Underground Kerch fortress description and photos - Crimea: Kerch (Topic)

Underground Kerch fortress description and photos - Crimea: Kerch. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The Kerch fortress was supposed to be the only Russian bastion on the Black Sea. The most famous Russian engineer, founder of the fortification school in Russia, Eduard Ivanovich Totleben, supervised the construction of this fortress. During the construction, he used the most modern ideas that have proven themselves in combat practice. For twenty years, the construction of protective structures was carried out (1857 - 1877).

The fortifications were arranged so that not a single ship entering the Sea of Azov could escape the fire from the shore. The fortifications included the central fort (built at a height), Vilensky and Minsk lunettes (two fortifications along the edges). The fortifications were of a mixed type: a caponier system and a bastion system. Moats were carved into the rock.

Among other objects of the Crimean peninsula, the Kerch fortress was the most prepared for a long-term defense. Totleben even expressed the opinion that this is the best of all the fortresses.

At one time there were casemates here, there were torture chambers in them, later a disciplinary battalion was located. They also kept in the fortress a strategic stock of weapons intended for the Black Sea Fleet. Many objects on the territory of the fortress are still of interest to tourists.

The fortress is surrounded by a moat. Its length is three kilometers, its width is about fifteen meters, and its depth is five meters. Seventeen caponiers are interesting to see, ten of which are well preserved. On the territory of the fortress there are underground secret passages, cellars where ammunition was stored. The length of the longest underground tunnel reaches six hundred meters. Most of it can be viewed. Also available for tourists are counter-mine galleries, their number is about eighty, the total length is one thousand six hundred meters. These are special tunnels for conducting mine warfare underground.

The tunnel gates for the entrance to the fortifications look impressive. In 1863, there were ten casemates in the fortress, eight of them have survived to this day. You can also see the former ammunition cellars, and the largest building is a grocery store in the tunnel under the Ak-Burun Cape.

Topic: Underground Kerch fortress description and photos - Crimea: Kerch.