The Premier Site for Russian Culture
External fortifications defending the Peter and Paul Fortress from the north. Originally consisted of a bastion and two half-bastions joined by courtines and surrounded by a moat with water and earthen slopes (glacis) joined by a drawbridge and defended by twenty to forty-five cannons (1705–08). Reconstructed by engineers Abram Hannibal (1752) and P. P. Berg (1800). Five leaders of the Decembrist Revolt were hung on the eastern wall (13 July 1826). Excluded from the fortress plan (1838). The glacis was replaced by the Alexander Park and a stone Arsenal was built inside the Kronwerk (1849–60). Housed the Artillery Museum – now known as the Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Communication Forces (1868).