The image of the fortress in architecture emerged in the Early Modern period when the constructive elements and volumetric-spatial schemes typical of defensive structures were incorporated into civil architecture. These structures lost their original functional meaning but retained distinctive features of their prototypes. In Russian historiography, there is a perception of the identity between architectural representations of the fortress image and the Neo-Gothic style of the last third of the 18th century. This view developed gradually, stemming from metaphorical comparisons made by pre-revolutionary essayists and Soviet art historians. Although these comparisons were periodically repeated, they did not become the focus of research reflection, as the attention was primarily directed towards stylistic issues. Alongside the enduring association of “castle” and “Gothicism”, another topos emerged, the interpretation of the fortress image in the 18th-century Russian Neo-Gothic as a memorial to the Russo-Turkish wars. This topos introduced a stereotype about the Orientalist background of certain buildings. Upon closer examination, these accepted concepts prove inapplicable to several monuments: the fortress image appeared in Russian architecture before the Turkish campaigns and Catherine the Great’s fascination with Neo-Gothic, and classical-style buildings featuring castle-like elements were constructed alongside exemplary Russian Neo-Gothic monuments. The recognition of the limitations of studying style led researchers to the issue of architectural imagery. The interpretation of the image opened new avenues and perspectives, allowing the identification of connections between individual monuments and the European architectural context, explaining the genesis of their forms, and reconstructing the underlying ideological programs. Analyzing historiography and the current state of the issue not only confirms the existence of the fortress image as a phenomenon in architecture, existing outside of styles and inherent to various national schools, but also allows it to be used as a construct to conceptualize a whole range of chronologically and morphologically related buildings in Russian architecture of the last third of the 18th century