Sightseeings: Shlisselburg. Shlisselburg Fortress

The town of Shlisselburg, whose photo evokes the desire to visit it, is an administrative center on the left bank of the Neva River directly by the Ladoga Lake, twenty-four kilometers east of St. Petersburg.

City `s history

This ancient city has a rich history and many sights. Shlisselburg was founded in 1323 by Prince Yuri Danilovich. It was at this time on the island of Oreshek, where there were thickets of hazel, was laid a wooden fortress with the same name. According to some information, this original name was given to the place due to the fact that on top this small piece of sushi is very similar in shape to the nut.

The Swedes tried several times to conquer the fortress in order to push the Novgorodians out of the sea to the depths of the country, but their attempts up to the beginning of the seventeenth century were not successful. But in 1613 the fortress was captured. The conquerors renamed it the Noteburg. A little less than a century passed before the army of Peter the Great in 1702 succeeded in winning the fortress.

A few decades later, numerous settlements began to be formed in the vicinity. And already in 1780 this town was given the status of a city. Today tourists come here to see its sights.

Shlisselburg today

At present the city is a full-fledged complex combining historical and architectural monuments belonging to different landmarks, from the fourteenth century up to the Great Patriotic War. But nevertheless the most unique building in it is the fortress. Shlisselburg is a small town. About fifteen thousand people live in it.

In this small provincial town there are no flourishing industrial enterprises or large centers, including commercial ones. Built at the beginning of the last century, the shipyard today is in desolation. However, the history of the city and its picturesque landscapes are already in themselves sights. Shlisselburg during the Great Patriotic War was a defensive point on the outskirts of the besieged city on the Neva. Through the fort they evacuated the inhabitants, from here the Leningrad merchants were supplied with food. And after decades it became a huge museum of those hard years.

sights

In addition to the fortress, the city can see such amazing architectural monuments as the Church of St. Nicholas, the Nativity of John the Baptist and the Annunciation, the small chapel of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God. There is much in Shlisselburg and museums devoted to ships' weapons, the history of the city. Here, truly unique engineering networks remained from the old Ladoga Canal. This is a granite gateway built in the mid-nineteenth century, a bridge erected on columns. Preserved such architectural monuments as the Gostiny Dvor, the statue of Peter I, etc.

In general, the map of Shlisselburg with sights is simply amazing with its saturation. Tourists are happy to come here to see the amazing buildings.

Fortress of Oreshek

Schlusselburg has always been a frontier on the Swedish border. That's why an ancient fortress was built here. Since the creation of this defensive structure was surrounded by deep earthen ramparts. But the wooden buildings after the fire had to be changed to stone. The fortress has undergone certain changes: its area has increased, and the walls have grown to a height of fifteen meters.

However, soon it lost its defensive importance and turned into one of the most terrible prisons in the country. Prisoners here were kept in dirty and moist dungeons in solitary confinement cells. The painful conclusion was tantamount to death. The chances of escape from here were not any.

The first were imprisoned members of the imperial family: the first wife of Peter Lopukhin, his sister Maria Alekseevna and others. Here the punishment and the disgraced courtiers were serving. And at the end of the eighteenth century, this fate did not fail the enlighteners. Novikov, Krechetov, Karamzin, and already from the second quarter of the nineteenth century the Decembrists Bestuzhevs, Kiukhelbekker, Pushchin - all of them were placed in Oreshek.

After the February Revolution, the prisoners of the fortress were liberated by the rebellious workers of Shlisselburg. Prison buildings were burnt.

In the twenties and thirties, the branch of the Museum of the October Revolution worked here.

During the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade in January 1941, many sights were destroyed. Shlisselburg, which in those years was called Petrokrepost, was severely damaged. The city was liberated in January 1943 by the fighters of the Leningrad Front with the support of the Baltic Fleet, and rebuilt in the post-war years. In the early nineties of the last century it was returned to its historical name - the fortress of Shlisselburg.

Cathedral of the Nativity of John the Baptist

When in the beginning of the seventeenth century the Swedes, using the Troubles, launched an offensive on the north-western borders of Russia, the first to fall a fortress. And when the Russians retook the citadel, they first of all began to search for the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, revered during the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. An amazing story of the image today is told during an excursion to Shlisselburg guides. It turns out that before the fall, one of the Prinev spiritual centers was located in the fortress. The icon was located here in a small chapel. Before surrendering the citadel, the defenders immured the image in the wall, which was turned by the Swedes into the church. So the icon was kept for about a century.

The Staraya Ladoga Canal

This waterway along Ladoga connects the Neva with the Volkhov River. Today, there are two parallel channels in Shlisselburg: Staroladozhsky built at the beginning of the eighteenth century, which in time has completely dried up and overgrown, and Novoladozhsky is a relatively new one. It is still in operation.

Staroladozhsky was also called the canal of Emperor Peter the Great. It was built by the tsar-reformer and has a length of about one hundred and twenty kilometers.

According to the original design, it was built without locks. The depth of the channel is 210 centimeters below the level of Ladoga. At the initial stage, its erection was delayed due to negligent conduct of cases by contractors. In 1723, Peter began to personally inspect the construction, ordering the arrest of locksmiths-Germans. The construction of the canal was undertaken by the state.

In 1726 the plot between the Volkhov and the village of Chernoe was completed, the movement of the ships began, which greatly accelerated the work. On October 22, 1730 the construction of the canal was completely completed. At that time it was the largest hydrotechnical structure in the whole of Europe.

Blagoveshchensky cathedral

Initially in 1726, in its place was built a wooden church. However, four decades later it was replaced by stone ones.

During the struggle against the church, the Soviet government closed the cathedral in 1935, but during the Great Patriotic forces of the parishioners it was opened and operated throughout the war. After the victory, he was again given the diocese.

Cathedral Square in itself accommodates other equally grand buildings. In the eighteenth century a bell tower was added here. Since 1990, the restoration of St. Nicholas Church began, and a year later - the Annunciation Cathedral itself. On the site of a wooden old chapel was built Kazan, built according to the sketches of the architect Ershov.

Peter's Bridge

Located near the Annunciation Cathedral, the chain bridge is the remains of the former pendant - the Petrovsky aqueduct, used from 1826 to 1832. It was equipped with adjustable spans, each of which was eight and a half meters in length. From the bridge there is a breathtaking panorama. On the one hand, these are locks on the Staraya Ladoga canal, and on the other - the Admiralty anchor since the Peter's times, which was raised from the bottom of the Neva in the vicinity of Shlisselburg.

Museums of Shlisselburg

The largest of them is the Museum of the History of the City. It was established in 1990. Here you can get acquainted with the history of Shlisselburg, learn about the construction of the Ladoga bypass canals and the printing factory, as well as the history of the Nevsky Shipyard.

Another museum, called the "Breakthrough of the Siege of Leningrad", is dedicated to Operation Iskra, during which the blockade was broken and the land communications of Leningrad restored. The diorama is located in the left-bank ramp on the Ladoga Bridge. Her memorial hall was opened on May 7, 1985. Here you can see a painting canvas forty meters long and eight meters wide.

There are museums of Schlusselburg in the open air. For example, a pre-stage area is an open exposition where military equipment is presented. There are real tanks here that participated in the battle for Leningrad. Many of them were raised from the bottom of the Neva River or from its surrounding marshes and restored. Among the exhibits is a unique tree preserved from the siege of Leningrad.

The Shlisselburg Ship Museum is also an exposition-exhibition in the open air. Here antiaircraft guns of both military and post-war times are collected. They were dismantled from the ships and stored in the warehouse of the Ministry of Defense. The guns were restored and installed for the sixtieth anniversary of the Victory.

Charm of the city

Today, Shlisselburg is a provincial settlement that can be bypassed in less than three hours. But it has its own special charm. It lies in an ancient square, in quiet and slightly dilapidated streets, a few careless wharves. And most importantly, these are the picturesque landscapes of the majestic Lake Ladoga, its unique canals that connect port Shlisselburg with the rest of the cities and protect it from troubled waters.

The ancient fortress also attracts, unapproachable before the tide of time and still amazing with its many high towers and walls. This is an unusual scenic area in which the Neva originates.