The Kyiv Fortress of XVIII-XIX centuries

The complex of the fortress is situated on the Pechersk hill, and consists of three basic keypoints of defense: the citadel, the Vasylkivskiy and the Hospital fortifying. The construction of Kyiv fortress started in the first years of XVIII century had been connected with the preparation of the Russian Empire to the Northern war. As if Kyiv was the very important strategic point, in 1706 the emperor Petro I arrives to the city and tries to find the place for future fortification. The territory around the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra had been found out the most suitable for.

The choice of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra as the main nucleus of Pechersk fortification wasn’t casual. From the beginning of its existence the Pechersk monastery has had the reliable defensive walls and towers. In the second half of XI century the territory of the monastery has been paled. In XII century the pale had changed into the brick walls. But in 1240 they had been destroyed. In XVII century the monastery’s fence had been left the wooden.In 1698-1701 the monastery’s territory had been fenced with the high  walls with five towers and some entrance gates. The towers were equipped with the embrasures. So Lavra has had the reliable defensive system when the Pechersk fortress has been laying. The building of the earth fortress had ended in 1723. The fortifying had been the system of defensive buildings and consisted of nine bastions, one curtain, the ravelins and other objects. To the end of the XVIII – beginning the XIX centuries a good few important buildings have been erecting on the territory of the Pechersk fortress, in particular the Vasylkivski and Moscowgates, the powder cellar, the arsenal, the barracks, the warehouses.

Zvirynetske earth fortifying had been constructed for the cover of Pechersk fortress in 1812 on the eve of the war with Napoleon.

In 1830 the new plan of Kyiv fortress construction has been approved. According to this project the construction of the Vasylkivske and Hospital fortifying has been envisaged. The Vasylkivske fortifying has been consisting of the earth banks, the ravelin and three towers. The Hospital fortifying has been consisting of the earth banks, the hospital and other buildings. Besides, two towers, the production workshops and the Mykolaivski gates have been erected. At this time the defensive walls have been erected around the Near and Far caves.

The need of new forms of the fortifying had forced to build the Lysogirivskiy fort in 1871-1877. Thus, the building of Kyiv fortress as important fortification complex had been lasting over one and a half century, starting in 1706, when the Kyiv-Pechersk citadel had been laid, and finishing by the Lysogirivskiy fort, built in 1877.

For its scale Kyiv fortress has no equal. It is the unique monument of the defensive architecture of XVIII-XIX centuries, which had absorbed the achievement of the world fortification art.