Peter and Paul Fortress

The history of St. Petersburg begins with the foundation of the Peter and Paul Fortress. In 1703, at the mouth of the Neva, on Hare Island.

There are different opinions as to why Peter chose this place: Hare Island for the foundation of the fortress. One version says that Peter chose Hare Island following the instructions of an old man who lived as a hermit in Solovetsky Monastery on Zayatsky Island. When the future emperor began to choose a suitable place for the foundation of a new capital, the coincidence of the names of the two islands seemed to him an important signal that cannot be ignored; It was there where construction began.

Initially, the fortress was built of earth and wood, but in 1706-1740 it was rebuilt in stone. The architect was the famous Italian Domenico Trezzini. The bastions and the curtains of brick and stone reached up to 12 meters high and 20 meters wide. Around the fortress were ditches with water.

The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg began to be built several years after the foundation of the Peter and Paul Fortress. According to legend, Peter I himself determined the place of the temple, placing pieces of grass crisscrossed in the center of the fortress transversely. The first stone in the foundations of the cathedral was laid by Pedro I, the second, Empress Catherine. The cathedral was built between 1712 and 1733.

The bell tower of the Cathedral of Peter and Paul is crowned with a 34-meter golden needle with a clock. In 1725, it was decorated with the figure of an angel holding a cross.

A large number of military trophies were stacked in the cathedral: weapons, banners, keys to cities and towns taken. Here are the graves of all Russian emperors, beginning with Peter I, except Peter II and Ivan Antonovich.

7 years after the October Revolution, the Peter and Paul Fortress became a historical and revolutionary museum. Currently, it is a branch of the historical museum of the city of St. Petersburg.
The height of the cathedral is 122.5 m; The needle is 40 m. The cathedral is consecrated, the services are performed according to a special schedule, the rest of the time it works as a museum.

Wooden church of St. the apostles Peter and Paul were placed on June 29 (July 12) 1703 on the day of Peter in the center of Hare Island. The church with a spire-shaped bell tower in the “Dutch style” was consecrated on April 1, 1704. In 1709-1710. The church became cruciform in terms of “three spitz,” it expanded.

The construction of a new stone cathedral began on June 8, 1712 according to the design of D. Trezzini. In 1719, under the direction of the Dutch H. van Boleos, the assembly of wooden structures of the bell tower was completed. In 1724, the spire and the small dome of the bell tower were covered with gold-plated copper sheets through the fire by Riga F. Zifers. According to Trezzini’s drawing, a copper cross is made and installed with the figure of a flying angel on the needle apple. The height of the bell tower became 106 m.

This is a temple of three ships. A bell tower was erected on the western section of the central nave, and an octagonal drum on the eastern section. In the design of the facades, the idea of ​​a smooth transition from the first level to the second through the introduction of lateral scrolls was used. In the attic a copper plate of the artists A. Matveev and A. Zakharov was placed with the image of the apostles Peter and Paul. Wooden sculptures were installed on the attic, complete with an onion pediment. The oval window at the bottom of the eastern facade is decorated with stucco images of cherubs in the clouds. Facades of the cathedral in the 1730s were painted pink.

In 1756, a fire destroyed a wooden spire and a roof, clocks and bells died, and the western portico was destroyed. In 1757, the master builder A. Antonietti erected a brick dome crowned with an onion dome on the altar, according to a drawing by V.V. Fermar Gray-green painted facades. Since 1762, the Bell Tower was restored by the Office in the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. By order of Catherine II – in its previous forms. The placement of stone bleachers was completed in 1770. According to the project of the Danish craftsman B. Bauer, in 1773 a new wooden needle was erected, lined with golden sheets of copper. The bells made by watchmaker B.F. Oort Crassus in the Netherlands in 1757-1760 were installed by watchmaker I.E. Rediger in 1776.

In 1777 a needle damaged a needle. Correction made according to the arc drawings. P. Yu. Paton A new figure of an angel with a cross according to a drawing by A. Rinaldi was made by master K. Forshman.

In 1778, under the supervision of academic Leonard Euler, work was done to equip the needle with a lightning rod.

In 1779, the chapel of San Catherine The ceiling of the chapel in 1830 was painted by I.E. and F.A. Pavlov

In the early nineteenth century. Century in the cathedral was renovated with the participation of the arch. L. Ruska, D. Visconti, A.I. Melnikov, I.I. Charlemagne, artists V.K. Shebuyev and D.I. Antonelli

In 1829, the storm again damaged the figure of an angel in a needle. Roofer Peter Telushkin made repairs without scaffolding. The repair carried out in October-November 1830 passed into the history of domestic technology as an example of Russian ingenuity and courage.

In 1856-1858 According to the project of the engineer D.I. Zhuravsky, instead of a wooden one, a metal needle was built. Inside the spire, a spiral iron staircase leads to a covered hatch arranged at a height of 100 m above the block with a six-meter cross with an angel (sculptor RK Zaleman?) An angel palette revolves around a rod mounted on the plane of the figure itself. The voluminous parts of the angel are made by electroforming, the remaining parts are stamped in wrought copper. The gilding was carried out under the guidance of chemist G. Struve by the arteller of merchants Korotkov. Angel height – 3, 2 m, wingspan – 3.8 m

At the same time, the bells were checked. The work was done by the Butenop brothers. Since 1859, the bells performed the music of the composer D. Bortnyansky every fifteen minutes, and the hymn “God Save the Tsar”, written by A. F. Lvov, at noon and midnight.

La silueta del campanario, que se extendió después de la reconstrucción, se volvió muy espectacular; es difícil creer que los cambios fueron realizados por un ingeniero sin educación y experiencia arquitectónica y artística.

Y aquí está lo que escribió el diccionario enciclopédico Brockhaus y Efron en 1895 en un artículo dedicado al arquitecto K.A. Ton: “Los últimos años de T., nombrado en 1854, después de la muerte de A. I. Melnikov, el rector de la academia, no fueron menos fructífero; hicieron … el diseño de la torre metálica del campanario de la catedral de la Fortaleza de Pedro y Pablo, en San Petersburgo (el último proyecto fue realizado por el ingeniero Zhuravsky) … ” (dic.academic.ru; agregó: pesador)

Después de la revolución, los servicios fueron descontinuados, y en 1919 al público se le negó el acceso a la catedral. En 1927, el edificio de la catedral fue transferido al Museo de la Revolución. Desde 1954 pertenece al Museo de Historia de Leningrado. En los años 1955-1957. La restauración científica se llevó a cabo de acuerdo con el proyecto de I.N. Benois. En 1987-1995 los artistas L.N. Sokolov y Yu I. Trushin completaron la restauración de pinturas e íconos. En 1991-1995, la restauración del ángel y la cruz. En 1996-1998 La capilla de Catalina fue restaurada según el proyecto de arco. A. E. Gunich y S. S. Nalivkina. La familia del último emperador ruso Nicolás II está enterrado allí.