Fort Paul I

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Fort Paul the First

Today I visited one of the forts, which can only be reached by ice or by boat. I have been going for a long time, and now it finally happened.

Report.

This is a picture of a map with this fort. Near Kronstadt, about one and a half kilometers from the dam.

This fort is notable for the fact that some ruins were visible on it, which excited my imagination. And my hopes were justified. Something really interesting was found.

This is how it looks. A patch of sushi is about 150-160 meters in diameter. On one side of the island there are ruins of something very old with signs of a religious building, possibly a church.

The banks of the fort and the walls of a certain religious building were once granite. The shape of the granite blocks is curved, apparently with the function of a breakwater, blocks of different sizes, the largest up to several meters and weighing several tons.

I carefully examined all the destroyed blocks; I did not find any traces of reinforcement inside. On one block, I found a metal strip sheet embedded in the block, but I could not dig it deep and really see it, the snow and ice were not allowed to melt away. So there is some hope for concrete proponents. Although it looks most likely this piece of iron is fixed in the block by some kind of mechanical method. I carefully examined the blocks, whether they can be some kind of casting, it's hard to say. It looks like ordinary red granite in the vicinity of St. Petersburg like mud.

The ruins of a building themselves are also quite remarkable. It can be seen that the building was rebuilt and built on. Moreover, some of the elements are not made of brick, but of granite! It is possible that the oldest version of the building was completely granite, and some brick part was just an extension to the main granite building. In any case, all the signs point to exactly this. All granite debris is located in one part. Brick fragments are also localized around the remains of brick walls. Apparently, the brick part of the building was permanently altered. There are two types of bricks in the masonry. The old one is flatter, and relatively young, close in size to the modern standard, with monograms and other signs. It can be seen how and how many times the walls, window and door openings were changed, added, built on, etc.

Most of all, I was puzzled by the question of how the ancient builders lifted up granite blocks, they are heavy, several tons each! This is all that has survived to this day.

From the old granite part of the building, only the lower tier of the wall and several such window openings, consisting of three granite blocks, remained fragmentarily.

The brick part of the building also has granite elements. These are window sills and windowsills. Or as they are correctly called there, in general, some kind of floor beams.

The thickness of the walls of the brick part of the building is about one and a half meters.

The remains of this arched part have all the signs of an extension to the main building in the late period. Brickwork not connected.

Inside, we see two contours of an arched opening. And the brick is different. That is, this part of the building was also rebuilt. Here it is worth considering why it was necessary to reduce the arched openings. Either it got colder, or the structure received some defense (military) functions. Or all together.

Inside, the main building has the shape of a sphere with a dome, on the face and the remains of fragments of the stairs.

These are the bricks in the masonry of the late period.

In conclusion, a couple of photos of the panorama of the dam from the fort. In general, it is beautiful. In winter, it is not a problem to walk on the ice to the fort, you can also take your children. There is no dirt, garbage or poop here, because except for rare fishermen, practically no one swims here or comes in.