- Sweden after loosing a war after a war, made one more attempt to gain back the land areas, lost to the Russia. However the war from 1788 to 1790 didn't lead to any conclusion and both sides agreed, that it was a tie and the border remained, where it had remained since the unfortunate military adventure of the Swedish "hat party". This war however got the Russians convinced, that the current fortifications weren't sufficient to guard the South-East area of Finland and to block the way to St. Petersburg. The result from that conclusion was the double fortification of Ruotsinsalmi - Kyminlinna, where Kyminlinna fortress was defending the Kotka area from a land attack and the Ruotsinsalmi sea fortification (Fort Slava) defending against an attack, coming from the sea. The first plans and constructions were started immediately after the war had ended in 1790. 

- The Kyminlinna fortress which was first planned, was suppose to have two complete bastions and two half-bastions. It became quite soon clear however, that such a small fortress was unable to defend such an important area and the first fortress was demolished and another bigger one was started to build in 1803. In the end, Kyminlinna fortress contained five bastions and several other defensive structures and it was constantly reinforced, until the end of the Swedish Russian war from 1808 to 1809. The place is a clear and a good example of the fortification construction in the late 18th and early 19th century.

- After the peace agreement in 1809, the Kyminlinna fortress like all of the other fortifications which the Russians and Swedes had been building, were left useless, as the border area was now far away from the Loviisa - Kotka angle. Also from a military point of view, these kind of fortifications had lost nearly all of their meaning, as the military technology had developed and cannons gotten much more effective. In 1835, the Tsar Nikolai I gave an order, which disbanded all of the garrisons and fortifications in South-East Finland. 

- The military history of Kyminlinna still continues however, as it's still garrisoned by the Finnish army. That will end quite soon though, as the military is now abandoning the Kyminlinna fortress for good in 2005. Now the city of Kotka doesn't know what to do with the place, as keeping the place in a good shape, does take a lot of money and if left totally abandoned, the walls will start to crumble down very soon.

- Time will tell, what will be the next chapter in the history of Kyminlinna fortress.  

- Like stated, the place is still firmly in the hands of the Finnish army and there is really no way (well of course there is, but) to explore the interiors too much. I'm not sure if it even was ok to photograph the exterior of this Finnish military secret...beware hostile foreign powers...you don't want to mess with these secret weapons.

- Main gate, leading to the garrison area. "No Photographing" sings were not anywhere, so...

- Rather a nasty choice of barbed wire, or actually a razor wire?

- At this point there is really not much to see, just the outer walls and some remains from the old outer fortifications, like showed on the left side photograph. I will be definitely making another trip to this place, when the military finally leaves during the year 2005.