Kärnäkoski Fortress

Kärnäkoski Fortress is a bastion fortress in Finland located in Kärnäkoski, Savitaipale built by Russia between 1791 and 1793 to protect Saint Petersburg.

Kärnäkoski Fortress was part of a larger South-Eastern Finland fortification system built to protect Saint Petersburg, the capital of Russian Empire. After the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790), and particularly in the light of the Swedish victories in the Battle of Porrassalmi and the naval Battle of Svensksund, Russian empress Catherine II decided to strengthen the defences in the north-western border of the empire. The construction of a large fortification system in south-eastern Finland was entrusted to general Alexander Suvorov.

To protect the capital three concentric fortress chains were built, with Kärnäkoski fortress belonging to the outermost chain located very near the border. Kärnäkoski fortress was built to both defend against a possible land-based attack from the isthmus between Saimaa lake the Gulf of Finland and to provide a base for the recently formed Russian Saimaa fleet.

General Suvorov, responsible for the construction of the South-Eastern Finland fortification system, selected the mouth of Kärnäjoki river on the isthmus between Saimaa lake and Kuolimojärvi lake near the Lappeenranta-Ristiina road as a location for one of the new border fortresses. The location allowed the fortress to guard the border between Sweden and Russia, control the traffic going via the road and monitor the shipping routes in western Saimaa. The area near the fortress had been a site for several engagements between Swedish and Russian troops in the Russo-Swedish War that had just ended.

Kärnäkoski Fortress was constructed between 1791 and 1793. The designers of the fortress were French engineering officers who had fled the French Revolution to Russia. Kärnäkoski fortress was built according to the traditional French bastion system. However, instead of a uniform regular bastion shape, the fortress was built as an irregular shape and followed the terrain, most likely because of the limited space available.

The western and southern sides of the fortress were guarded by three demi-bastions. Also three outworks, ravelins, were built in front the main fortress wall. The less-vulnerable eastern and northern sides that were mostly protected by lake shore were defended only with tenailles.

Text adapted from “Kärnäkoski Fortress” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kärnäkoski Fortress ranks #4,089 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #21 of the 27 mapped in Finland. Founded 1791, it is older than 14% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 556 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,096 times in the last 60 days, more than 51% of the atlas. See how Finland compares in the castle statistics.

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