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.
History
Wooden Fortress
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. For residential buildings, plots were allocated – for ordinary citizens an area of 6 acres (32x12 meters), for noble ones – the same length, but a width chosen at will.
Soon after the death of Peter I, almost all work in the fortress came under the control of Field Marshal Burkhard Minich (until his resignation in 1740). Since 1727, this "Oberdirector Over the Fortifications of the Russian Empire" was directly subordinate to the Military Collegium. He developed a new state of Russian fortresses, where special attention was paid to Kronstadt.
In 1734, as an experiment, work began on replacing the wooden harbor fences with stone ones. However, due to a shortage of masons and the outbreak of war with Turkey, these works were curtailed three years later. The October storm of 1757 again caused significant damage to the fortifications. Again, the question arose about the beginning of stone construction, but the calculation of the costs showed that restoration work using wood has a 20 times lower cost, which delayed work in stone for a quarter of a century.
Stone Fortress
On 5 April 1784, Admiral Greig signed a plan for the arrangement of the Admiralty in Kronstadt. At the direction of Catherine II, an authoritative commission reviewed it, and on 29 January 1785, the empress signed a rescript instructing Greig to begin the transfer of the Admiralty from Saint Petersburg to Kronstadt. The plan drawn up by Greig largely determined the development of the city with office and residential buildings, warehouses and hospitals.
At last, stone construction began in the fortress. The harbor was also dredged, and prisoners were used as labor.
Flood of 1824. Restoration of the Fortress
During the catastrophic flood in November 1824, almost the entire surface of the island, with the exception of a few hills outside the city, was under water. By the evening of 7 November, the Kronstadt Fortress practically ceased to exist. The fortifications were destroyed, the weapons were washed away by the waves. The disaster struck suddenly, as a result, many soldiers who were not removed from their posts were killed.