Moscow Kremlin: towers and cathedrals. History and architecture of the Kremlin. Moscow Kremlin - the history of origin and development Height of the Kremlin wall

The first mention of the word Kremlin appears in the Resurrection Chronicle in 1331, when it was still light wooden walls. In 1339, Ivan Kalita changed them to new wooden walls made of durable oak, and in 1367, Prince Dmitry Donskoy erected impregnable white-stone walls in place of the old walls.

(The walls of the Moscow Kremlin under Ivan III at the end of the 15th century. Painting by A. Vasnetsov)

In 1485, architects from Italy Mark Fryazin, Anton Fryazin, Aloiso di Carcano began the long work of erecting the walls of the Moscow Kremlin after the construction of the first tower - Tainitskaya. The work took five years, during which a wall was built on the most threatened southern side, as well as seven towers were erected. Then the walls began to be built from the side of the square, the current Red. Then Ivan III, by order, demolished all the buildings near the old walls of the Kremlin for the convenient construction of new ones. Then, over the next 30 years, all the other Kremlin towers were built along with the walls.

We can see these red brick walls even now. They beautifully adorn the slopes of Borovitsky Hill in red from brick chips with graceful architectural towers.

Characteristics of the Kremlin walls:

The length of the entire wall is 2235 meters;

Thickness from 3.5 to 6.5 meters;

Height from 5 to 19 meters.

The structure of the Kremlin wall:

Inside, the wall consists of cobblestone and white stone, they are filled with lime mortar.

A fighting move was made at the top of the wall, it is fenced off from the defended side with sharp two-angled teeth, in total there are 1045 teeth.

The towers blended not only with the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin, but also performed a military-defensive mission, making the fortress one of the most impregnable in Europe.

There are 18 towers in the Kremlin wall. Three of them: Vodovzvodnaya, Beklemishevskaya and Arsenalnaya went beyond the walls, thus, defensively holding back the attack. Six more, powerful, well equipped from a military point of view, are travel passes for defensive purposes.

In the middle of the 17th century, four towers were decorated with imperial two-headed eagles, which were replaced in the 30s of Soviet times with red stars with a ruby ​​coating. Then the stars were placed not on four, but on five towers, adding a fifth star on Vodovzvodnaya tower.

The Moscow Kremlin is located in the very center of Moscow, on the high bank of the Moskva River. Its powerful walls and towers, golden-domed temples, ancient chambers and palaces rise above the Moskva River and form a beautiful architectural ensemble.

"There is the Kremlin over Moscow, and there is only the sky over the Kremlin," an old proverb says. The Kremlin is the most ancient part of Moscow, currently the seat of the highest bodies of state power in Russia and one of the main historical and artistic complexes of the country.

In terms of plan, the Kremlin is an irregular triangle. Its southern wall faces the Moscow River, Red Square is located in the north, and Alexandrovsky Garden is located in the north-west. In the XIV century, cathedrals and monasteries were already built here, the Kremlin was the center of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the 15th and 16th centuries, three gigantic cathedrals were erected. There is a lot to see here! In the Annunciation Cathedral there are beautiful icons and an iconostasis; the bell tower of Ivan the Great with two golden domes is visible from a distance of 30 km, it rises next to the Assumption Cathedral, not far from the cathedral is the largest bell of the Kremlin - the Tsar Bell; the Armory contains a wide variety of treasures, including royal crowns. In addition, there is the Amusement Palace, the Senate, in the premises of which the President's office is located.

The most famous building on Red Square is St. Basil's Cathedral, its fabulous multi-colored domes topped with golden crosses, and a gilded dome rises above the main tower. The Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin, and people are still lining up to pass by his embalmed body. The space of Red Square, colorful temples and palaces, the Kremlin walls will be remembered for a long time.

Initially, the Kremlin served as a fortification of the village that arose on Borovitsky Hill, a cape at the confluence of the Neglinnaya River into the Moskva River. Here was the most ancient Moscow church - the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior, or Savior on Bor, built in 1330 for the millennium of Constantinople - "New Rome". The temple was destroyed in 1933. Moscow princes and princesses were buried in it until the cathedral received the status of a court temple.

In 1812, Napoleon blew up the Vodovzvodnaya, Petrovskaya and First nameless towers, the Arsenalnaya Tower was seriously damaged, and the annexes to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower collapsed. It took 20 years to recover. In the 30s of the XX century, the double-headed eagles, crowning the main Kremlin towers: Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya, were replaced with ruby ​​stars 3-4 m in diameter.In 1941-1942, 167 German bombs fell on the Kremlin, but it almost not hurt. Since 1955, the Kremlin has been open to the public, becoming an open-air museum.

The entrance to the Kremlin is through the Kutafya Tower, which was built in 1516. The name is also associated with her low and initially nondescript appearance: "kutafya" in Dahl's dictionary is an awkward, ugly dressed woman.

Behind the bridge is the mighty Trinity Tower. Passing through it, we find ourselves on a bridgehead open to all the winds, surrounded by the spacious buildings of the Arsenal, the Senate and the Palace of Congresses.

Previously, there was a complexly arranged medieval city with narrow uneven streets, each quarter of which contained numerous temples and chambers, courtyards and passages. The only fragment of that incredible city is located in the passage to the right of the gate - this is the Amusement Palace of the mid-17th century, restored by restorers only at the beginning of this century. On its roof there is a golden-domed house church, once it was surrounded by open festivities and hanging apple orchards, laid out on high stone terraces - in about the same outlandish way, the entire female half of the Tsar's court was arranged, which occupied the place of the current Palace of Congresses.

The Patriarchal Palace, which also has its own home church and probably also had a roof garden. Through its arch you can get to Cathedral Square. From here, the square reveals itself in the old-time bright and unexpected way: right on the course is the bell tower of Ivan the Great, on the right is the Assumption Cathedral, one of the great Russian shrines, the main temple of Russia from the XIV century until 1918, the burial vault of the ancient metropolitans and patriarchs. The current building was built in the 1470s by the Italian master Aristotle. The temple is small in size (in architecture textbooks, a picture is popular where the silhouette of the cathedral fits into the giant outlines of the Roman St. Peter, like a youngest matryoshka), but at the same time incredibly strong and large-scale - both inside and outside: the Italians knew a lot about such illusions.

The Archangel Cathedral of 1505, also built by Italians on the other side of the square, makes a completely different impression - it is close to the Assumption Cathedral in size, from the outside it is much more playful and complex, but inside it is cramped and mysterious. Most of its floor is occupied by the tombstones of princes and kings who ruled from the 13th to the 18th century. All the tombstones are of the same type, only the carved canopy over the tomb of Tsarevich Dimitri stands out - one of the most tragic losses in Russian history.

The nine-domed palace Cathedral of the Annunciation, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe with a small exposition of Old Russian wooden sculpture, exhibition halls in the Assumption Belfry and the Patriarch's Palace are also open to the public on Cathedral Square. The archaeological exposition in the basement of the Annunciation Cathedral and the lower tier of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower receive visitors for certain sessions.

The Armory and the Diamond Fund are located in another part of the Kremlin, at the Borovitsky Gate, and you need to buy separate tickets in advance to view them. Unfortunately, the Kremlin Palace is closed for free access, although in theory there are guided tours, but on a very separate appointment and for separate money. The working population can be content with only an external survey of the Faceted Chamber - the throne room of sovereigns from the end of the 15th century, as well as a fragment of the residential royal choir visible to its right, crowned with many domed house churches and the heavy bulk of the Grand Palace, built in the middle of the 19th century.

The Tsar Cannon and Tsar Bell are also located on the territory. When mentioning the square, many recall the saying “to shout at the whole Ivanovskaya”, believing that it was here that the royal decrees were announced. However, there is another way to decipher this saying. The Ivan the Great Bell Tower was the main Russian bell tower, it had forty bells, each with its own name. All the bells were rung only on the most special occasions. So the expression "to the full of Ivanovskaya" means that some work must be done with all the strength and completeness.

The famous monuments of foundry art - Tsar Bell and Tsar Cannon are so huge that they have never been used for their intended purpose. But touching them with your hand is a good omen.

The ceremonial of the equestrian and foot divorce of the Presidential Regiment takes place on Saturdays at 12.00 on the Cathedral Square of the Kremlin and on the last Saturday of every month at 14.00 on Red Square.

And the most important thing: do not miss the first shrine of modern times, the mystical oak "Cosmos", planted by Yuri Gagarin one day after the flight. Muscovites have long believed in its magical properties, remember also you: if someone walks around the tree three times, saying "Gagarin, Gagarin, fly with greetings, come back with an answer", his children will certainly be born great cosmonauts.

By the way, the Moscow Kremlin, the main of all the kremlin, is the only one written with a capital letter. It is the largest active fortress in Europe. Its semi-regime status is explained by the fact that the entire complex is both a monument included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List and the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.

At the entrance to the Kremlin, visitors' personal belongings are inspected. All unauthorized items will have to be handed over to the storage room located in the lower tier of the Kutafya tower. Photography and filming, including amateur filming, is prohibited in cathedral museums. The Armory and the Diamond Fund.

Construction history

Since the time of Dmitry Donskoy, Moscow has been adorned with a white-stone Kremlin (built in 1368)... Over the past century, its walls have become so worn out that foreigners, due to the abundance of gaping bald spots that were laid by logs, happened to mistake them for wooden ones. And this Kremlin was being built in those years when no one had heard of Italian masters in Russia. Having the master Aristotle Fioravanti at the court, Ivan III could well have thought about how to remake the fortress so that no one not only could not take it, but did not even dare to approach it. However, the name of Aristotle Fioravanti has never appeared anywhere among the builders of the Moscow Kremlin. However, many historians are inclined to believe that Aristotle was the real creator of the master plan, who outlined the general line of the Kremlin walls, outlined the positions of the towers, laid secret dungeons and labyrinths, and his compatriots worked on individual areas. Work on the Moscow Kremlin was carried out in a way that no fortress had ever been built in Russia. On the square with a radius of 100 fathoms, not a single building was left around. Even churches that had stood there for several centuries were demolished. The area beyond the Moskva River, opposite the future Kremlin walls, was also cleared of buildings. A similar approach to construction was required by the fortification rules of those times, which came from Europe.

• Today's buildings were built mainly in 1485-1495 years not in the place of dilapidated white-stone walls, erected in 1366.
• Fortress with twenty towers, connected by walls, has a triangular shape.
• Three corner towers have a round shape for conducting circular fire, the rest are square, very different from one another.
• The length of the Kremlin wall is 2335 m, the height is 8-19 m, and its thickness is 3.5-6.5 m.
• The towers have inherent details that are characteristic of Italian architecture of that time, which is not surprising, since they were built by Italian architects.
• V tower names reflects their history and the history of the place.

The towers of the Moscow Kremlin with peaked tents and walls with battlements in the form of "dovetail" are irreplaceable elements of the panorama of the capital. On the site where the Kremlin stands, the settlement has been located since ancient times. This location is very advantageous: on the high Borovitsky hill, at the confluence of two rivers - the Moskva River and the Neglinnaya. The first fortifications that appeared here were made of wood. And in 1366-1368, Prince Dmitry Donskoy built the first white-stone Moscow Kremlin. The walls and towers that appear before us now are basically fortifications built in 1485-1495. by Italian architects in place of the old, dilapidated white-stone walls.

Kremlin construction technique and fortress plan

Twenty Kremlin towers, connected by walls, form an irregular triangle with an area of ​​27.5 hectares in plan. The fortifications were built taking into account the most modern military technologies of the 15th century. Towers protrude beyond the line of the walls so that the warriors can not only fire, but also control the situation in the immediate vicinity of the walls. Round towers were erected at the corners (Vodovzvodnaya, Moskvoretskaya and Arsenalnaya) - this form was chosen both because of their greater strength and for conducting circular shelling. They also had the opportunity to arrange hidden wells with water. Most of the towers are square at the base, but quite different from each other, depending on their purpose. Passage towers (Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya and others), erected on the axes of the roads leading to the Kremlin, were the most powerful and well-fortified. The towers were also endowed with the symbolic meaning of protection, protection of the Kremlin from the penetration of evil, unclean forces. Therefore, icons can still be seen above the gates of some of the towers.

Most of the towers were attached with diversion arrows - fortifications, which were carried out beyond the fortress walls or behind the moat for additional defense. This type of fortification fully met the requirements of the end of the 15th century. Only one of the strelnitsy towers has survived - Kutafya, covering Troitskaya and in our time serving as the main entrance for tourists to the Kremlin. During the construction of the fortifications, various measures were envisaged against the attack of the enemy. This, for example, is the device of secret underground passages leading outside the walls to protect the city from undermining. A through tunnel was built inside the walls to quickly move the defenders.

The length of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin is 2235 meters, the thickness of the walls ranges from 3.5 to 6.5 meters, and the height is from 8 to 19 meters. The highest walls are located on the side of Red Square, where there was no natural oh water hedge. The walls were not built immediately, their construction began from the southeastern part (from the side of the Moskva River), continued to the east and west and was completed in 1516. The oldest Kremlin tower, Taynitskaya, was also erected on the south side.

The construction technique itself is also interesting. The walls were built on the foundation of the old ones, white-stone, the material was a large red brick, with which the front walls were laid, and the gaps were covered with the remains of the collapsed walls of the time of Dmitry Donskoy. So from 1485 the walls of the Moscow Kremlin acquired a recognizable color. The towers were erected by visiting Italian architects (Fryaz, as they were then called): Pietro Antonio Solari, Marco Ruffo, Aleviz di Carcano. This explains their unusual, strange appearance for that time. The fact is that the design of the loopholes in the form of the famous "swallow tails" was a typical detail of Northern Italian architecture, characteristic of buildings in cities where the ruling "party" was the Ghibellines - supporters of rapprochement with the emperor (in contrast to the Guelphs, supporters of the Pope, who adorned the walls of their cities are battlements with a straight end). These barbs were not only a decoration: they fenced off the upper battlegrounds.

After another fire, the corner and driveway towers were decorated with stone tents with weather vane in the 17th century. They served as watchtowers, and signal bells were also located there. In the second half of the 18th century. the famous Russian architect V.I. Bazhenov completed the project of the Kremlin Palace - a large-scale building in the classicist style, reminiscent of the architecture of French palaces. The project proposed to cover the hill leading to the cathedrals with turf - this place would become one of the first "gulbis" in Europe. To erect such a huge structure, it was required to demolish a third of the Kremlin walls. On one site, which is located near the Moskva River, work began to dismantle the fortifications, but soon, due to the lumpy growing costs, this project was curtailed. In the XIX century. during Napoleon's invasion of Moscow, serious damage was caused not only to the palaces and temples of the Kremlin, but also to the Kremlin walls. The architect who was involved in the restoration of the damaged Kremlin towers was O.I. Beauvais (ironically, also Italian).

Spasskaya tower and Kremlin chimes

The most famous of all the Kremlin towers, the Spasskaya, built in 1491 by Pietro Antonio Solari, deserves special mention. Sovereigns entered the Kremlin through it and processions of the cross took place. Since the XV century. only white-stone dedicatory slabs have survived to us, which tell in Cyrillic (from the Kremlin) and Latin (from Red Square) about the order and construction of this tower. Its general appearance and decoration were then much more modest: it was almost two times smaller, and it was originally called Frolovskaya, after the church of Florus and Lavra. The Spasskaya Tower began to be called according to the icon of the Savior, known throughout Russia, which was placed above the entrance in the middle of the 17th century. It was considered lost, but in 2010 it turned out that in Soviet times it was simply plastered over with plaster. In the XVII century. the tower was one of the first to be built on with a multi-tiered elegant top. And the history of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower deserves a separate story.

The first clock on the Kremlin, still white-stone towers was installed in 1404 by Lazar Serbin. In the 17th century, the Spasskaya Tower acquired a very unusual clock thanks to a native of Scotland Christopher Galovey. They were a sun-shaped hand with a rotating dial, on which 17 o'clock was marked. The famous Kremlin chimes, which can be seen today, date back to the middle of the 19th century. They were made by watchmakers, brothers named Butenop - the founders of the company of the same name. At different times, the chimes sounded different melodies. From 1770 it was the song "Ah, my dear Augustine", from the middle of the XIX century. - “If our Lord is glorious in Zion”, after the revolution the clock began to play “Internationale”, and since 2000 you can hear the famous excerpt from Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar”. At present, the movement occupies three floors, and until 1937 this watch was wound manually with a cast iron key.

Famous Kremlin towers and the history of their names

Let's dwell a little more on the history of some of the towers. As already mentioned, the corner towers are the most important for defense and overall composition. The Vodovzvodnaya Tower was built by Anton Fryazin in 1488. In the XVII century. the tower was equipped with a water-lifting machine, which is why it got its name. Her other name - Sviblova Tower - comes from the boyar family of the Sviblovs, who had a courtyard on the territory of the Kremlin. In 1812 it was blown up by the French, after which it was restored by O.I. Beauvais. Thanks to him, its appearance is emphatically classic: rustication (horizontal lines) in the lower part, columns, decorative design of dormer windows. Decorativeness comes first, not functionality, the hand of an architect of the early 19th century is felt.

The Beklemishevskaya tower, built by Marco Ruffo in 1487, was named so because of the boyar I. Beklemishev who lived during the reign of Tsar Vasily III, who fell out of favor and was executed. From the name it becomes obvious one of the functions of this tower - a place of imprisonment of the rebels. Its other name is Moskvoretskaya, as it is located on the banks of the Moskva River and occupies a strategically important position. It was from this side that the city was most often subjected to the raids of the Tatars. A secret well was built in this tower. In 1707, the loopholes for a new type of weapon were expanded in the tower, because at that time they feared Swedish intervention. This fact indicates that the tower did not lose its defensive significance until the 18th century.

The corner round tower, located on the north side of the Kremlin buildings, was erected by Pietro Antonio Solari approx. 1492 Its other names come from the Sobakin boyars who lived nearby (Sobakin) and from the location next to Arsenal (Arsenalnaya). Thanks to the edges that form its volume, and the base expanding downwards, it gives the impression of special stability and strength. She also had a strategic secret: this is a well inside, as well as an underground passage to the Neglinnaya River.

The Borovitskaya Tower got its name from a pine forest located on Borovitsky Hill in ancient times. The tower was built according to the design of Pietro Antonio Solari in 1490. Its design feature is the location of the arrow on the side. It is also angular, but in its plan it is not round, but resembles a pyramid, which is formed from stacked fours (volumes, quadrangular at the base) and crowned with an octal (octagonal at the base). Although this tower was located off the main roads and was used for household needs, it has retained its significance to this day: it is the only permanent gateway to the Kremlin.

The Trinity and Kutafya towers were built by Aleviz Fryazin. Kutafya dates from 1516, Troitskaya - 1495. These towers are connected by a bridge, both were passable, and there was only one gate in the Kutafya tower, which was closed with heavy forged gratings. Today it is the main entrance to the architectural and museum complex of the Kremlin. Trinity Tower is the largest, its height reaches 76.35 meters. Its structure is complex: it consists of six floors, two of which are underground, and in the 17th and 18th centuries. it was a place of confinement for the rebels. It got its name in 1658 from the Trinity courtyard, which was located nearby.

The Taynitskaya Tower is so called because not only a secret well was built inside it, but also a secret passage to the Moscow River. This tower was built first, in 1485 - it was from this side that the Tatars usually attacked.

The Moscow Kremlin is the center of Russia and the citadel of power. For more than 5 centuries, these walls reliably hide state secrets and protect their main carriers. The Kremlin is shown on Russian and world channels several times a day. This medieval fortress, unlike anything else, has long become a symbol of Russia.

Only now the frames we are provided are basically the same. The Kremlin is a strictly guarded operating residence of the President of our country. There are no trifles in security, which is why all Kremlin filming is so strictly regulated. By the way, don't forget to visit the excursion to the Kremlin.

To see another Kremlin, try to imagine its towers without tents, limit the height only to a wide, non-tapering part and you will immediately see a completely different Moscow Kremlin - a powerful, squat, medieval, European fortress.

This is how it was built at the end of the 15th century on the site of the old white-stone Kremlin by the Italians - Pietro Fryazin, Anton Fryazin and Alois Fryazin. They all received the same surname, although they were not relatives. "Fryazin" means a foreigner in Old Slavonic.

They built the fortress in accordance with all the latest achievements of fortification and military science of that time. A battle platform with a width of 2 to 4.5 meters runs along the battlements of the walls.

Each prong has a loophole, which can only be reached by standing on something else. The view is limited. The height of each prong is 2-2.5 meters, the distance between them during the battle was covered with wooden shields. There are 1145 battlements on the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.

The Moscow Kremlin is a great fortress, located near the Moskva River, in the heart of Russia - in Moscow. The citadel is equipped with 20 towers, each with its own unique appearance and 5 passage gates. The Kremlin is like a ray of light, carried through the rich history of Russia's formation.

These ancient walls are witnesses of all those numerous events that happened to the state, starting from the moment of its construction. The fortress begins its journey in 1331, although the word "Kremlin" was mentioned earlier.

Moscow Kremlin, infographics. Source: www.kultura.rf. For a detailed view, open the picture in a new browser tab.

Moscow Kremlin under different rulers

Moscow Kremlin under Ivan Kalita

In 1339-1340. Moscow prince Ivan Danilovich, nicknamed Kalita ("money bag"), built an imposing citadel of oak on Borovitsky Hill, walls from 2 to 6 m thick, and no less than 7 m high. Ivan Kalita made a powerful fortress with a formidable look, but it stood less three decades and burned down during a terrible fire in the summer of 1365.

Moscow Kremlin under Dmitry Donskoy

The tasks of the defense of Moscow insistently demanded the creation of a more reliable fortress: the Moscow principality was threatened by the Golden Horde, Lithuania and the rival Russian principalities - Tver and Ryazan. The then reigning 16-year-old grandson of Ivan Kalita Dmitry (aka Dmitry Donskoy) decided to build a fortress of stone - the Kremlin.

The stone fortress began to be built in 1367, and the stone was mined nearby, in the village of Myachkovo. We completed the construction in a short time - in just one year. Dmitry Donskoy made the Kremlin a white-stone fortress, which the enemies tried to storm more than once, but they could not.

What does the word "Kremlin" mean?

One of the first mentions of the word "Kremlin" appears in the Resurrection Chronicle in a message about the fire of 1331. According to historians, it could have arisen from the Old Russian word "kremnik", which meant a fortress built of oak. According to another point of view, it is based on the word "krom" or "kroma", which means a boundary, a border.

The first victory of the Moscow Kremlin

Almost immediately after the erection of the Moscow Kremlin, Moscow was besieged by the Lithuanian prince Olgerd in 1368, and then in 1370 Lithuanians stood at the white-stone walls for three days and three nights, but the fortifications turned out to be impregnable. This instilled confidence in the young Moscow ruler and allowed him to later challenge the powerful Golden Horde Khan Mamai.

In 1380, feeling a reliable rear behind their backs, the Russian army under the leadership of Prince Dmitry ventured into a decisive operation. Having left their hometown far to the south, to the upper reaches of the Don, they met with the army of Mamai and defeated it at the Kulikovo field.

So for the first time chrome became a stronghold not only of the Moscow principality, but of all of Russia. And Dmitry received the nickname Donskoy. For 100 years after the Battle of Kulikovo, the white-stone citadel united the Russian lands, becoming the main center of Russia.

Moscow Kremlin under Ivan 3

The current dark red appearance of the Moscow Kremlin owes its birth to Prince Ivan III Vasilyevich. Started by him in 1485-1495. the grandiose construction was not a simple reconstruction of the dilapidated defensive fortifications of Dmitry Donskoy. The white-stone fortress is replaced by a red brick fortress.

Outside the towers are pushed out in order to fire along the walls. To quickly move the defenders, a system of secret underground passages was created. Completing the system of impregnable defense, the Kremlin was made an island altogether. On both sides it already had natural barriers - the Moskva and Neglinnaya rivers.

They dug a ditch on the third side, where Red Square is now, about 30-35 meters wide and 12 meters deep. Contemporaries called the Moscow Kremlin an outstanding military engineering structure. Moreover, the Kremlin is the only European fortress that has never been taken by storm.

The special role of the Moscow Kremlin as a new grand-ducal residence and the main fortress of the state determined the nature of its engineering and technical appearance. Built of red brick, it retained the features of the layout of the Old Russian Detinets, and in its outlines - the already formed shape of an irregular triangle.

At the same time, the Italians made it extremely functional and very similar to many fortresses in Europe. What Muscovites came up with in the 17th century turned the Kremlin into a unique architectural monument. The Russians just built on stone tents, which turned the fortress into a lightweight structure directed towards the sky, which has no equal in the world, and the corner towers took on such an appearance as if our ancestors knew that it was Russia that would send the first man into space.

Moscow Kremlin architects

The construction was supervised by Italian architects. Memorial plaques installed on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin testify that it was built in the "30th summer" of the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich. The Grand Duke celebrated the anniversary of his state activity by erecting the most powerful entrance front tower. In particular, Spasskaya and Borovitskaya were designed by Pietro Solari.

In 1485, under the leadership of Antonio Gilardi, the powerful Taynitskaya Tower was built. In 1487 another Italian architect, Marco Ruffo, began to build Beklemishevskaya, and later Sviblova (Vodovzvodnaya) appeared on the opposite side. These three structures set the direction and rhythm for all subsequent construction.

The Italian origin of the main architects of the Moscow Kremlin is not accidental. At that time, it was Italy that came to the fore in the theory and practice of fortification construction. The design features testify to the familiarity of its creators with the engineering ideas of such outstanding representatives of the Italian Renaissance as Leonardo da Vinci, Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi. In addition, it was the Italian architectural school that "presented" Stalin's skyscrapers in Moscow.

By the beginning of the 1490s, four more blind towers appeared (Blagoveshchenskaya, 1st and 2nd Unnamed and Petrovskaya). All of them, as a rule, repeated the line of the old fortifications. The work was carried out gradually, so that there would be no open areas in the fortress through which the enemy could suddenly attack.

In the 1490s, the construction was supervised by the Italian Pietro Solari (aka Pyotr Fryazin), with whom his compatriots Antonio Gilardi (aka Anton Fryazin) and Aloisio da Carcano (Aleviz Fryazin) worked. 1490-1495 The following towers were added to the Moscow Kremlin: Konstantino-Eleninskaya, Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Senatskaya, Uglovaya Arsenalnaya and Nabatnaya.

Secret passages in the Moscow Kremlin

In case of danger, the defender of the Kremlin was able to quickly move along secret underground passages. In addition, internal passages were made in the walls, connecting all the towers. Thus, the defenders of the Kremlin could concentrate, if necessary, on a dangerous sector of the front, or retreat in the event of an overweight of the enemy forces.

Long underground tunnels were also dug, thanks to which it was possible to observe the enemy in the event of a siege, as well as to make unexpected attacks on the enemy. Several underground tunnels went beyond the Kremlin.

Some towers had more than just a defensive function. For example, Taynitskaya hid a secret passage from the fortress to the Moscow River. Wells were made in Beklemishevskaya, Vodovzvodnaya and Arsenalnaya, with the help of which it was possible to deliver water if the city was in a state of siege. The well in Arsenalnaya has survived to this day.

Within two years of the fortress, Kolymazhnaya (Commandantskaya) and Granenaya (Srednyaya Arsenalnaya) rose in a slender line, and in 1495 the construction of Troitskaya began. The construction was supervised by Aleviz Fryazin.

Chronology of events

All towers of the Moscow Kremlin

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