he czar. The
nobles were obliged to build palaces in it,--very much to their chagrin.
They hated St. Petersburg as cordially as Peter hated Moscow. They
already had large and elegant mansions in the latter city, and had
little relish for building new ones in this desert capital, four hundred
miles to the north. But the word of the czar was law, and none dared say
him nay. Every proprietor whose estate held five hundred serfs was
ordered to build a stone house of two stories in the new city. Those of
greater wealth had to build more pretentious edifices. Peter's own taste
in architecture was not good. He loved low and small rooms. None of his
palaces were fine buildings. In building the Winter Palace, whose
stories were made high enough to conform to others on the street, he had
double ceilings put in his special rooms, so as to reduce their height.

The city under way, the question of its defence became prominent. The
Swedes, the mortal enemies of the czar, looked with little favor on this
new project, and their prowling vessels in the gulf seemed to threaten
it with attack. Peter made vigorous efforts to prepare for defence.
Ship-building went on briskly on the Svir River, between Lakes Ladoga
and Onega, and the vessels were got down as quickly as possible into the
Neva. Peter himself explored and measured the depth of water in the Gulf
of Finland. Here, some twenty miles from the city, lay the island of
Cronslot, seven miles long, and in the narrowest part of the gulf. The
northern channel past this island proved too shallow to be a source of
danger. The southern channel was navigable, and this the czar determined
to fortify.

A fort was begun in the water near the island's shores, stone being sunk
for its foundation. Work on it was pressed with the greatest energy, for
fear of an attack by the Swedish fleet, and it was completed before the
winter's end. With the idea of making this his commercial port, Peter
had many stone warehouses built on the island, most of which soon fell
into decay for want of use. But to-day Cronstadt, as the new town and
fortress were called, is the greatest naval station and one of the most
flourishing commercial cities in Russia, while its fortifications
protect the capital from dangers of assault.

In those early days, however, St. Petersburg was designed to be the
centre of commerce, and Peter took what means he could to entice
merchant vessels to his new city. The first to appear--com