Drone captures chilling footage of Saint Petersburg’s 'PLAGUE FORT’

The history of Russia’s “Plague Fort” is colder and darker than the ice flows surrounding it in the murky waters of Saint Petersburg’s Neva Bay.
Also known as Fort Alexander I, it was originally built to defend the bay from foreign foes, however, the only action the fortification saw was the battle against the plague within its own walls.
Following the discovery of the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis in the late 1890s, named after the man who discovered it, Alexandre Yersin, the Russian government set up the “Special Commission for the Prevention and Cure of the Plague in Russia” at the fort.
After its reconstruction in 1899, the structure was fitted with heating, a lift for transporting lab animals and an incinerator for cremating them. Rabbits, guinea pigs, monkeys and horses were infected with the plague in the hope of extracting their blood serum to develop a vaccine. Despite strict hygiene control measures, there were two outbreaks of plague at the lab, one in 1904 and another in 1907, which resulted in two deaths and the fort’s grisly nickname.
By the end of 1917, most of the research assets were transferred to various research institutes around the country and the laboratory stopped functioning. Ownership of the fort was transferred to the Russian Navy, which used it as a storage facility. Since then the building has played host to rave parties in the 90s, two TV shows in the early 2000s and anyone brave enough to visit Russia’s infamous “Plague Fort” these days can take a boat excursion to the site.