The Nevsky Gates of the Peter and Paul Fortress are located between the Naryshkin and Gosudarev Bastions and face Commandant's Pier. They are the only exit from the citadel to the Neva.
The first gates on this site appeared in 1714 and were made of wood. Then Domenico Trezzini built them in stone, and later they were reconstructed several more times. In 1787, the Peter and Paul Fortress received new Nevsky Gates, three times larger than the previous ones. Their current height is 12 meters, and their width is also about 12.
The arch of the Nevsky Gates projects from the curtain wall in the form of a classical portico with a triangular pediment and double columns on either side of the entrance. An emblem with an anchor and the gilded date of the gates' creation are placed on the pediment. The facade is made of Serdobol silver-gray granite.
The Nevsky Gates of the Peter and Paul Fortress also have another name - the "Gates of Death." They were nicknamed this because it was from here that prisoners sentenced to death were led out of the Peter and Paul dungeons and taken by river to the place of execution. There is also a more cheerful legend about these gates: they say that through them they brought into the fortress the "grandfather of the Russian fleet" - Peter I's favorite boat, "Saint Nicholas".
