Construction of the fortress began on Zayachy Island (Hare Island), located at the mouth of the Neva River. The most prominent architects of the time took part in the construction work. The history of the fortress is quite grim—many workers died during its construction, and later it was housing political prisoners. Among them were Decembrists, Dostoevsky, Gorky, Trotsky, and after the Kosciuszko insurrection, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and Jan Kilinski.
