I have always been fascinated by fortresses and everything connected with them. I always strive to visit them where they are near, if I go somewhere.
In 2007, I first visited the Koporye fortress in the Leningrad region (I myself live in St. Petersburg). The fortress left an indelible impression, and after that time I visited it in 2013 and 2014. You can read the official information about it on Wikipedia, and maybe you have already read it. And I will tell you about the things and facts that I paid attention to.
1. The fortress is located on a hill, which the Koporka River bends around on one side, and a ditch on the other.
The moat is dry, but a stone bridge leads through it to the fortress. It immediately struck me as strange. Why make a moat without water and make a bridge across it? The ditch is shallow, you can easily go down into it. At the first examination, the thought flashed that once there was water in the ditch. But I immediately dismissed it, since the level of the Koporka river is 50 meters, and maybe more lower than the moat itself. That is, the river flows in the lowland.
2. The ground level inside the fortress is significantly higher than the ground level outside it. Moreover, so much higher that in order to get inside the towers of the fortress, you need to go down into the dungeon. This logic seemed strange to me, too. Why build a fortress in such a way as to ring a hill? If the fortress was built ON a hill, then no moat would be needed. And looking at what remains of the fortress, it seems that at first a ditch was dug, and then, around the resulting "heap" of land, a fortress was built.
Here you can see the ground level inside the fortress:
Promotional video:
Inside the fortress. On the right is a ruined brick church. Contrast with the walls of the fortress.
The tower, covered with soil from the inside of the fortress.
The walls and territory filled up from the inside.
The inner ground level is even better visible here.
3. The arches of the fortress, embedded in the ground. When I saw it for the first time, it seemed strange to me. You don't use it as a loophole, and as a passage, too.
Such powerful supports with well-made blocks were clearly placed in the aquatic environment.
Recently I was looking through my photos of the fortress, and again became interested, here it does not give me rest. I decided to find more information about it and came across the opinion of scientists (I could not find who exactly) that the fortress was surrounded by water, but now there is no water, since the Gulf of Finland retreated. Allegedly, this, too, was in some chronicles that I did not find, unfortunately. This information was also told by the guides who conducted excursions around the fortress. Now the fortress is located 12 km from the Gulf of Finland. There are no big roads and paths that have been preserved and which she could guard and protect. Located, in fact, off the beaten path. That is, the version about its location for protection, namely, water boundaries, seems more real.
It is clearly seen here that the Koporye fortress stands on the coast of the Koporsky Bay of Lake Kotlino:
Checked it out. Indeed, in a straight line to the Gulf of Finland is now 12 km.
Now the facts: now Koporye is located 120m above sea level (the Gulf of Finland), St. Petersburg, approximately 20m above sea level. If the fortress was once surrounded by water, this means that the place where Petersburg is now located was completely hidden by water. Studying the old maps, it is really clear that Koporye is located on the coast, or, at least, much closer to it.
Now the fortress is officially closed for visits due to the emergency condition, although there are loopholes, of course, and you can get there.
I do not know why, but in none of the fortresses I visited (and there were many of them) I did not feel such a feeling of some kind of mystery as I feel here. That's how many times I have been - I felt so much. As if some understatement hangs in the air.
I propose to see more photos of this fortress and read the official historical information:
The Koporye fortress was first mentioned in 1240, then still wooden. It was built not by our compatriots, but by the Livonian Order. In 1241, Alexander Nevsky beat the Germans and destroyed their fortifications. And already in 1280 Novgorodians erected a stone fortress on this place. However, later, for political reasons, the fortress was dismantled and reassembled only in 1297.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Koporye twice passed to the Swedes, and in the 18th the fortress ceased to carry a defensive function due to the movement of the border further to the west.
An interesting fact: in 1280, Grand Duke Dmitry Alexandrovich set up a stone city in Koporye, which was destroyed two years later by Novgorodians as a result of a conflict with the prince. The fortress was rebuilt again in 1297, and in the late 15th and early 16th centuries it was rebuilt.
Well, you have to manage to destroy it instead of appropriating the fortress as a trophy!
The fortress was built like many other ancient buildings - rubble masonry inside, facing blocks outside.
The blocks are very badly destroyed by erosion. The strength of the blocks is not high.
Something was once restored. Modern fittings in masonry.
Bas-relief on a stone of a tombstone inside the Koporye fortress.
It looks like marble in the photo.
What conclusion can be drawn? There are facts indicating that the fortress was surrounded by the waters of the Gulf of Finland. This is plus 12 km inland. And this cannot be explained by the flood. This is an elevated level of the world's oceans or a part of the continent lowered into the sea. And this is historical time! And then what about Peter? Was he completely in the water? Or Peter I built it on a new land edge by the sea? Or, as many alternative people think - the city appeared out of water, built long before it?
And how to explain such a volume of soil inside the fortress in Koporye? Soil from the destruction of walls? Whether it is hidden from the walls … There are many questions.
***
The Baltic-Ladoga ledge, also the Baltic-Ladoga glint (Dan. Klint - cliff, ledge) is a natural formation, a ledge stretching for approximately 1100-1200 km from the Swedish island of Eland through the islands and mainland territory of Estonia and the Leningrad region to Lake Ladoga. The scarp is most pronounced on the territory of the Estonian county of Ida-Virumaa, where its height reaches 56 meters.
The glint of northern Estonia goes to the Baltic coast.
According to official geology, the klint corresponds to the boundary of the outcropping of the Cambrian and Ordovician deposits. The upland to the south of the ledge, composed of Ordovician rocks, is called the Ordovician plateau (in the territory of the Leningrad region - the Izhora Upland).
The Baltic-Ladoga scarp intersects with a number of rivers, among them Narva, Luga, Izhora, Tosna, Pirita, Yagala. Crossing the klint, rivers form rapids and waterfalls, the largest of which, Valaste, has a height of 30.5 m. including the Kazan Cathedral.
The ledge, being a natural barrier, was often used as a fortification; the Old Ladoga fortress, the Koporye fortress, the Yam fortress in Kingisepp, the Ivangorod fortress, and old Tallinn were built on the klint. The Oreshek fortress was also built from limestones mined on the ledge. The height difference of the glint was used in the construction of the Peterhof fountains and allows the fountains to work from water flowing by gravity.
Ivangorod fortress on the glint.
The origin of the klint is not fully understood, it is considered to be the coast of the ancient sea, formed about 11 thousand years ago as a result of the descent of the glacier. However, the existence of this sea has not yet been proven, on its bottom there are no marine sediments related to this period of time, it is unclear where the northern boundary of this sea passed
And here are its boundaries:
In some places there are even such waterfalls.
Reef. Wigrund. Baltic-Ladoga ledge.
The fortresses of Yam (present-day Kingisepp) and Koporye were built on the Baltic-Ladoga ledge. Official history says that this is the coast of an ancient sea, and that the ledge originated 11 thousand years ago.
Now take a look at the following links:
1548 year.
1550.
1562 year.
1570 year.
As you can see, the fortresses of Koporye (Coporio, Caprio, etc.) and Yam (Jama, Iama) are located on these maps near the coast. And the border of the Gulf of Finland on these old ones rather corresponds to the outlines of the Ledge, on the links above, and not to the borders on modern maps. The conclusions, I think, are clear.
PS Who knows what Flantina is in place of modern Peter on the map from 1548? I could not find this information anywhere.