Description of the attraction
In 1783 the Admiralty building was located in St. Petersburg. It was a small wooden building. In May 1793, a large fire broke out in the building, which threatened to spread even to the Winter Palace. Then, by order of Empress Catherine II, for security reasons, it was decided to move the Admiralty from St. Petersburg to Kotlin Island to the city of Kronstadt.
Two projects of the Admiralty were developed, one from a commission of members of the Admiralty Collegium, and the second from Admiral, Commander-in-Chief of the Kronstadt port, Samuil Greig, together with the young architect Mikhail Nikolaevich Vetoshnikov. The most successful and suitable was the project of S. Greig. In 1785, Catherine II approved the project of the Admiralty. The construction of the new Admiralty began immediately after the approval of the project.
For construction, the territory was chosen, which was located near the Petrovsky dock. The project provided for the construction of the Bypass Canal around the Admiralty in order to protect the building not only from fire, but also from illegal entry. Military warehouses were built along the canal, in which various foodstuffs were stored: meat, flour, cereals, vegetables, sugar, canned food, and the like. But due to frequent thefts in food warehouses, a huge brick wall was erected, which separated them from the rest of the Admiralty square. The convenient location of the warehouses made it possible to load and unload goods directly from ships. At the same time, living quarters for officers, barracks for sailors and non-commissioned officers were built on the northern side of the Obvodny Canal. Thus, a real military town was formed, clearly organized according to the laws of geometry.
The buildings were distinguished by austerity, laconic design of facades, incredible practicality and reliability of the structure. The military town has been well preserved to this day, despite all the storms and bad weather that often happens in Kronstadt. The territory of the main entrance of the Admiralty was located on the side of Anchor Square, where a huge steel gate was installed. The black background of the gate was decorated with a beautiful gilded pattern, and the gate itself was crowned with the symbols of the Russian Empire and the Navy. But today these gates are closed and no one uses them.
After the death of M. N. Vetoshnikov, the construction of the Admiralty continued under the supervision of the architect Vasily Bazhenov together with A. N. Akutin. The construction of the Admiralty required a lot of material costs, which slowed down its progress. And during the reign of Paul I, it was decided not to transfer the Admiralty from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt at all. The construction of some facilities was slowed down, but continued. For example, the Obvodny Canal was completed only in 1827. But, despite the incomplete implementation of S. Greig's project, the naval base of the city of Kronstadt was already significantly strengthened, since until 1797 a rope-spinning plant, a smolnya, about seven food warehouses, a stone forest plant, a stone coal shed, a military town, three sailing workshops, rusk factory, smithy, Foundry. The constructed complex of buildings of the Admiralty occupied about a quarter of the territory of the city of Kronstadt.
A significant part of the buildings of the Kronstadt Admiralty has survived to this day. It is an object of cultural heritage of Russia.
