Description of the attraction
In the city of Pavlovsk, which is located 25 kilometers from St. Petersburg, there is a bastion of Emperor Paul, nicknamed by the locals the castle "Bip" - Paul's big toy.
In the 18th century, these lands were captured by Sweden, and after the victory in the Northern War, they were again returned to the Russian crown. Catherine II presented here to her son Pavel and his wife Maria a small plot of land, on which, a few years later, the country castle of the heir to the throne, Marienthal, was built.
After accession to the throne, Paul decided to make his old dream come true and make a military fortress out of his residence. The emperor's bastion was built in just 3 years. The citadel looked more like a knight's castle. A monumental 2-storey rectangular house with two towers, the courtyard could only be accessed via drawbridges. The miniature citadel was surrounded by ditches and ramparts, and cannons were installed on the bastions.
There was a military garrison and an artillery team in the fortress barracks. When the emperor received parades here, went out for a walk or gave ceremonial dinners, 28 guns were saluted with a single salute. Locals could not get used to the daily shooting for a long time, and the castle was nicknamed Pavel's big toy - BIP. Once, in honor of the victory of Suvorov's army in the Italian campaign, the artillery of the castle fired 101 volleys.
The fortress made a serious impression, but everything here was more of a decoration. The heart of the citadel was a massive round tower topped with a conical dome. It was connected by a special passage with another tower, as if bristling with teeth. There was a large clock on the quadrangular tower, the sound of which could be heard several miles away. Interestingly, "Bip" was not the only military fortification in Pavlovsk at the end of the 18th century. There were guardhouses in the city.
The life of the townspeople was regulated by imperial military decrees. For example, one of them said that during Paul's presence in the city, shouting, whistling and idle conversations were prohibited.
Life in the fortress also resembled a barracks. On the parade ground in front of the windows of the sovereign, the military marched daily. For any even the most insignificant oversight, they were severely punished here. There were cases when employees here were killed to death.
In 1798, the Pavlovsk citadel was included in the military register of Russian fortresses. After Emperor Paul died, his widow, Empress Maria Feodorovna, often walked all alone along the river bank, not far from Bip. Old-timers recalled that somehow Maria Fedorovna met a deaf-mute little boy in these places. She was moved to the depths of her soul and, returning to the capital, issued a decree on the creation of a special school for the deaf and dumb in Paul's bastion.
At different times there were a parish school, an infirmary, a warehouse, an orphanage, and a military registration and enlistment office. Immediately after the October Revolution, the sovdep was located in the fortress, and in 1919 the headquarters of the troops of General Yudenich was located. In 1944, Paul's residence was completely burned down. Nowadays, restoration work is underway in the former citadel and historians are trying to restore even the smallest details that remind of that era.
The fortress "Bip" was erected by the architect V. Brenn in 1795-1797. on the site of Marienthal, where there was once a line of fortifications, built by order of the Swedish general Kraniort in 1702.
