Fort Kerch

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Location: Most of the people living nearby don't know about the fort and its secluded location so probably GPS is your best call. You can find fort's location here.

The construction of Fort Kerch started in 1857 shortly after Crimean war. General Totleben designed the fort in a way that it was impossible to see from the passing ships since according to peace treaty Russia was forced to stop military construction in the region. But due to indecisiveness of the conflict no one really kept a eye on a huge construction project.

 

History of creation

The first fortifications on the coast of the Kerch Strait appeared in 1771. On the cape, called Pavlovsky, the first battery was located. Subsequently, the fortification was repeatedly rebuilt and strengthened.

During the Crimean War, the battery was already armed with 20 guns. One of the results of the Anglo-French and Turkish troops landing on May 12, 1855 at Kamysh-Burun, south of Kerch, was the need to surrender the fortification, which was unable to resist the enemy from the land. Faced with the threat of the capture of the fortress, the command ordered the guns to be riveted, supplies to be destroyed, and the personnel to retreat. A fortified camp of the French troops was set up on the positions of the Pavlovsk battery and the surrounding area, where they remained until June 1856.

Under the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty, the Black Sea was declared neutral, and Russia was forbidden to have a fleet and military ports here. The strengthening of the strait did not contradict the terms of the agreement, therefore, already in April 1856, instructions were given to send sapper units to Kerch to study local conditions and survey the terrain. In August, sappers had already begun work on the site of the former French camp. Initially, the strengthening of the old Turkish fortress of Yenikale, located in the depths of the Kerch Strait, was considered. But in December 1856, a new project was initiated, according to which the fortifications were located on the Pavlovsky Cape, which received the highest approval in February. In addition, Alexander II ordered additional construction of sea forts at the tip of the Tuzla Spit and on the reef of the Ak-Burun cape.

Construction began in the same year. By the end of the year, coastal batteries were roughed out, two barracks and a powder magazine were erected, construction was also started in the strait from the tip of the Tuzla Spit in the direction of Cape Pavlovsky. Colonel Anton Antonovich, an experienced military engineer, supervised the work on the spot. In October 1859, E. I. Totleben was appointed director of the engineering department of the military ministry, who enjoyed the full support of the tsar in the matter of strengthening Kerch and used his rich experience in siege and defense of fortresses, primarily the experience of defending Sevastopol. In 1860, earthworks began on the Ak-Burun cape, the length of the stone barrier in the strait exceeded 3 km. In 1861 Emperor Alexander II visited the fortress for the first time. After inspecting the construction, he ordered: “In honor of the labors incurred by the soldiers: name the lunettes, the left Minsk, and the right Vilna regiment. And the main fort will henceforth be called Fort Totleben. After examining the work, the Sovereign congratulated Colonel Nat on his promotion to major general.

In 1867, the Kerch fortifications received the status of a fortress. When the tsar visited the fortress for the third time in 1872, the work on the fortifications was completed, and he was "quite pleased with the finishing of coastal batteries."

The First World War on the Black Sea began on October 16, 1914 with an attack by ships of the German-Turkish fleet on Odessa, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Novorossiysk. On this day, at about 6 o'clock in the morning, the German light cruiser Breslau was discovered at the entrance to the Kerch Strait, which set up a barrage of 60 mines - two ships were blown up on it in a day. In connection with the threat of attack, the Kerch fortifications were declared under martial law, in accordance with the order of the commander of the fleet, they began laying a defensive minefield - in Kerch, local ships were used for this.

 

Underground passages

Underground passages of Fort Kerch served the units stationed here as housing, storage and safe way to transport necessary ammunition. Huge underground towers had naval artillery, but it is long been commissioned and floors have collapsed although some stairs are still visible. Occasionally people do find military memorabilia like bullets, rifles parts and others. One of the grim findings you can discover here are human skeleton in the one towers. No one knows who it is and how this person got here. No one even knows when the person was killed here, but many legends circulate. According to one it is a skeleton of a German soldier who committed suicide here after he fell in love with a local girl and her father came between them. Others say it was a body of a political officer who was killed by his own father for joining the Commies. Aside retelling of famous plots of "Romeo and Joliet" and "Taras Bulba" none of the legends provide credible evidence on the identity of the body.

 

During the USSR

In Soviet times, military warehouses with property and ammunition of the Black Sea Fleet were located on the territory of the fortress. The disciplinary battalion of the Black Sea Fleet was also located here.

In the mid-1970s, thousands of cubic meters of silt, taken out during the dredging of the Genoese harbor, containing objects dating back to the 5th century BC, were dumped in shallow water near the Mine Pier of the fortress.

 

Modernity

After the collapse of the USSR, the reduction of military units began, and in 2003 the territory of the fortress was transferred to the Kerch State Historical and Cultural Reserve.

The fortress is a landmark of Kerch and Crimea and is protected by the state as a unique monument of fortification construction of the 19th century. Tourist excursions are conducted on its territory. Some dungeons are still little explored.

In August 2019, during demining work, an ammunition depot was discovered in the fortress. In the warehouse during the Great Patriotic War there were 1,700 fragmentation bombs weighing 2.5 kilograms each, as well as one 100-kilogram high-explosive bomb. Employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia defused ammunition