“Kiev Fortress” is a complex of defense structures of the capital of Ukraine, formed over the course of fifteen centuries. It includes: the territory of the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, the Arsenal plant, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, as well as many defense walls and ramparts of Kiev.
Unique monument
This is the only fortification monument in the country and one of the largest earth fortresses in the world that have survived to this day. But not everyone knows where the Kiev fortress is located. It is located on Hospital Street, 24a.
New archaeological finds from the period of Kievan Rus and Scythian times are constantly being carried out here. During the holidays, in the Kiev Fortress complex (photo below), guns salute and flags rise. Musical and literary evenings are held in the fireplace room, which has no equal acoustic properties.
The fortress of Kievan Rus: a few facts from history
The history of fortification began at the end of the 5th century with a hillfort located on Starokievskaya Gora. At that time it was fortified with picket fences, ditches and earthen ramparts. But after Kiev became the capital of Kievan Rus, a system of fortifications of the city began to be created. All parts of the city received their own defense system. In 1240, after the defeat received from Batu Khan, fortifications fortified. Their new stage of development begins during the Polish-Lithuanian rule, when a fortress (Lithuanian castle) is being erected on Mount Khorevitsa. When the Russian state was in power, fortifications from Pechersk to Khreshchatyk were erected in Kiev. In 1679, the troops of the Cossacks under the leadership of Samoilovich unite the Pechersk and Starokievsky fortifications, due to which a common huge fortress was formed. The Pechersk Citadel at the beginning of the eighteenth century was already fully established.
The composition of the complex
The Kiev fortress, which is located on the Pechersky hill, includes three main defense nodes: the Hospital and Vasilkovsky fortifications, as well as the citadel. The construction of the fortress, which began in the early years of the eighteenth century, was due to the fact that the Russian Empire was preparing for the Northern War. Further, Kiev was identified as the main strategic point. In 1706, Peter I came to the city and found a place for a new fortification. The most suitable place was near the Kiev-Pechersky monastery. In the same year, in the presence of the emperor, the official laying of the first stone of the fortress took place, which later became the bastion of the Kiev fortress. And at the moment, the Kiev Fortress complex has a very convenient address for tourists.
The monastery as a strategic object
The Kiev Pechersk Monastery, the main core of the Pechersk fortification, was not chosen by chance. From the beginning of its existence, it had reliable towers and defense walls. From the annals it is known that already in the 2nd half of the eleventh century the territory of the monastery was surrounded by a picket fence. In the twelfth century, the palisade was replaced by stone walls, which in 1240 were destroyed by the Mongol-Tatars. In the seventeenth century, the fencing of the monastery was still wooden. It was periodically strengthened by ramparts. So, in 1679, the army of the hetman Ivan Samoilovich around the monastery erected earthen ramparts. Twenty years later, the monastery is surrounded by very high walls with several entrance gates and five towers, as well as with special gate churches. At the moment, Ivan Kushnik, Onufrievskaya, South and Paint towers have been preserved. Equipped with loopholes, two-tier towers protrude beyond the walls. The defensive stone walls, about 3 meters thick in the lower part, had a height of about seven meters and ended in battle galleries located on the outskirts of the structures. They were made in the form of arcades from the inside.
The role of the monastery in the history of the fortress
Consequently, the monastery at the time of the foundation of the Pechersk fortress had a fairly reliable defense system. The construction of the bastion type of earthen fortress was completed in 1723. Its fortification was a circular system of defense structures. It included 9 bastions, one half-bastion, ravelin, curtains and other objects. Since the threat of foreign intervention remained, the fortress constantly demanded the maintenance of proper maintenance, as well as its modernization and reconstruction. In the fifties of the eighteenth century in the fortress, construction was supervised by Bosquet, a military engineer. At that moment, the bastions get their current names: Spassky, Pavlovsky, Uspensky, Petrovsky, Semenovsky, Andreevsky. Before the beginning of the nineteenth century, in addition to open fortifications, several other very important structures were built on the territory of the fortress, for example, the Moscow and Vasilkovsky gates, the arsenal house, the powder cellar, trains, and barracks. Given the achievements in the development of weapons, including in increasing the range of existing guns, an earthen Zverinetsk fort was erected at the suggestion of Opperman, a military engineer. This happened on the eve of the war of 1812 especially to protect the Pechersk fortress.
The construction of new fortress objects
Kiev did not lose its military-strategic significance even after the war. In 1830, the plan of the new fortress, which was developed by Opperman, was approved. According to his project, the construction of the Hospital and Vasilkovsky fortifications was provided. It was also planned to change the Pechersk Citadel, included in the general system of fortifications. And still the Kiev fortress (photo can be viewed in this article) offers to see these objects.
The construction of the Kiev fortress began in 1831, after the foundation of the so-called Vasilkovsky fortification, while its construction was completed in 1863. It consisted of ravelin with caponier, earthen ramparts, as well as three towers. On Cherepanova Hill, a hospital fortification was built in 1842-1849. It included 3 caponiers located in ditches, earthen ramparts, an oblique caponier, a northern caponier with a small bridge, a hospital and many other buildings. Also, production workshops, two towers, Nikolaevsky Gate were built near the Klovsky ravine, and defense walls were created around the Far and Near Caves .
The fortification architectural complex “Kiev Fortress”, completed in the sixties of the nineteenth century, consisted of the Hospital and Vasilkovsky fortifications, the Pechersk Citadel, earthen Zverinetsk defense structures. But since firearms were developing very actively at that time, for the period of the project implementation, it did not already meet the requirements of modern defense. In 1871-1877, the need to update the fortifications forced the construction of the Lysogorsky fort.
Accordingly, the Kiev fortress as the main fortification complex was built over a century and a half. The good news is that many of its buildings have survived to the present.
Despite the fact that the Kiev Fortress complex has lost its original strategic importance over time, a huge number of defense structures of 4 periods of fortifications have been preserved to this day.
The value of the fortress in the history of Kiev
In the history of the city, the role of the Kiev fortress is ambiguous. For almost 70 years, the creation of a military fortified camp within Pechersk was able to delay the civilian development of the area. At the same time, its construction is directly related to the active development of the waterway, brick factories, the creation of lifts (Pankratievsky, Aleksandrovsky, Navodnitsky, Klovsky) and cobbled streets, Naberezhnoye Shosse, the first permanent bridge across the Dnieper. Skillful manufacturing Arsenal fortresses were the embryo of the Arsenal plant. To date, the complex of fortress structures is considered a specific museum of the history of fortification, which presents defense structures from the time of the development of rifled and smooth-bore artillery.
Fortress Attractions
The oldest landmark of a medieval type are considered defense walls with towers. They are located around the Upper Lavra. The latest fortification systems include the bastion earthen fortifications of the citadel, Hospital polygonal fortification, Vasilkovsky fortification. All kinds of defense barracks located on Pechersk embody the features of the Russian fortification school. She, according to experts, occupied a major position in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Lysogorsk fortification demonstrates the characteristic features of the fortified fortress of the time of rifled artillery. Some structures of the fortress are directly related to the history of the revolutionary and liberation movements. Where the Kiev Shlisselburg political prison used to be, in the thirties of the last century the Oblique Caponier Museum was opened.
Kiev Fortress: a museum today
Every year archaeologists find various facts from the history of the city and the fortress. This is one of the reasons that at the moment the Kiev fortress is one of the most mysterious museums in the city. The most interesting element of the object is the Diagonal Caponir, built in 1844. It is a structure with very thick walls, whose foundation is considered to be stones and bricks. In its walls loopholes and loopholes for guns and cannons were placed. The builders placed Caponir at an angle to the ramparts of the fortress for convenient combat, hence the name came from. From the very beginning, it was necessary for storing artillery supplies and weapons. But in the sixties of the 19th century it became a political prison, in which, as you can understand, political prisoners were held until they were sent to the Lesogorsky fort in the gallows.
Today, Diagon Caponir is one of the most important and interesting elements of the Kiev fortress. In addition to it, the museum includes the Great Patriotic War, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, as well as many objects. They can be visited while in Pechersk, in the Kiev Fortress complex. All residents of the city know how to get there, and they will surely tell you: from the railway station there is the opportunity to take the trolleybus No. 14, minibus No. 534 to a stop with the corresponding name or taxi. From Bessarabka, from Friendship of Peoples and Solomyanka there is a minibus taxi number 450.
Museums
In Kaponir itself there are two museums that are dedicated to the history of this fortification. Interestingly, one of them is underground. His guests will find him in a converted form for prisoners. As the historical situation changed, all the loopholes were turned into windows with reliable bars. Here you can see a lot of old utensils, uniforms, weapons and things of prisoners that have survived to this day. The next museum contains important historical documents and uniforms from different times.
Today, Kiev Fortress is one of the most mysterious museums in the city, as archaeologists annually find various facts from the history of the city and the fortress.
Museum collection
Huge stone towers, earthen fortifications and caponiers are objects of showing excursions to the architectural complex “Kiev Fortress”. The program of exhibitions presents the main collection of historical and military miniatures in Ukraine, the largest collection in Europe of Napoleonian, the press of the UNR division and them. Old Man Makhno. Swords, spears, crossbows, shackles and chablis with equipment perfectly fit into the general view of defense structures. Museum expositions are housed in two caponiers that talk about the history of Kiev and Russian fortification from the time of Tripoli culture to the nineteenth century, as well as the history of the use of fortress structures.