Gavriil Ivanovich Golovkin was one of Peter the Great’s closest associates and the first chancellor of Russia, who controlled Russian international diplomacy until Peter’s death. His name was immortalized by the Golovkin Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress, which was presumably built under the supervision of Gavriil Ivanovich himself.
Like the other bastions of the fortress, the Golovkin Bastion has a pentagonal shape with two faces and two flanks.
It was built in 1703 as a wooden-earth structure, then rebuilt in stone according to a design by Domenico Trezzini between 1707 and 1709. What remains today is the work of architect Burkhard Minich, who led its reconstruction during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. Inside, three powder magazines and defensive casemates were arranged. In the mid-18th century, the fortification was supplemented with a secret exit to the Kronverksky Strait.
From the 1730s until 1917, the bastion bore the name of Anna Ioannovna. In the first decade of the 18th century, an additional defensive structure—the Cavalier—was erected on the bastion’s territory, which Minich rebuilt in stone in the 1730s.
The Cavalier rose above the bastion walls and was intended to house artillery pieces. To haul the guns onto the Cavalier from the bastion walls, a two-span brick arched bridge was built at the end of the 18th century connecting the bastion walls and the Cavalier, slightly modified in the 1830s. Today, just like the Golovkin Bastion, the premises of the Cavalier are managed by the Mint.
The Golovkin Bastion was mainly used for storing artillery shells and gunpowder. Inside, three powder magazines and defensive casemates were arranged. In the mid-18th century, the fortification was supplemented with a secret exit to the Kronverksky Strait.
In the 19th century, after the fortress acquired prison functions, the storage rooms of the Golovkin Bastion began to be used as solitary confinement cells.
Currently, the bastion’s premises house the services of the Mint. For a long time, there was a question about opening this historical monument to the general public: previously, access was granted only to Mint employees.
The historical name was restored by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution when it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the NKVD. Considering Peter I a Russian tsar-revolutionary, the Soviet authorities restored the names of Peter’s associates to historical monuments, while doing everything to consign the names of other members of the royal family to oblivion.
Sources:
https://peterburg.center/maps/petropavlovskaya-krepost-golovkin-bastion.html
https://russo-travel.ru/landmark/sankt-peterburg/bastiony-i-raveliny-petropavlovskoy-kreposti/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fyandex.ru%2F
