Not only the palaces of St. Petersburg, Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo attract tourists to this region. The ancient land of the Leningrad Region has long been an arena of struggle for access to the Baltic Sea. There are monuments here, perhaps not so brilliant in appearance, but keeping their ancient and rich history. One of such objects is the Koporye fortress.
A monument of medieval Russian defensive architecture, the Koporye fortress is located 12 kilometers from the Gulf of Finland on the edge of the Izhora Upland, which is part of the Leningrad Region. The fortress has a rich history full of secrets and mysteries.
For the first time the fortress was mentioned in the "First Novgorod Chronicle", where it is firmly associated with the name of Alexander Nevsky. "The same winters the Germans came to Vod with Chudya and made war and put a tribute on them, and the city of Uchinisha in Koporye churchyard." In 1241, the Russian army under the control of Prince Alexander, who later received the honorary name Nevsky, captured the fortress and tore down all the fortifications. However, already his son Dmitry in 1279 built a small wooden fortress on this place, and the next year its walls became stone. However, Dmitry's relations with the Novgorod Republic did not work out, and the Novgorodians tore down stone walls and earthen ramparts. These are the costs of democracy. True, twenty years later they had to urgently rebuild it again - there was a threat of foreign invasion.
After the entry of the Novgorod lands into the Moscow state, a new one was built on the site of the old fortress, having the shape of an irregular triangle. During the construction, the development of artillery was already taken into account, and it was a completely modern defensive structure.
In the future, the fortress constantly passed from Russian hands to Swedish ones and back. Only on May 28, 1703, Russian troops under the leadership of Sheremetyev captured the fortress, and it became Russian forever. There is a legend that the Swedish king Charles XII was in Koporye at the time of the approach of the Russian army and dined in the secret room of the fortress.
The king was so frightened that he fled through the underground passage, forgetting the crown and leaving the throne. Allegedly, during the shelling of the fortress, the entrance to this room was blocked up, and these precious objects are still in the basements of the fortress. There is another legend about the origin of the countless treasures of Koporye. According to her, the emperors Peter I and Charles argued and struck a bet: whoever was the first to pave the road from his capital to Koporye, he would own it. An extra bet was a huge bag of gold. Karl ordered his subjects to pave the road with cobblestones. Thousands of peasants daily mined stone and laid it on the road.
Peter I, who had forgotten about the dispute, remembered about it only when the Swedish road was already approaching Vyborg. Then the emperor ordered his soldiers to lie right in the mud and went straight over their bodies to meet Charles. The latter, realizing that he had been fooled, threw his hat on the sack of gold and vowed to return for it. Peter rushed to the gold, but it did not come into his hands and hid in the ground.
The search for the Koporye treasures has been going on since the Great Northern War. One of its owners even ordered the serfs to dig up the entire road to Koporye. But so far the treasure has not been found. And the treasure hunters persist in their search. A number of travel agencies even organize special excursions reminiscent of adventure games in real dungeons and passages of Koporye.
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In 1708 Peter I presented the fortress to Prince A. D. Menshikov. After Menshikov's exile in 1727, Koporye was transferred to the treasury. Finally, in 1763, Catherine II excluded Koporye from the list of fortresses. The Zinoviev family became its new owners. The first of them planned to open a trade in cut stone, using slabs from the walls of the fortress. However, he received a ban from the Minister of Internal Affairs Epgel: "… it is strictly forbidden to destroy such ancient buildings."
In 1858-1860, the architect E. V. Lomov adapted part of the gates for a chapel, which also served as the family burial vault of the Zinoviev family.
After the revolution, the fortress was actually abandoned. In 1919, the Red Guards fought in it with Yudenich's landing. In 1941, in the Koporye region, fierce battles were fought against the German fascist invaders. All this, of course, did not contribute to the preservation of the monument.
Only in 1983 was the conservation of one of the towers and part of the walls carried out. In 2001, Koporyu was given the status of a museum. However, this did not change much, the fortress is not being restored and is not actually guarded. And this allows treasure hunters to spontaneously excavate, which makes the walls of the ancient Koporye collapse even more.
Another attraction of Koporye is "Koporye tea", this herbal mixture of lungwort and "Ivan tea". It has long enjoyed wide popularity in Russia. It is interesting that its production was prohibited by Ivan the Terrible, who supported the state monopoly on tea imported from England. However, the local residents continued their profitable "business" anyway. And under cover of darkness they not only brought "Koporsky tea" to the trade shops of St. Petersburg, but also managed to deliver it to England itself.
Tourists often come to Koporye to climb its walls and admire the wonderful view. However, this is not safe. And the point is not only that the walls are destroyed and can collapse at any moment, but also that ominous ghosts live in the ruins of the castle.
Locals will be happy to tell you about the ghost of Charles XII, wandering in anguish along the ancient walls. But much more often ghosts from the family of the last owners - the Zinovievs - are met. It is said that once, after abundant libations, a visitor from St. Petersburg, Valery Korablev, on a dispute undertook to wait in the fortress for the morning. He wandered among the ruins for a long time until it started to rain. Then he decided to take refuge in the chapel. And suddenly I found an elderly man there, sitting against the far wall. The conversation dragged on. When asked what he was doing here, the stranger replied: “I live here, everyone calls me Dmitry Vasilyevich.” Valery did not even think about the meaning of the answer. Finally, in the morning, with the words “Time to bypass” the old man left. Korablev got scared later, when he discovered tombstone "Dmitry Vasilyevich Zinoviev 1822-1904".
True, we must pay tribute to the local spirit - it does not lure tourists into landslides and does not push them off the walls. On the contrary, he warns them against rash actions. Those who have experienced this for themselves claim that at such a moment it is as if someone is holding them, and their legs seem to grow to the ground by themselves.
So, if you decide to visit Koporye, you can not only touch the ancient history, enjoy the views of nature and "Koporye tea", but also look for treasures under the supervision of local good spirits.