The Peter And Paul Fortress is the historic centre of the tsar’s city of St. Petersburg and is located on Rabbits Island within the mouth of the Newa River. Its slender, gilded bell tower is 122 high and is one of the city’s most dominant landmarks.

The cathedral was built between 1712 and 1733 and contains both Dutch and Early Baroque building styles. Since Peter The Great the building was used mainly as a place of burial for the tsars and the Tsarina Catharine The Great lies within a sarcophagus of white Carrara marble.

Numerous wall paintings and captured flags from the wars against the Swedes and the Osmanic Empire still decorate the splendid interior of the cathedral. In front of the main guard house there is a controversial bronze sculpture by the Russian, Michail Schemjakin, that depicts Peter The Great with a strikingly small head.

The Peter And Paul Fortress never saw battle and was later converted into a state prison. The participants of the December Revolt which took place in 1825 were also imprisoned within its walls and until the October Revolution in 1917 the fortress also served as a notorious prison for the enemies and critics of the tsars.

During the Revolution, the canons of the fortress fired forty shots at the Winter Palace that is located on the opposite bank of the Newa. Today, the thunder of canon is a daily event and punctually at noon a shot is fired from the Naryschkin Bastion. With this simple ceremony due homage is paid to an age old tradition of Peter The Great as it was in this way that he announced lunchtime for all the inhabitants of the city!