During the time of Peter I the gun installed in the Gosudarev Bastion would usually signal the beginning and the end of work as well as manifest the rise in the water level of the Neva. However, in the late 18th century the Emperor Paul I ordered to cancel the morning and evening gunshots.

The first blank gunshot marking the noon was made in 1736 at the Admiralty, and in 1873-1934 it was made from the Naryshkin Bastion.

After a 20 year long pause the tradition was renewed during St. Petersburg’s 250th anniversary celebration. Now there are two 150-millimeter howitzers of the 1937 model installed on the upper platform of the Bastion.