When Peter the Great laid a new city under the very noses of the Swedes, with whom he then fought, he had to carefully consider the defense system. There are many islands in the Gulf of Finland. They, with reasonable use, could serve as a reliable defense of St. Petersburg. Kotlin is the furthest island from the city. He was supposed to protect the entrance to the bay from the Swedish ships. Since Kotlin took the first blow of a potential enemy, he had to be well fortified. In 1703 Peter the Great personally laid the first stone of the Kronshloss fortress. Around the same time, the king also founded a city on the island of Kotlin. It was named Kronstadt. According to the military canons of that time, the fortress had to be additionally guarded by earthen fortification ramparts - trenches. A few of them have survived to this day, in worse or better condition. We invite you to take a virtual tour of one of them - Fort "Shanz".
How to get to Kronstadt
Toto get acquainted with the sights of the fortifications of St. Petersburg, first you need to come to Kotlin Island. Until the 1980s, this could only be done by water. So the trip largely depended on the weather conditions in the Neva Bay and the Gulf of Finland. Now the island is connected to the mainland by a dam. The most convenient way to get to Kotlin to see the Shanz Fort is by bus number 101, which departs from the Staraya Derevnya metro station. In an hour you will be there. Other options: minibus K405 runs from the Chernaya Rechka metro station; from the c / m "Prospect of Education" - K407; from the Mega-Parns shopping center - bus number 816. If you prefer rail transport, then electric trains quite often run from the B altic Station towards Kalishte and Oranienbaum-1. But even there you will need to transfer to bus number 175. If you want to turn the journey to Kotlin Island into an exciting excursion and do not regret 700 rubles for this, then you can get to Kronstadt the old fashioned way - by water. But these are not scheduled ships, which were canceled due to unprofitability from the moment the dam was put into operation. Excursion meteors during the navigation period (April-October) depart from Vasilyevsky Island, from the Tuchkov Bridge.
Fort "Shanz" (Kronstadt): how to get there
All ground transport arrives in the central part of the city. The final stops of minibuses from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt are Grazhdanskaya Street, Roshal Square or Dom Byta. Kotlin Island is not very large in size, so you can get to its fortificationsyou can also walk. But why not use local transport? Moreover, one of the city buses goes directly to the fort "Shanz" (Kronstadt). How to get to the sights of interest to us? We get first to the Leningrad pier. There we take bus number 2. The fare costs 15 rubles and is paid by the driver. Fortification "Shanz" is the final point of this route. If you are traveling by car, you should move from Zosimova Street along the Kronstadt Highway.
History of construction
Fort "Shanz" - one of the first defensive redoubts of the Kronshloss fortress. It was founded in 1706 and proved to be in action during the Great Northern War. Subsequently, the fort was repeatedly rebuilt and strengthened. The oldest part is on the right flank of the modern redoubt. It was called "Alexander the Shanets". Then the fort was supplemented with the redoubts "Mikhail", "Nikolai" and "Litera V" ("Kurtinnaya"). All these fortifications were collectively called the Alexander Battery. At the end of the nineteenth century, the last large-scale restructuring took place, which was aimed at strengthening the defensive significance of Fort Shanz. It was then that the line of fortifications got its name.
Modern history of fortifications
But after the First World War, it became clear that in the current conditions of warfare, the forts are useless. The vacated casemates were used for basing headquarters. During the Second World War, the fort "Shanz" in Kronstadt served as the location of the railwayartillery batteries. After 1945, all the fortifications on Kotlin and the surrounding islets fell into disrepair. In some of them, tests of combustible and explosive substances were arranged. They say that an ampoule with a plague virus is buried in one of the forts. In any case, it is better not to wander through the fortifications without a guide. After all, despite the fact that the forts have been declared objects of cultural heritage and taken under state protection, their condition is assessed as extremely unsatisfactory. There is a danger of the collapse of the ceiling and the collapse of the floors.
What is this attraction of Kronstadt
And yet it is definitely worth visiting the Alexander Battery at least once. Despite the complete desolation and traces of vandalism, it will be of interest to lovers of fortification architecture. The battery completely covers the northern spit of Kotlin Island, serving as protection from the north not only for St. Petersburg, but also for the city with such a beautiful name - Kronstadt. Fort "Shanz", built at the end of the nineteenth century on the site of outdated redoubts, is a long and high earthen rampart. It connects all three concrete batteries. The central one was designed for cannons, and mortar redoubts were located along the flanks. Twelve open artillery positions were installed on top of the shaft, which were covered by a high parapet of concrete. The courtyards in which the guns stood were separated by a two-tiered traverse. You can see the shelter bunkers for the artillery brigade and the ammunition depot.
Fort "Shanz" (Kronstadt): beach
Swimming in Finnishbay is an amateur pleasure. But there are also very hot days in St. Petersburg. And then you want to dip and swim. Few people know that there is a long sandbank behind Fort Shanz. The water here warms up quickly, so swimming will bring true joy, so your vacation will seem like paradise.
