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Here we are standing in a very famous place.
We are on top of the huge earthen ramparts of the "King's bastion built by
Polish King Sigismund III after his army captured the fortress in 1611. It is
located on the southwest corner and was designed to reenforce this section of
the medieval brick walls of Boris Gudunov with more modern earthen bastion
trace. The bastion was attacked during the Russian siege in 1654. Then Peter I
had it strengthened further during the Great Northern War. When the French army
attacked Smolensk in 1812 Napoleon assigned Marchal Ney to assault this
formidible fortification. A park was established outside the ramparts in 1870's
and now as we see the earthen embankment serves as support for a section of a
sports stadium.
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