Since its foundation — May 1703 — the Peter and Paul Fortress has been considered the core of St. Petersburg. Built according to the joint drawings of Peter the Great and engineer Joseph Lambert de Guerin, the ancient fortress has become one of the symbols of the city on the Neva, and many tourists are eager to visit it.

There are many monuments and museums on the territory, without which it is difficult to imagine St. Petersburg: for example, the Mint (all coins, orders and medals were minted in it until the end of the 20th century), the house for the boat Peter the Great ( the ship is jokingly called the “grandfather of the Russian fleet”). The main political prison of tsarist Russia is also located here — the Decembrists were kept in casemates, and in the 1790s Radishchev was imprisoned because of his book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”.

In the 1730s, the tradition of firing a cannon at noon was born in honor of the beginning and end of the working day. The shot became constant in the XIX century, in 1873. In the Soviet Union, daily firing was stopped, they even wanted to destroy the fortress and build a stadium in its place. The idea was abandoned, and after the war, in the late 50s, the tradition with a midday shot was revived again.

Currently, the Peter and Paul Fortress has become a historical and museum complex, which houses many interesting sculptural groups and memorials. More recently, [sculpture of Peter the Great] (https://kudago.com/spb/place/pamyatnik-petru-pervomu/) by Mikhail Shemyakin appeared on its territory. The monument caused a lot of sense: Peter has a disproportionately small head, a huge body and arms. However, Petersburgers and guests of the city like to take pictures with the first Russian emperor. Children are put on his knees, and strange proportions distinguish the monument from other monuments.