Peter and Paul Fortress was founded by Peter I in 1703. Besides the ancient fortifications, on the grounds of the fortress one can visit the Sts Peter and Paul Cathedral of the early XVII century (architect D.Trezzini) with the burial vault of Peter the Great and other Russian tsars, the museum in Trubetskoy bastion prison, expositions: "The History of St.Petersburg", "The History of the Imperial Mint", "Pechatnya" (Printing Workshop), museum on cosmonautics and missilery; excursion route "Panorama of the Neva" - over the roofs of the fortress' bastions and curtains. By booking beforehand, the collection of open furniture storage is available.
Open: 10:00 - 18:00
Closed on WED and on the last TUE of every month.
The
Peter and Paul Fortress is the historical nucleus of Petersburg,
military, engineering, architectural and historical complex.
It was beginning of city building, and 16 (27) May 1703, when
it was founded by order of Peter I in Zayachy (Hare) Island,
is a birthday of the Northern Capital. Firstly the fortress
was called the Saint-Petersburg, but there was another name
- the Peter and Paul - name of the Peter and Paul Cathedral,
located in the centre of the fortress. Since 1917 it was established
as an official name. During the October Revolution the fortress
became a special body of the Petrograd soviet, the Petrograd
Military Revolutionary Committee directing the uprising and
the storm of the Winter palace. The museum in the fortress
was opened in1924, the main buildings became the properties
of the Museum of history of Leningrad in 1956, and since 1993
The Peter and Paul Fortress became a historical and cultural
complex. Six bastions of the fortress were named in honor
of Peter I and his assistants, who personally directed the
building - the Tsar, the Menshikov, the Golovin, the Zotov,
the Trubetskoi and the Naryshkin. The united architectural
ensemble includes: fortification system - fortress walls,
curtains, bastions and ravelins (1706-1740,
the architect Dominique Tresini, the engineer Burhard Kristof
von Minikh); the Parade Peter Gate (1717-1718, the architect
Tresini), the Bathhouse (1762 -1766, the arch. Alexander Vist)
where a copy of Peter's boat (the Grandfather of Russian Float)
is stored; its original is now in Central Military and Navy
Museum; designed by bas-relief "The Overthrow of Simon
the Magi by Peter the apostle" by Conrad Osner; the Mint
Works (1798 -1806, the architect Antonio Posto); the Engineer's
house (1748-1749), the Commandant's house (1743-1746, the
engineer de Marine) and others.
In the centre of the ensemble there is the Peter and Paul
Cathedral (1712-33, the architect Tresini). Its bell-tower
served as a city Clock tower. It became a symbol of establishment
of a new capital of Russia on seaside lands. Topped by a golden
tall-spire bell-tower stayed the highest (122,5m) architectural
construction of Petersburg. The main decoration of the Cathedral
interior is carved golden iconostasis of the in a Baroque
style made by Moscow carved on wood by design of Tresini and
Ivan Zaprudny.
The cathedral was firstly used as a necropolis of the Romanov
House. There are the remains of Russian Emperors from Peter
I to Nikolai II and members of their families (excluding Peter
II and Ioann IV). The Grand Ducal Burial Vault (1896-1908,
the architects David Grimm, Anton Tomishko, Leonty Benois)
where before the revolution 13 members of the Emperor family
were buried. In 1992 in the Burial Vault the Great Duke Vladimir
Kirillovich was buried (e died in emigration); in 1995 the
remains of his parents - Kirill Vladimirovich and Victoria
Fjodorovna - were brought from Koburg (Germany).
The Commandants' Cemetery is by the East Wall of the Peter
and Paul Fortress, where 19 from 32 commandants of the fortress
were buried. In 1991 not far from the Cathedral by the min
alley the monument of Peter I, presented to the city by its
author Mikhail Shemyakin was set up.
On the territory of the fortress there are the expositions
of the Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg. The oldest
one is placed in "former prison" of the Trubetskoi
Bastion, built in 1870-72. Since Peter's reign the most important
state criminals were sentenced to solitary confinement cells,
later - to isolated cells of a Secret House of the Alexeevsky
ravelin. The prisoners of "Russian Bastilia" were:
the son of Peter I - Tcarevich Alexey, Artemy Volynsky, Tadeush
Kostjushko, the participants of the Freedom movement, Alexander
Radichshev, Decembrists, Petrashevs, Fjodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail
Bakunin, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Peter Kropotkin, Maxim Gorky,
members of "The People's Will", members of Social
Revolutionary Group, Bolsheviks… After the February Revolution
the Tsar ministers were sentenced into prison of the Trubetskoi
Bastion, and in the night on 26 October 1917 - the members
of the Temporary Government. During the Civil War there were
sacrifices of "red terror, the members of Kronstadt uprising
in 1921. The exposition firstly opened in the prison in 1924,
tells about its building, regime and several generations of
prisoners.
In former Commandant's House since 1975 the exposition "The
History of Saint-Petersburg" was opened. Nowadays it
presents the past of by - Neva territories from ancient times
to the foundation of Petersburg in 1703 and about the history
of the city until the mid - 19th century. In the Engineer's
House there are various exhibitions from the richest museum
funds. In the Ioann ravelin room there is a museum of Gasodynamic
Laboratory, devoted to the development of national rocket
building and astronautics.
There in 30's there was the first
in the USSR experimental and gasodynamical laboratory on constructive
design of rocket engines. The exposition tells about the founders
of astronautics - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Nikolay Zhukovsky,
Sergei Koroljov, and many others. The rooms and some workshops
where the constructors worked under the direction of the founder
of national rocket engine building Victor Glushko, were restored.
In the museum you can see a trigger mechanism of a spaceship
"Sojuz-16", the models of the samples of rocket
and space technique, the original equipment and garments of
cosmonauts - protective suits, heat-proof suits, photos of
surfaces of Moon, Venus, Mars, Saturn, made by cosmonauts,
also the document and materials about the experiments of rocket
engines and starts of the first rockets.
Every year there is a cannon shot at midday from the Naryshkin
Bastion and every year the Peter and Paul Fortress becomes
the place of celebrating of the Day of the City - on 27 May.
Address: Hare Island, Petropavlovskaya krepost see map
Museum is open: |
|
Sunday |
11.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. |
Monday |
11.00 a.m. - 6.00
p.m. |
Tuesday |
11.00 a.m.
- 4.00 p.m. ( the last one of the month -
closed) |
Wednesday |
closed |
Thursday |
11.00
a.m.
- 6.00 p.m. |
Friday |
11.00 a.m.
- 6.00 p.m. |
Saturday |
11.00 a.m.
- 6.00 p.m. |
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