On the occasion of the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great, we will start the section #PETROVSKIE_HISTORIES, let’s remember how the city of St. Petersburg began.

In the very center of our city, on Petrovskaya Embankment, behind the iron fence of the garden, a small building is buried in the dense foliage of trees. This modest building, created by obscure Russian masters, occupies a special place among the famous palaces and architectural ensembles built by the famous architects of the northern capital at the beginning of the 18th century. The house of Peter I is the first and only residential wooden building that has survived from the time the city was founded to the present day. Its construction reminds of significant events in the history of the Russian state.

Let’s take a quick trip back…
Russia waged war with Sweden (1700-1721) for the return of the primordially Russian lands, for the vital access to the Baltic Sea for the state. In 1702-1703, the fighting took place directly on the banks of the Neva. Russian troops took the fortresses Oreshek and Nyenschantz. As a result of these victories, the Neva was liberated along its entire length. Now the task was to establish itself on the banks of the Neva, to keep the reclaimed lands. In order to block the entrance of the Swedish fleet from the sea, according to the plan drawn up by Peter I, the fortress of St. Petersburg (now Peter and Paul) was erected on a small hare island. The island was located at the fork of the river into two branches and was convenient for defense. The cannons installed here could fire at enemy ships when they tried to penetrate the Bolshaya or Malaya Neva.

In the rear of the fortress, on the neighboring island of Gorodskoy (the current Petrograd Side), Peter I ordered the construction of a city. The foundation day of the fortress – May 16 (May 27, according to the new style) in 1703 is considered the date of foundation of the city, named St. Petersburg. First of all, here, on the very bank of the Neva, in three days – from May 24 to May 26 – carpenter soldiers cut down a house for Peter I himself – the “Original Palace”.