Kronstadt Coat of Arms: 1704
The construction of fortifications on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland began in 1703. The commissioning of a fort and two defensive batteries on 18 May 1704 is regarded as the commemoration date for the foundation of Kronstadt. A month after this date a Swedish squadron of forty ships made an attempt to break through to the mouth of the Neva to attack St Petersburg, but this venture ended in failure A year later the Russians won a brilliant naval victory near Kronstadt.
The ceremony for the foundation of the central fortress took place on 18 October 1723 and throughout the C18th the consolidation of the fortifications, as well as the construction of a central canal and an associated wet pool equipped with six dry docks was undertaken. The docks were used for equipping and repairing ships from the St Petersburg dockyards and it had become, by the time of Lachlan Macquarie's visit in September 1807, the heart of the naval defence of St Petersburg as well as the dominance Russia in the northern Baltic.
