Peter and Paul Fortress is the historical center of St. Petersburg . Around this center, one of the biggest Russian cities grew within a few decades. The construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress (or the St. Petersburg Fortress, as it was originally named) was closely connected with the Northern War against Sweden aimed at liberation of the Russian lands located along the banks of the Neva and along the shores of the Baltic Sea.

The fortress was constructed for protection of the newly-recovered Russian lands located on the banks of the Neva, but soon the military importance of the fortress was lost.

The construction of the fortress was completed in the first half of the 18-th century. Several buildings were constructed in the fortress, including the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul dominating over this architectural ensemble and playing a very important role in the panorama of the banks of the Neva.

In 1718, the Peter and Paul Fortress was turned into a political prison. In Trubetskoi Bastion of the fortress, Peter the Great interrogated his son Alexei and his accomplices. It was here that Alexei died on June 26, 1718.

From the end of the 18-th century, the fortress was a prison for Russian revolutionaries. In 1870-1872, the prison building was constructed in Trubetskoi Bastion. It was from this prison that the elder brother of Vladimir Lenin, Alexander Ulianov, was sent for execution to Schlisselburg in 1887. In the 1890s, the future Bolsheviks Nikolai Bauman, Friedrich Lengnik, Mikhail Olminsky, Panteleimon Lepeshinsky and Alexander Shapovalov were imprisoned here. In 1905, the writer Maxim Gorky was a prisoner of the secret prison of the fortress. In 1917, the arsenal of the Peter and Paul Fortress supplied arms to the Red Guards. On October 25, at 9 p.m., the cannon shot of the fortress, as well as the shot of Aurora cruiser, became the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace . In the night of October 25-October 26, the detained Ministers of the Provisionary Government were taken to the fortress.

In 1922, by order of the Soviet government, the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul and the Trubetskoi Bastion became museums, and in 1966, the whole fortress became a museum complex and an architectural preserve.

At present the fortress cathedral functions as a Russian Orthodox church, while the fortress museums are still open for visitors.

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