Saint Petersburg. Peter and Paul Fortress.

Peter and Paul Fortress - citadel of Saint Petersburg founded by Peter the Great and designed by Domeniko Trezzini at the beginning of XVIII century. The day was sunny, windy and actually very cold with short rains sometimes. We had a short excursion with a guide around the main sights of the fortress. We didn't see others because we were absolutely cold by that time.

Walking across the Ioann's Bridge

we entered the fortress through the Ioann's Gate

Then passed through Peter's Gate with a big two headed eagle on it.

Walked along the stone alleys between straight rows of old buildings heading to the Peter and Paul Cathedral - the highest building in Saint Petersburg. It's height is 122.5 meters.

Peter and Paul Cathedral from the inside.

Almost all Russian emperors are buried in Peter and Paul Cathedral.

In separate room remains of the Nicholas II and his family are buried.

This is the Ployed House, where Peter the Great was working on his boats.

The courtyard of the fortress - central square.

After that we headed to the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison, where a lot of Decembrists and other political prisoners were imprisoned. One of the single prison wards is on the picture below. Actually it is quite wide. I think nowadays single prison wards are much smaller. Anyway, we can only imagine how hard it was for prisoners to be here.

It was a high security prison, one of the best prisons in that time, that actually means that it it was the worst for the prisoners.

One of the Bastions.

Passing the Nevskiye Gate we appear on the embankment of the river Neva.

Sunny day and beautiful river views.

We liked Peter and Paul fortress. It's quite big and there are a lot of sights. For example, we also visited the Museum of Saint Petersburg History - a great museum with a lot of interesting items, that tell the history of this beautiful city.
Well, here ends our little Saint Petersburg journey. We still haven't seen a lot of it's sights. The places that I've told you about are make only a small percent of St Petersburg places of interest. It is a really wonderful city and I hope I'll come back here once.
See previous post about our St Petersburg vacation here: Moscow part, the city of Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, Petergof, Tsarskoye Selo.