They say «history is written with blood and dreams here».

This citadel was constructed very quickly in 1703-1706 since there was an urgent need for a strategic fortification in the Great Northern War with Swedish empire.

The fortress is a cornerstone in the foundation of the city and is also among its most prominent landmarks. Built on an island and shaped as an elongated hexagon with six bastions, the fortress however never took part in any war actions! Later it was served as a political prison.

Inside there is a famous creation built in 1712-1733 by the city’s renowned architect Domenico Trezzini, that is Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The cathedral houses the remains of almost all Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family who were finally laid to rest in July 1998

Price: 700 RUB per person

Duration: 2-3 hours

Type of excursion: walking

Contents of the tour:

• Normally this tour can be a part of a Sightseeing tour;
• We will have a walk around the fortress, enjoy the main panorama of Saint-Petersburg from the Neva river shores;
• You will hear the main story of the foundation of the city;
• Visit fortress's multiple temporally or permаnent exibitions (of your choice) as well as Peter and Paul Cathedral where buried the main representatives of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov dynasty;
• Probably see some concert or festival which are very frequent in the fortress.

Among the most interesting permanent exhibitions in the fortress are:

• Museum of Science and Technology;

• The exhibition features the rich collection of scientific and technological devices of the 19th – 20th centuries: domestic appliances, measuring and optical instruments, calculators, vehicles, and many more;

• Trubetskoy Bastion Prison (functiпned from 1872 until 1921 as the main political prison of the the Russian Empire).