sights include the Trubetskoy Bastion prison cells, the Commandant's House, the Boat House and the working Saint Petersburg Mint. Since 1873 a signal gun has been fired from the Naryshkin Bastion every day at noon. On the Neva side, between the Naryshkin and Trubetskoy bastions, a narrow beach under the granite walls is a favourite spot for sunbathing from the first warm days of spring — swimming is not allowed.

Getting there

The fortress is in the centre of Saint Petersburg, about 1.3 km from the city's central point. Gorkovskaya is the nearest metro station; Sportivnaya and Admiralteyskaya are also within walking distance. Pulkovo Airport (LED) is about 17 km away.

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From the encyclopaedia

The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s it served as a prison for political criminals. It has been a museum since 1924.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia