So, as I promised - today we'll visit a fortress. Fortress Koporie
The fortress is situated near Koporka river (in honor of which it was called), and settlement Koporie which for its turn is situated near station Koporie:) All these together can be found about 100 kilometers to south-east from Saint-Petersburg. Recommend to go by car because other vehicles make sense only if your purpose is the process of getting there and not visiting the fortress itself..
The fortress is ancient, at what it's domestically produced. It was founded by Alexander Nevsky son, Dmitry, in 1279 (stone fortifications - since 1280). The way fortress looks now is about XV century look, with the exception of reinforced concrete plates near the entrance of course and red brick in some places. Basketball playground in the right does not simulate ancient as well.
For those who remember movie by Mamin " day of Neptune" - this fortress was captured there.
Bridge over the ditch. Constructed later than fortress, in the beginning of XIX century. Very likely it was filled with water some time long ago.
People (friend Dmitry and his girlfriend - thank them for transportation and company) are left on the picture in order to show the caliber of the constructions:-)
There is a bricked up fence above the entrance to the fortress. There is lots of red brick in this place, looks like they tried to restore something. Looks really
bad :(
There and everywhere you catch sight of holes and passages in the walls - some of them lead to small premises, other - into the vaults.
And that's how entrance looks from the territory of the fortress (second whole from the right). Three wholes to the left might have belonged to some burial places (there is a broken gravestone with a name of Zinoviev by them).
Only one construction is situated here inside the fortress - it's remains of the Transfiguration church( XVI century).
It's not quite evident that it is a church yet, however, we may assume that they try/tried to restore it on some basis (say, latest red brick).
Fortress walls. It's possible to walk on them, but don't make excessive use of it, - the walls are about 7 meters high and plus about 30 meters steep by the wall (it's on the other side - not seen in the picture).
As I already said above the fortress was built by russians. In 1617 it was occupied by swedes, it was recovered in 1703 under Peter the I. After this the master of the fortress was A. D. Menshikov for some time.
In 1919 it was a battleground with white guards (with Yudenich).
During the Great Patriotic war Koporie was occupied by germans. Recovered in 1944.
Now we'll walk along vaults. Definitely saying they are not vaults as such, most of them are above ground level.
That's what comes out when taking picture with no flash (regret that forgot to take a support..)
And that's exactly the same but with a flash. Lots of ice - slippery. And something routinely drops and falls from above.
Ceiling
The inside of one more-or-less contemporary turret.
Not a nice place - first you slide down and then drop into the hole(where the light comes out) for several meters down. No, I did not try dropping down:)
Looks alike river. In reality it's a puddle on the surface of not melted yet ice.
