Canon shots were practiced in Palmira of the North for different occasions from time immemorial. From time to time, the authorities would fire marking the start of working day, or in honor of setting afloat a ship built at the Admiralty Dockyard. Five shots warned the people about the flood, while three ones might notify the residents of Vasilievsky Island about breakup of ice. Chaos reigned in this field until 1865, when the tradition of making a gunshot at noon was introduced. First, the shots were made from the square near Admiralty. However, shooting in the city center seemed unsafe, and the midday gun moved to Peter and Paul Fortress. In 1934, the tradition was considered to be the heritage of tsarist regime an was abandoned, but shooting resumed in the 1950s. In 2002, new guns were installed in Naryshkin Bulwark, as there were no shells for the old ones.