Peter Paul

Saturday we went to Peter and Paul Fortress, which is an enormous fort strategically placed on an island in the middle of the Neva. Peter the Great started the construction of the fort during his war with Finland. It was built on the backs of peasant serfs who frequently died due to overwork and the unhealthy marshy conditions ubiquitious in St. Petersburg. The fortress was mostly used as a prison although it also hold the St. Petersburg mint and the church containing all the bodies of the Romanov Tsars.