Fort Alexander I

Fort Alexander, also Fort Alexander I, or Plague Fort (Russian: Форт Александр Первый Fort Aleksandr Perviy or Russian: Чумный форт Chumnyi fort, English: "Plague fort") is a sea fort on an artificial island in the Gulf of Finland near Kronstadt, one of the sea forts of the Kronstadt Fortress. From 1899 to 1917, the fort housed a research laboratory on plague and other bacterial diseases.

Since the formation of Saint Petersburg in 1703, the waterways in the Gulf of Finland were of strategic importance for Russia. Peter I initiated the construction of forts in the Gulf of Finland and directed the foundation of the first military installation on the island of Kotlin, Fort Kronshlot, in 1704. Throughout the following two centuries, Russia continued to fortify the area.

Louis Barthelemy Carbonnier d'Arsit de Gragnac (aka Lev Lvovich Carbonnier) drafted the initial blueprint for Fort Alexander. Earlier, he had planned the 1827 reconstruction of another military installation in the Gulf of Finland, Fort Citadel (later Fort Peter I). Upon Carbonnier's death in 1836, Jean Antoine Maurice (aka Moris Gugovich Destrem), a Russian military engineer of French origin, revised the plan for a new fort. The construction began in 1838 and under the supervision of another Russian military engineer, Mikhail von der Veide. The builders drove 5535 piles, each 12-meters long, into the sea bed to reinforce the ground.

They then covered the piles with a layer of sand, a layer of concrete blocks, and a layer of granite slabs. The brickwork of the fort received granite face-work. Emperor Nikolay I officially commissioned the fort on 27 July 1845; the fort was named to honor his brother, Emperor Alexander I.

The fort's design is close to that of Fort Boyard in France. It is an oval-shaped building with a yard in its center. The building measures 90 meters by 60 meters, with three floors. The overall floor space is over 5000 sq. meters. In all, the fort was large enough to hold a garrison of up to 1000 men. There are 103 cannon ports with additional space on the roof for 34 guns.

The fort's mission was to guard the Baltic waterway to Saint Petersburg south of naval base Kronstadt on Kotlin, in combination with Fort Peter I, Fort Risbank (later Fort Pavel I), Fort Kronshlot and the coastal battery Fort Constantin. The fort never participated in any military action.

Text adapted from “Fort Alexander (Saint Petersburg)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Alexander I ranks #3,284 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #85 of the 145 mapped in Russia. Founded 1845, it is older than 9% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 607 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,663 times in the last 60 days, more than 79% of the atlas. 7 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Saint Petersburg, 34 km away. See how Russia compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗