Kiev Fortress
| Київська фортеця | |
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| Location | 24a Hospitalna Street Kiev Ukraine
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| Public transit access |
Klovska station, Palats Sportu station ( Syretsko-Pecherska Line); trolleybus |
The Kiev Fortress (Ukrainian: Київська фортеця; Kyivs'ka fortetsia; Russian: Киевская крепость; Kievskaya krepost' ) is a complex of Russian fortifications in Kiev, Ukraine built over the span of 17-19th centuries, soon after the 1654 Council in Pereyaslav.
Kiev Fortress once belonged to the extensive system of western Russian fortresses that existed in the Russian Empire. The Kiev Fortress complex features many separate fortifications in Pechersk, Old Kiev, Podil, and Zvirynets located in various city districts of Kiev. Currently most of the remaining structures turned into a historic reserve. The main fortification associated with the Kiev Fortress (where located the Historic and Architectural Museum) is the Hospital fortification.
Having lost their military importance in the 20th century, the buildings continued to be used as barracks, storage and incarceration facilities. Some of them played independent historical roles. The ("Skew Caponier") became a prison for the political inmates in the 1900s–1920s and was later turned into a Soviet museum. Now it is the center of the modern museum. A small fortress built in 1872 on the legendary Lysa Hora ("Bald Mountain") in 1906 became a place of executions for convicted political inmates. It is now a landscape reserve and part of the museum complex.
Within the Kiev Fortress is the Kyiv Fortress Museum,or Kyivska Fortetsya. It is semi-underground. The museum is housed in a 19th-century building,which was formerly a wing of the fortress.
Main gate to the Hospital fort
View from the Main gate of the Hospital fort
Cannons on the wall of the Hospital fort
The Main gate and the wall to the Hospital fort (view from the East)
The Main gate and the wall to the Hospital fort (view from the West)
Skew Caponier
Coordinates: 50°26′4″N 30°31′40″E / 50.43444°N 30.52778°E
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Wikipedia