The Peter and Paul Fortress on Hare Island with the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the evening light, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Some background information:
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. The fortress was established by Peter the Great on 16th May 1703 on small Hare Island by the north bank of the Neva River, the last upstream island of the Neva delta. Built at the height of the Northern War in order to protect the projected capital from a feared Swedish counterattack, the fort never fulfilled its martial purpose. The citadel was completed with six bastions in earth and timber within a year, but was rebuilt in stone from 1706 to 1740.
The Peter and Paul Cathedral inside the Peter and Paul Fortress was built between 1712 and 1733. It was designed by the Italian architect Domenico Trezzini. The cathedral's bell tower is the world's tallest Orthodox bell tower. Since the belfry is not standalone, but an integral part of the main building, the cathedral is sometimes considered the highest Orthodox Church in the world. The cathedral has a typical Flemish carillon, which was a gift of the Flemish city of Mechelen in today’s Belgium. Besides its function as a cathedral, it is also the burial place of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family, who were finally laid to rest there in July 1998.
From around 1720, the Peter and Paul Fortress served as a base for the city garrison and also as a prison for high-ranking or political prisoners. The Trubetskoy Bastion, rebuilt in the 1870s, became the main prison block. The first person to escape from the fortress prison was the anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin in 1876. Other people incarcerated in the "Russian Bastille" include Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, the Decembrists, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Leon Trotsky and Josip Broz Tito.
During the February Revolution of 1917, the Peter and Paul Fortress was attacked by mutinous soldiers of the Pavlovsky Regiment and the prisoners were freed. Under the Provisional Government, hundreds of Tsarist officials were held in the Fortress. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was also threatened with being incarcerated at the Fortress on his return from Mogilev to Tsarskoe Selo on 8th March, but he was only placed under house arrest. On 4th July 4 during the July Days demonstrations, the Fortress garrison of 8,000 men declared for the Bolsheviks and two days later, they surrendered to government forces without a struggle.
On 25th October 1917, the fortress quickly fell into Bolshevik hands. Following the ultimatum from the Petrograd Soviet to the Provisional Government ministers in the Winter Palace, after the blank salvo of the Cruiser Aurora, the guns of the Fortress fired 30 shells at the Winter Palace. Just two hit, inflicting only minor damage. Therefore, the defenders refused to surrender. But at 02.10 in the morning of 26th October, the Winter Palace was finally taken by forces under Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko. The captured ministers were taken to the Fortress as prisoners then.
Between 1918 and 1921 at least 112 persons including 4 grand dukes were killed at the Peter and Paul Fortress. In 1924, most of the site was converted to a museum. In 1931, the Gas Dynamics Laboratory was added to the site. The structure suffered heavy damage due to the bombardment of Saint Petersburg during WWII by the German army who were laying siege to the city.
After the war, the Peter and Paul Fortress has been faithfully restored. Today it has been adapted as the central and most important part of the State Museum of Saint Petersburg History and is a prime tourist destination now. The museum has gradually become virtually the sole owner of the fortress building, except the structure occupied by the Saint Petersburg Mint.
The fortress contains several notable buildings clustered around the Peter and Paul Cathedral (built between 1712 and 1733), which has a 122.5 m (402 feet) bell-tower (the tallest in the city centre) and a gilded angel-topped cupola. The cathedral is the burial place of all Russian tsars from Peter I to Alexander III, with the exception of Peter II and Ivan VI. The remains of Nicholas II and his family and entourage were re-interred there, in the side chapel of St. Catherine, on 17th July 1998, the 80th anniversary of their deaths.
The newer Grand Ducal Mausoleum (built in the Neo-Baroque between 1896 and 1908) is connected to the cathedral by a corridor. It was constructed in order to remove the remains of some of the non-reigning Romanovs from the cathedral, where there was scarcely any room for new burials. Other structures inside the fortress include the still functioning Saint Petersburg Mint building, the Trubetskoy Bastion with its grim prison cells, and the city museum. According to a centuries-old tradition, a cannon is fired each noon from the Naryshkin Bastion. Annual celebrations of the city day on 27th May are normally centered on the island where the city was born.
Saint Petersburg (in Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг) is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with currently 5.3 million inhabitants, part of the Saint Petersburg agglomeration with a population of 6.2 million (2015). An important Russian port on the Baltic Sea, it has a status of a federal city. Saint Petersburg is also the fourth-largest city in Europe, only excelled by Istanbul, London and Moscow. Other famous European cities like Paris, Berlin, Rome and Madrid are smaller. Furthermore, Saint Petersburg is the world’s northernmost megapolis and called "The Venice of the North", due to its many channels that traverse the city.
Situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27th May 1703. On 1st September 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, on 26 January 1924 to Leningrad, and on 7 September 1991 back to Saint Petersburg. Between 1713 and 1728 and again between 1732 and 1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of Imperial Russia. In 1918, the central government bodies moved to Moscow, which is located about 625 kilometres (388 miles) to the south-east.
Saint Petersburg is also the cultural capital of Russia. "The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments" constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. Many foreign consulates, international corporations, banks and businesses have offices in Saint Petersburg. The multinational Gazprom company has its headquarters in the newly erected Lakhta Center.
