On the sixteenth of May
(according to the new calendar- on the
twenty-seventh) 1703 the Russians set up a
fortress on little Hare Island in order to
protect the Neva from enemies and named it
Sankt- Petersburg paying homage to their patron
saint of Czar Peter I. The czar had personally
chosen the location.
The plans for the
defensive buildings were drawn up by Peter
himself together with the French engineer J.
Lambert and complied with fortification
requirements valid in Western Europe. The
fortifications were built of wood, soil and
peat. The work was completed by twenty thousand
people: |
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Russian soldiers, Swedish
war prisoners but also workmen sent from all
over Russia. The establishment of the
fortification buildings was finished within only
four months in autumn 1703. The winter harbour
of the Russian Navy was located in the fortress.
The city began to
form in the surroundings of Sankt- Petersburg
fortification. Wooden river-banks and houses
with clay walls were characteristic features of
the early history of Sankt- Petersburg. Around
1710 building of the first stone houses began.
The city grew under constant fear of assault
which died out only after the defeat of the
Swedish army under Poltava (1709) and the
conquering of Viburg (1710). |
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