The Peter and Paul Fortress occupies a special place in the history of St Petersburg. It was with this citadel, founded on 16 (27 New Style) May 1703 by Domenico Trezzini and called “Sankt-Pieterburgh” in a Dutch manner, that the city which was to become the capital of the Russian Empire began. The Peter and Paul Fortress protected the newly-born city of St.Petersburg from the Swedes. It later was turned into a political prison in which many notables such as Dostoevsky, Gorky, Trotsky and Lenin's older brother Alexander were kept.
