In 1709, at the confluence of the Biya and Katun rivers, the Bikatunsky fort was founded, designed to protect the southern Russian borders from the raids of the Dzungars and local warlike tribes. Literally a year later, after a three-day siege, nomads burned it to the ground; a few years later, a little higher along the river (on the site of modern Biysk), the Biysk fortress was built. In the early 50s. 18th century century, it became the main one in the defensive Kuznetsk line, the Siberian borderland of Russia.

Biysk fortress, among other things, was armed with twelve-pound cannons, cast in the Urals, at Demidov's Kamensk plant. For more than 100 years, two of the surviving guns have been standing in one of the city's squares, being a favorite photographic object for tourists.

Photo: Valery Stepanyuk, Artur Demchenko