Wednesday Walk in Peter and Paul Fortress

Greetings, friends! My story today is dedicated to a walk in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The Peter and Paul Fortress is the oldest architectural monument in our city. The fortress was built in the early 18th century. The fortress is a museum of the history of the city now. This museum combines under its roof a large number of small museums of various topics, I will pass by some of these museums during my walk.

Peter and Paul Fortress is located on Hare Island, to enter the fortress you must first cross the island by the bridge, and then go through the gate. I entered the fortress through the Nicholas Gate and found myself on the central square, near the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The spire of the cathedral reaches high into the sky, and I didn't even try to fit it all in the picture - to do that I would have had to go to the farthest end of the square and change the format to vertical. The little yellow house, which is almost lost in the background of the cathedral, is called Botny Dom. It used to serve as a shelter for the boats of Peter the Great (a boat shed, to put it simply), and now the museum's ticket office is in this building. You can buy a ticket here for the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral; you can see very beautiful views from the top.

I turned left and walked along the fortress wall. I had to watch my feet carefully, as @qwerrie rightly pointed out in his story today, a walk through the city these days is necessarily a story about ice and slush.

Soon I approached the next museum. In this bright red building is the Museum of the History of Money. Many interesting exhibits can be seen in this museum, especially interesting dioramas - about natural exchange, about the process of stamping coins, about the depreciation of money in the early 20th century and other burning topics.

If you turn into the inconspicuous arch nearby, you can find a cozy coffee shop with very tasty pastries and benches for relaxing.

Several years ago the fortress underwent extensive restoration work, but I still remember the old days, when there were no bars blocking the way up to the walls of the fortress, and anyone could go up there. However, the most interesting walls, the ones facing the Neva, are open for walks - but you have to buy a ticket.

I came out to the Peter and Paul Cathedral again, but from the other side. The cobblestone path leads to the Nevsky Gate. The name of these gates comes from the Neva River, behind the gate there is a pier. If you arrived at the Peter and Paul Fortress by boat or sailboat, you would enter the fortress through these gates.

I'm an ordinary land creature, so I only went out on the jetty for a few minutes to admire the view, and then went back inside the fortress walls.

The next museum I came across was a wax museum. I've never visited this museum, so I don't know what kind of historical figures are hiding inside.

That was the end of my walk through the fortress. All that remained was to cross the bridge to return... no, not to the mainland - to the next island. St. Petersburg is located in the delta of the Neva River, and as you move around the city you always go from one island to another.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia

This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay.