Kronstadt Fortress

The Kronstadt Fortress is an architectural and historical monument of the 18th–19th centuries in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Only the Northern Wall of the fortress, located in the center of Kronstadt along Vosstaniya Street, which was built in the 19th century along the already existing, but not long before, rebuilt fortress, has survived in good condition.

In November 1703, the first foreign ship of the Dutch skipper Vybes came to Saint Petersburg, delivering salt and wine. The skipper received the prize announced by Peter I – 500 gold. And on 22 June 1715, Peter I solemnly met 45 Dutch and English merchant ships at once. The need for the construction of spacious and convenient harbors for anchorage and unloading of ships became obvious. To speed up the matter, Peter I appointed the governors personally responsible for carrying out work in the areas allocated to them, for which he summoned them to Kronstadt. In March 1719, the construction of the Merchant Harbor was completed.

The construction of the fortress began twenty years after the construction of the Kronstadt forts began, and ended at the end of the 19th century.

The general plan of construction on the island, which included a plan for the development of the city, was approved by Peter I in 1721. The city was to be surrounded by a fortress fence with a bastion outline from the west, north and east. On the south side, the city was to be protected by harbor walls.

On 18 October 1723, Peter personally laid the foundation stone of the fortress, which was named Kronstadt. The fronts of the fortress fence were located according to the Kegorn system (under Peter II, it was proposed to build these fronts according to the simple bastion scheme of Vauban). The soil for the embankment on which the construction was carried out was mined by hand on the mainland. Extensive fortification works were carried out on top of the embankment: a wall was built, cannons were placed, barracks and towers were created. The fortress was armed with 358 cannons, 11 howitzers and 19 mortars, of which 257 guns defended the fairway. The garrison numbered 71 officers and 2664 lower ranks.

To facilitate the transport of goods within the city, canals and docks were built, after which the city turned into a first–class shipyard.

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

Kronstadt Fortress ranks #3,072 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #80 of the 145 mapped in Russia. Founded 1704, it is older than 22% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 556 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,054 times in the last 60 days, more than 85% of the atlas. 6 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Saint Petersburg, 30 km away. See how Russia compares in the castle statistics.

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