Continuation of articles “St. Petersburg. "Window to Europe". Why not a door? " and “St. Petersburg. Vyborg. Mon Repos Park ".
Today we'll talk about Kronstadt, a city of military glory, a city - a fortress, a city - an island surrounded by a system of famous Kronstadt forts, the whole essence of which was aimed at only one thing, the protection of St. Petersburg from the sea. Plus a seaport.
According to historians, first of all, in these places, Peter laid the fortress of Kronshlot, and only then, building a fortress and settling in a neighboring island, Kronstadt gradually appeared.
Kronstadt is translated from German as "Crown City". Here the coat of arms is decorated with a stone crown and anchors, the center of the coat of arms is divided into two parts. On the right is a watchtower with a crown - a symbol of protection of the crown (capital) and a black cauldron on the left, just below the figure, 1704 - the year when the city was founded.
The city is located on the Kotlin Island and actually occupies half of the territory. A strange story is connected with the name of the island. Say, when Peter landed on the island with his troops, the Swedes, who were on guard and were on duty around the fire, fled, leaving only a smoked cauldron over the fire. It was from this boiler that the name appeared. He is also present on the coat of arms of the city.
In general, the story with the boiler, for me personally, looks somewhat strained. On most nautical and topographic maps of the 19th century, Kotlin Island is named as Kotnoy Island, which bears little resemblance to a bowler hat.)
Petrovsky park with a view of the Petrovskaya pier. Photo: V. Kononov.
For tourists, the main attraction of Kronstadt, perhaps, is the Naval Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, located in the city center and rebuilt by 2013, its centenary. (In good, sunny weather, the dome of the cathedral is clearly visible from both the right and left sides of the Gulf of Finland). Petrovsky Park and Petrovskaya Wharf, and the most curious will casually show the Dock Pool of Peter the Great's times. We are interested in the whole system of Peter's docks and some artifacts that the guides are silent about or simply do not know about.
Promotional video:
Naval Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Photo: V. Kononov.
And so, the technical wonders of the era of Peter.
After a trip to Europe, where Peter the Great studied the system of English and Dutch docks, he decides to build something similar in Kronstadt. In this regard, in 1719 he issues a decree on the beginning of construction. Note. At the same time, St. Petersburg was being built non-stop and Peterhof with its fonts was being laid! Aren't there too many projects to build them from scratch virtually simultaneously?
Part of the channel of the Peter Dock system. Photo: V. Kononov.
I omit the details of how many for these purposes the working people, the soldiers, were driven to watch that they would not shirk, to feed them all and to treat diseases. Historians claim that three thousand workers were supplied to build the dock system alone. Apparently there were enough men for everything. The canal was opened in 1752, a quarter of a century after the death of Peter. And this unique hydraulic structure stretches for more than two kilometers! Up to 10 large ships could be repaired in it at the same time! An unthinkable achievement for the middle of the 18th century!
Docks in the cross channel.
The paradox is that in Europe water was pumped out of the repair dock for more than two weeks, at the docks of Kronstadt, a little over a day! I wonder what Peter studied, if such technologies simply did not exist there. Now let's take a closer look at this unique hydraulic structure.
Technical ladder to descend to the dry dock. The staircase consists of granite blocks of 4 steps each. Installed on top of each other in a lock, without mortar, very tight. The question is, why is it so difficult ?? In yellow ovals, the joints between the blocks are shown and the lock is visible so that the block does not slide down.
The yellow line marks the outer part of ONE block, there are four steps inside it, the roofing felts are cast, the roofing felts are carved with something directly in the granite, and all this is a single whole, one piece! The weight of such a block is tens of tons, it is obvious that this was done by serfs under the supervision of soldiers.))
And every such multi-ton block had to be slipped under the next one. Is this the royal staircase? Why for the working ladder, along which the dockers scurried, such a complex and expensive structure to manufacture?
As you understand, this is far from the only artifact that does not fit into the general concept of Peter the Great's construction of a dock system from scratch from scratch, and therefore of Kronstadt itself, and therefore of St. Petersburg, where such artifacts are abundant. But let's follow….
Let's move on to the man-made, "made by the hands of serfs", Dock basin. The entire pool is paved with cobblestones. Granite cobblestone. In the corner of the pool there is a wind pumping mill of Peter's time. It has not been restored.
General view of the dock pool. The arrow indicates the pumping mill.
A close-up of the pumping mill and a fragment of the wall that will be discussed below.
Now pay attention to the part of the wall at this mill, adapted to the structure of the pool. This wall is made of granite, the blocks of which are made with a very complex pattern. This is the so-called polygonal masonry. Each stone block takes its place here. And although the wall ornament is repeated, each granite block is unique, has a chamfer, its size and the number of faces. Some blocks, for the sake of the idea of a distant artist, have pseudo-seams for greater harmony of the artistic canvas. Yes. I almost missed it. Of course, the blocks are fastened together without mortar, in fact, as is customary among serfs.
Take a closer look at these pictures:
Ask yourself a question. What is this work of art doing in this technical structure? Or was it used simply because it was? Who did it and why? There is no information on this wall at all, but meanwhile the whole world travels to Machu Picchu, a city of ancient America, located on the territory of modern Peru, to look at the "local" polygonal masonry of walls, which is hundreds of times more modest in design.
Polygonal masonry in Machu Picchu.
Let's move to one more place in Kronstadt. The intersection of the Kronstadt highway and Zosimov street. There, starting from the highway, hiding through houses, courtyards, garages and sheds stretches a real fortress wall. To this day, it has survived about three hundred meters. Height, about four meters, I think that no less part is underground and it once crossed the entire island across, at least one and a half kilometers! Traces of it can be found today in many places.
Fragment of the wall along Zosimova Street.
Why did they build it in this way? It's a hell of a job. Can you imagine the scale of this work? Find, select, bring, process and fold in a unique way, strictly on the spot! Each granite boulder weighs several tons! Who did it? Peasants? Soldiers?
It is somewhat similar to fish scales, except that each block is the size of a barn door and weighs five to six tons. However, in this case the drill marks are clearly visible. By the way, were they in 1704?
I ask myself a question. Why is it hidden from us? Out of ignorance or out of laziness? Negligence? Or deliberately, with some kind of historical intent? How then? Unclear. There is not much sense in this. But back to our story.
A man-made ravine up to nine meters deep. Long 400 meters. Also included in the Petrovsky dock system. A pedestrian Makarovsky bridge in honor of the name of Admiral Makarov has been thrown across it.
I see that the amount of text is approaching a critical one, which means that we have to interrupt our story again, and we have not had time to talk about the famous Kronstadt forts, in the arrangement of which there are also many "Peter's miracles".
And here is a part of the Communist Street in Kronstadt with such * paving stones *.))
Continuation: "St. Petersburg. So where is the city from?"
Author: Vladimir Kononov