Kärnäkoski Fortress

 place with historical importance, wall(s), fortification

Kärnäkoski Fortress is a bastion fortress in Finland located in Kärnäkoski, Savitaipale built by Russia between 1791 and 1793 to protect Saint Petersburg.
General Suvorov, responsible for the construction of the South-Eastern Finland fortification system, selected the mouth of Kärnäjoki river on the isthmus between Saimaa lake and Kuolimojärvi lake near the Lappeenranta-Ristiina road as a location for one of the new border fortresses. The location allowed the fortress to guard the border between Sweden and Russia, control the traffic going via the road and monitor the shipping routes in western Saimaa. The area near the fortress had been a site for several engagements between Swedish and Russian troops in the Russo-Swedish War that had just ended.

Kärnäkoski Fortress was constructed between 1791 and 1793. The designers of the fortress were French engineering officers who had fled the French Revolution to Russia. Kärnäkoski fortress was built according to the traditional French bastion system. However, instead of a uniform regular bastion shape, the fortress was built as an irregular shape and followed the terrain, most likely because of the limited space available.
Today Kärnäkoski fortress is a tourist attraction, although there are no guided tours or other tourist or travel services in the fortress, simply guidance signs.

Finnish National Board of Antiquities and Finnish Ministry of the Environment have listed the fortress area as nationally significant cultural historic landmark. Finnish National Board of Antiquities has restored Kärnäkoski fortress to its former shape together with other fortresses in south-eastern Finland. Walls were repaired and the fortress area was restored and cleared. The work was finished in 1997.