The ruins of Kherson's original fortress stand near the river in the oldest part of the city. Founded in 1778 as the anchor of Russian power on the lower Dnipro, the fortress enclosed shipyards, arsenals, barracks, and the first buildings of the new city. The earthwork ramparts and some stone structures survive in a partly maintained state.
The fortress area gives a sense of the scale of Catherine the Great's ambitions for the region — within a decade of its founding, Kherson was producing warships that would project Russian power across the Black Sea. The site is open to walk around; some of the surviving buildings have been used for various purposes over the years, and restoration work was underway before the conflict began.