Kyminlinna is a fortress located near the town of Kotka,
Finland.
At start, the Kyminlinna Fortress was supposed to have two
complete bastions and two half-bastions.
Soon, it became quite clear however, that such a small fortress would be unable
to defend such an important area and the first fortress was demolished and another bigger one was
started to build in 1803. In the end, Kyminlinna fortress contained five bastions and several other
defensive structures and it was constantly reinforced, until the end of the 1808-1809 Russo-Swedish
war. The place is a clear and a good example of the fortification construction in the late 18th and
early 19th century.
After the peace agreement in 1809, the Kyminlinna Fortress like
all the other fortifications which the Russians and Swedes had been building, were left useless, as
the border area was now far away from the Loviisa - Kotka angle.
Also from a military point of view, these kind of fortifications had lost nearly
all of their meaning, as the military technology had developed and cannons gotten much more
effective. In 1835, the Tsar Nikolai I gave an order, which disbanded all of the garrisons and
fortifications in South-East Finland.
Kyminlinna Fortress was used by the Finnish army until
2005.
Visitor information:
Kyminlinna Fortress Map&Location
Kyminlinna Fortress is located next to the city of
Kotka: 48700 Kotka, Finland.
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Kyminlinna Fortress Photos
Click on the images to enlarge
Kyminlinna Fortress main ditch - Photo source: © nortfort.ru
Kyminlinna east gate - Photo source: © nortfort.ru
Kyminlinna Fort main gates - Photo source: © nortfort.ru
Kyminlinna main gate - Source: wikipedia.org
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