Kiev Fortress

Kiev Fortress

Київська фортеця
Location	24a Hospitalna Street Kiev Ukraine
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' ), also known as the Pechersk Fortress, is a generic name for the 19th century fortification buildings situated in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, that once belonged to the system of western Russian fortresses. These structures (once a united complex) were built in the Pechersk and neighbourhoods by the Russian Imperial army. Now some of the buildings are restored and turned into a museum called the Kiev Fortress, while others are in use by various military and commercial installations.

File:Kiev-FortificationKosoyKaponir 05.jpg

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 Kosyi Caponier ("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.

Notable individuals who served at the fortress

• Constantine Ypsilantis - served as a commandant of the Pechersk Fortress between 1807 and 1816.

Kiev Fortress Museum

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.

File:2005-08-17 Kiev Fortress 397.JPG

Kiev fortress

Gallery

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  Main gate to the Hospital fort

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  View from the Main gate of the Hospital fort

• 2005-08-17 Kiev Fortress 394.JPG

  Cannons on the wall of the Hospital fort

• Kiev-Fortress22-03-2011.jpg

  The Main gate and the wall to the Hospital fort (view from the East)

• Hospital fort of the Kiev fortress.jpg

  The Main gate and the wall to the Hospital fort (view from the West)

• Kosoj Caponier of the Kiev fortress.jpg

  Skew Caponier