The date of foundation of the Museum of artillery, engineers and signal corps is 29^th of August, 1703. In that very moment by the order of Peter the first a special Zeughaus (Ger. — Military storehouse for armaments, uniforms, equipment, etc.) was constructed in the territory of Peter and Paul fortress for the purpose of storing and preserving old guns and cannons. Initially, that was a small wooden structure that was later reconstructed in brick. The entire weapon which meant to be historically valuable was sent to the museum.

The collection of “memorable” and "curious" guns and cannons was made throughout the Russian Empire, before the opening of Zeughaus. Now the Museum of artillery, engineers and signal corps is one of the largest museum of these type in the world, which owns precious collections of artillery armaments and ammunition, rifles and cold steels, military-engineering equipment, signal means, combat banners, military uniforms, battle artworks, various insignia, as well as archival documents giving evidences of Russian artillery development history and feats of arms.  The Museum takes in a significant collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures.

The halls of the museum are decorated with canvases of famous Russian artists as B. Villevalde, N. DmitrievOrenburgskii, A. Charlemagne, A. Safonov, P. Kovalevskii, F. Raubaud, A. Popov, N. Samokish and M. Grekov. The museum received its present name in 1965 when its collections were augmented with exhibits from the Central Historial Museum of Military Engineering in Moscow and new departments were opened.