Peter and Paul Fortress

The Peter and Paul Fortress was founded on May 27, 1703. According to legend, Peter I himself chose a place for a new fortress - a small Hare Island (in Finnish - Yenisaari), located at the mouth of the Neva River. The citadel in the shape of a six-pointed star was built according to a project compiled by the French engineer Lambert with the participation of the tsar.

On June 29, 1703, in the center of the Peter and Paul Fortress, a small wooden church was laid in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, on the site of which a stone cathedral was erected in 1712-1732. From 1731 to 1858, the Peter and Paul Cathedral had the status of a cathedral of the capital, then it was ranked as a court department. The cathedral served as the tomb of the reigning House of Romanov. Russian emperors and empresses from Peter I to Nicholas II are buried here, with the exception of Peter II and John VI. A covered gallery is connected to the cathedral by the Grand Ducal Shrine.

During the XVIII-XIX centuries, buildings and structures of various purposes were built on the territory of the fortress: Botny House, Artillery Seichhaus, Mint, Commandant and Engineering House, as well as guardhouse and others.

Already in the XVIII century, the fortress became a place of detention of state criminals, in the XIX - the main political prison of Russia.

Under Emperor Alexander I in the early XIX century, the fortress was first opened to visitors. In the 1900s, tours of the imperial necropolis were held in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. In 1924 the prison of Trubetskoy Bastion became a museum. In 1954, the complex of buildings of the Peter and Paul Fortress was transferred to the State Museum of History of Leningrad (St. Petersburg).