Petrivska Fortress: A Russian Imperial Frontier Fortress in Ukraine

Site at a Glance

Rating

★4.1

Popularity

Very Low

Country

Ukraine

Primary era

Early Modern

Eras represented

Early Modern

Civilizations

Russian

Site type

Military

Remains

Fort

History

Petrivska Fortress, also called the Fortress of Saint Peter, is an eighteenth-century Russian imperial frontier fortress in Novopetrivka, Ukraine. Founded in 1770 during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, it used a polygonal, or caponier-front, defensive system and formed part of the Dnieper Defensive Line.

Foundation on the southern frontier

Empress Catherine II ordered the Dnieper Defensive Line by decree on 10 May 1770. The line followed the right bank of the Konka River and the left bank of the Berda River, forming a southern frontier outpost against the East Nogai region of the Crimean Khanate, a Muslim Tatar state centered on Crimea. Petrivska Fortress occupied the line’s left flank and included a customs post on the southern frontier.

The Berda River had marked a frontier between Zaporozhian and Tatar territories in the eighteenth century, in a boundary associated with the 1742 Treaty of Belgrade. Construction of Petrivska Fortress began in 1770 under the direction of the military engineer Alexander Ivanovich Rigelman. Completion was initially planned for 1771, but work continued until 1782. By 1776, most of the principal earth fortifications had been completed.

Garrison and settlement

The fortress was planned to hold four battalions and 500 Cossacks. A garrison school and an artillery school opened in 1776, teaching 22 children between seven and fourteen years old. By 1790, however, only 161 men were present, including 74 settled invalid soldiers, while the authorized garrison exceeded 600. Severe illness affected ordinary soldiers and the battalion commander.

Retired soldiers, one-homestead peasants, and prisoners settled around the fortresses of the defensive line from the beginning of its existence. The settlement around Petrivska Fortress later became known as Petrivsky Posad. In 1828, Zaporozhian Cossacks returning from Turkey settled there with their ataman, Hladky.

Decline after the Crimean annexation

In June 1773, the German naturalist and physician Johann Anton Güldenstädt passed through the fortress during an expedition. In autumn 1782, Shahin Giray, the last khan of the Crimean Khanate, reached the maritime Fortress of Saint Peter after crossing the Sea of Azov from Kerch. He had fled an anti-khan revolt and came to negotiate with Prince Grigory Potemkin.

The Russian Empire annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783, ending the political independence of the state and removing the main strategic reason for the Dnieper Defensive Line. Petrivska Fortress was then abandoned, lost its military importance, and was abolished, although it remained on the military establishment until 1800. Its position on the Sea of Azov near the mouth of the Berda River also allowed it to function as a transshipment point, particularly for grain.

Remains

Defensive earthworks

The surviving remains of Petrivska Fortress consist of earth ramparts within Novopetrivka. The fortress used a polygonal or caponier-front system, in which angled defensive lines allowed fire not only across the front of the fortification but also along its length. Its principal earthworks included a ditch, a glacis, a gently sloping outer bank that shielded the defenses from direct fire, a breastwork, and a ravelin, an outer triangular work placed before a wall or entrance.

Buildings and military facilities

The complex incorporated dugouts, caponiers, equipment and material stores, several barracks, a hospital, a brickworks, a commandant’s house, an engineering house for senior officers, a workshop, and a smithy. A church had been under construction since 1773 and was scheduled for completion in 1777. Other planned facilities included merchants’ shops, quarters for the parade-major, stores for construction materials and tools, housing for a physician and servants, accommodation for priests and merchants, powder and supply magazines, and a battalion magazine for weapons and ammunition. A military magazine was a storage building for supplies, ammunition, or weapons.

The planned armament comprised 170 cannon, 30 mortars, six howitzers, and 100 mortar gunners. These provisions were intended to support the four-battalion garrison and its Cossack auxiliaries within the defensive system.

Sea of Azov connection

A wooden pier served vessels arriving at the fortress. Together with the customs post, it supported the site’s frontier and commercial functions. Goods were transferred there for onward movement, with grain among the principal commodities associated with the fortress.