Cavalier of Anna Ioannovna

ter. Peter and Paul Fortress, 9, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 197101

The first earthen cavalier (an auxiliary fortification structure inside the bastion) was erected here as early as 1705. Cavaliers were built to fire upon the terrain lying ahead of the bastion, which is why they rose above the bastions. With the beginning of the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who came to power in early 1730, the cavalier was rebuilt in stone and was named in honor of the sovereign.

In 1704–1705, an earthen pentagonal cavalier was built in the bastion under the direction of V. A. Kirstenshtein; the construction of the surviving stone building was carried out by D. Trezzini during the reconstruction of the Golovkin bastion in 1730–1733 (at that time, the fortification was named after the reigning empress).

The building has a horseshoe shape in plan, divided inside by three rows of columns that support relieving arches and ribbed vaults. The building has four entrances with semicircular openings above them; the semicircular arch of the central part of the facade rests on an inter-floor horizontal band.

The cavalier was higher than the other fortifications; artillery pieces were placed on its upper platform (though they were never actually used from this point). From the second half of the 18th century, military trophies were stored in the building. In 1836–1837, the cavalier was rebuilt and adapted into an artillery arsenal; the walls were faced with brick and plastered, the windows and gates were framed with hewn stone, false embrasures were made in the arched windows of the second floor, and the walls of the first floor were rusticated.

Since 1961, the building was leased by the Mint, which used it as a warehouse until 2007. After the opening of the Museum of the History of Money in the Anninsky cavalier, only temporary exhibitions of the museum are held in the halls of the Stock Capital House.

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