Kronstadt.

Title

Kronstadt.

Description

Fine hand-coloured bird’s-eye view of the historic fortified town of Kronstadt, depicting Fort Menshikov, Fort Kronschlot, Fort Risbank (also known as Fort Paul I), Fort Petersfort, Fort Alexander, Fort Konstantin, Fort Catherine, and numerous sailing ships. Below the view is a key identifying seven numbered points of interest.

ca. 1830

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

Kronstadt, a city and former fortress on the Baltic Sea island of Kotlin off Saint Petersburg in Russia. Tsar Peter I founded the city in 1703 as a naval base on the Baltic Sea. The first completed fortification was Kronschlot. Kronstadt defended the access to the then Russian capital from the Baltic Sea and was therefore equipped with fortifications and coastal batteries only in the north, west and south. In 1803 the first Russian circumnavigation of the world started from Kronstadt under Captain Adam Johann von Krusenstern. Until the First World War, the Kronstadt port was one of the main ports for timber export from the Russian Empire.