Construction of wooden walls around the Kremlin in Moscow. Moscow Kremlin, past and present. Legends and myths of the Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin is not only an outstanding monument of ancient Russian architecture, but also one of the main symbols of our country. Any Russian can easily imagine the majestic ensemble of brick towers, battlements and shining gold domes of the Kremlin cathedrals. However, not everyone knows how much the face of the Kremlin has changed over the seven centuries of its existence.

For the first time fortifications made of oak logs appeared on this site in 1339. Since then, several centuries have passed, during which the main fortress of the country managed to visit both stone, and wooden, and white, and red. Of course, the rich history of the Kremlin inspired many artists to create historically accurate paintings, thanks to which we can now imagine what our capital looked like two hundred, five hundred, seven hundred years ago. With the help of the best of them, LegkoPolezno offers to get to know the history of the Moscow fortress better.

Wooden Kremlin under Ivan Kalita, XIV century
Construction of the white stone Kremlin under Dmitry Donskoy, late 14th century
Brick Kremlin under Ivan III, XV century
Red Square under Ivan the Terrible, XVI century
Kremlin at the end of the 17th century. Red brick painted white
View of the Kremlin from the Moskvoretsky Bridge, early 19th century
At the end of the 19th century, the Moscow Kremlin acquired a modern look.

The Kremlin of Dolgoruky was tiny: it fit between the modern Tainitskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers. It was surrounded by a wooden wall 1,200 meters long.

At first, this fortress was called a city, and the lands around it were called a settlement. When it appeared, the fortress was renamed the Old Town. And only after construction in 1331, the fortress was called the Kremlin, which meant "fortress in the center of the city."

The word "comes from the Old Russian "krom" or "kremnos" (solid) - this was the name of the central part of the ancient cities. The Kremlin walls and towers were usually placed on the highest place.

The word "Kremlin" could also come from the so-called "kremlin" (strong) tree, from which the city walls were built. And in 1873, researcher A.M. Kubarev suggested that this toponym could come from the Greek language, where "kremnos" means "steepness, a steep mountain above the shore or ravine." The Moscow Kremlin really stands on a mountain on a steep bank of the river, and the words “flint” and “kremnos” could get into Russian speech with the Greek clergy who arrived in Moscow in the late 1320s with Metropolitan Theognost.

Guide to Architectural Styles

The Moscow Kremlin stands on Borovitsky Hill, at the confluence of the Moscow River and. Behind the walls of the fortress with an area of ​​9 hectares, the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements could hide from danger.

Over time, the plantations grew. The fortress grew with them. In the 14th century, under Ivan Kalita, new walls of the Moscow Kremlin were built: outside, wooden, covered with clay, inside - stone. Since 1240, Rus' was under the Tatar-Mongol yoke, and the Moscow princes managed to build new fortresses in the center of the occupied country!

The Kremlin under Dmitry Donskoy (after the fire of 1365) was built from white stone. Then the walls had a length of almost 2 kilometers - 200 meters shorter than the current ones.

Fires and an earthquake in 1446 damaged the fortress, and under Ivan III at the end of the 15th century, the Moscow Kremlin was rebuilt. For this, Italian architects were invited - experts in fortification - Aristotle Fiorovanti, Pietro Antonio Solari, Marco Ruffo. They built not just a fortress, but a holy city. The legendary Tsargrad was laid at three corners on all sides of seven miles, so the Italian masters on each side of the Moscow Kremlin put 7 red-brick towers (along with the corner ones) and tried to keep the same distance from the center -. In this form and within such boundaries, the Moscow Kremlin has survived to this day.

The walls of the Kremlin turned out so good that no one has ever taken possession of them.

How to Read Facades: A Cheat Sheet on Architectural Elements

Two water lines and the slopes of Borovitsky Hill already gave the fortress a strategic advantage, and in the 16th century the Kremlin turned into an island: a canal was dug along the northeastern wall, which connected the Neglinnaya and Moscow rivers. The southern wall of the fortress was built before everyone else, since it went to the river and was of great strategic importance - merchant ships that arrived along the Moscow River moored here. Therefore, Ivan III ordered to remove all buildings south of the Kremlin walls - since that time nothing has been built here, except for earthen ramparts and bastions.

In plan, the walls of the Kremlin form an irregular triangle with an area of ​​about 28 hectares. Outside, they are built of red brick, but inside they are built from the white stone of the old walls of the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy, and for greater strength they are filled with lime. They were built from half a pood brick (weighing 8 kg). In proportion, it resembled a large loaf of black bread. It was also called two-handed, because it was possible to lift it with only two hands. At the same time, brick in Rus' was an innovation at that time: they used to build it from white stone and plinths (something in between brick and tile).

The height of the Kremlin walls ranges from 5 to 19 meters (depending on the terrain), and in some places reaches the height of a six-story building. Along the perimeter of the walls there is a continuous passage 2 meters wide, but outside it is hidden by 1,045 merlon teeth. These M-shaped battlements are a typical feature of Italian fortification architecture (the supporters of the imperial power in Italy marked fortresses with them). In everyday life they are called "dovetail". From below, the teeth seem small, but their height reaches 2.5 meters, and the thickness is 65-70 centimeters. Each prong is made of 600 half-pood bricks, and almost all prongs have loopholes. During the battle, archers closed the gaps between the battlements with wooden shields and fired through the cracks. Whatever the tooth, then the archer, - they said among the people.

The walls of the Moscow Kremlin were surrounded by rumors for underground wars. They protected the fortress from undermining. Also under the walls was a system of secret underground passages. In 1894 archaeologist N.S. Shcherbatov found them under almost all the towers. But his photographs disappeared in the 1920s.

Dungeons and secret passages of Moscow

The Moscow Kremlin has 20 towers. They played a key role in monitoring the approaches to the fortress and in defense. Many of the towers were travel, with gates. But now three are open to the Kremlin: Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya.

The corner towers are round or polyhedral in shape and contain secret passages and wells inside to supply the fortress with water, while the rest of the towers are quadrangular. This is understandable: the corner towers had to "look" in all external directions, and the rest - forward, since the neighboring towers covered them from the sides. Also, travel towers were additionally protected by diversion towers-shooters. Of these, only Kutafya has survived.

In general, in the Middle Ages, the towers of the Moscow Kremlin looked different - they did not have hipped roofs, but there were wooden watchtowers. Then the fortress had a more severe and impregnable character. Now the walls and towers have lost their defensive value. The gable roof has not been preserved either: it burned down in the 18th century.

By the 16th century, the Kremlin in Moscow acquired the appearance of a formidable and impregnable fortress. Foreigners called it the "castle" on Borovitsky Hill.

The Kremlin has been at the center of political and historical events many times. Here Russian tsars were crowned and foreign ambassadors were received. Here the Polish interventionists and the boyars who opened the gates took refuge. The Kremlin tried to blow up Napoleon, who was fleeing Moscow. The Kremlin was going to be rebuilt according to the grandiose project of Bazhenov ...

What can be compared with this Kremlin, which, surrounded by battlements, flaunting the golden domes of cathedrals, reclining on a high mountain, like a sovereign crown on the forehead of a formidable lord? .. It is the altar of Russia, many sacrifices worthy of the fatherland should be and are already being made on it .. No, neither the Kremlin, nor its battlements, nor its dark passages, nor its magnificent palaces can be described... One must see, one must see... one must feel everything that they say to the heart and imagination!...

In Soviet times, the government was located in the Moscow Kremlin. Access to the territory was closed, and the dissatisfied were "calmed down" by the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Ya. Sverdlov.

Undoubtedly, the bourgeoisie and the philistines will raise a howl - the Bolsheviks, they say, desecrate the shrines, but this should not worry us the least. The interests of the proletarian revolution are above prejudice.

During the reign of Soviet power, the architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin suffered more than in its entire history. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 54 buildings inside the Kremlin walls. Less than half survived. For example, in 1918, on the personal instructions of V.I. Lenin demolished a monument to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (he was killed in February 1905), at the same time they destroyed the monument to Alexander II (then a monument to Lenin was erected on its pedestal). And in 1922, more than 300 pounds of silver and 2 pounds of gold, more than 1,000 precious stones, and even the shrine of Patriarch Hermogenes were taken out of the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin.

Congresses of Soviets were held, a kitchen was set up in the Golden Chamber, and a dining room in the Faceted Chamber. The Small Nikolaevsky Palace turned into a club for workers of Soviet institutions, a sports hall was opened in the Catherine's Church of the Ascension Monastery, and a Kremlin hospital was opened in the Miracle Monastery. In the 1930s, the monasteries and the Small Nikolaevsky Palace were demolished, and the entire eastern part of the Kremlin turned into ruins.

Kremlin: mini-guide to the territory

During the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin was one of the main targets of aerial bombardment of Moscow. But thanks to the disguise, the fortress "disappeared".

The red-brick walls were repainted, and windows and doors painted on them to mimic individual buildings. The battlements on top of the walls and the stars of the Kremlin towers were covered with plywood roofs, and the green roofs were painted to look like rust.

The camouflage made it difficult for German pilots to find the Kremlin, but did not save them from bombing. In Soviet times, they said that not a single bomb fell on the Kremlin. In fact, 15 high-explosive and 150 small incendiary ones fell. And a bomb weighing a ton hit it, and part of the building collapsed. British Prime Minister Churchill, who arrived later in the Kremlin, even stopped and took off his hat as he passed the gap.

In 1955, the Moscow Kremlin was partially opened to the public - it turned into an open-air museum. At the same time, the Kremlin banned residence (the last residents were discharged in 1961).

In 1990, the Kremlin ensemble was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. At the same time, the Kremlin became a government residence, but retained museum functions. Therefore, uniformed employees are present on the territory, quickly instructing the lost tourists "on the right path." But every year more and more corners of the Kremlin become open for walking.

And the Kremlin is often filmed for cinema. And in the film "Third Meshchanskaya" you can even see the Moscow Kremlin before the demolition of the Chudov and Ascension monasteries.

Mini guide to the Kremlin walls and towers

They say that......The Kremlin walls were built by Ivan the Terrible (Ivan III was also called "The Terrible"). He summoned 20,000 village peasants and ordered:
- To be ready in a month!
They paid little - 15 kopecks a day. Therefore, many died of starvation. Many were beaten to death. New employees were brought in to take their place. And a month later the Kremlin walls were completed. Therefore, they say that the Kremlin is on the bones.
...the shadow of Ivan IV often wanders in the lower tiers of the bell tower. Even the memoirs of Nicholas II have been preserved, how on the eve of the coronation, the spirit of Grozny appeared to him and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
And when False Dmitry was killed in the Moscow Kremlin, Muscovites sometimes began to see the outlines of the figure of the Pretender, flashing in the twilight between the battlements of the walls. They also saw him on the August night of 1991 - before the attempted coup d'état.
And one evening the watchman raised the alarm, who was on duty in the building next to the Patriarch's Chambers (under Stalin there was housing). One of the apartments on the second floor was occupied by the People's Commissar of the NKVD Yezhov, and the duty officer was in the hallway of the former Yezhov apartments. Around midnight, the watchman heard footsteps on the stairs, then the jingle of a key in the lock, the creak of a door opening and closing. He realized that someone had left the building and tried to detain the intruder. The duty officer jumped out onto the porch and saw, a few meters from the house, a small figure in a long overcoat and cap, well known from old photographs. But the ghost of the Chekist melted into the air. We saw Yezhov a few more times.
The spirit of Stalin did not appear in the Moscow Kremlin, but the ghost of Lenin is a frequent visitor. The spirit of the leader made the first visit during his lifetime - on October 18, 1923. According to eyewitnesses, the terminally ill Lenin unexpectedly arrived from Gorki to the Kremlin. Alone, without guards, he went to his office and walked around the Kremlin, where he was greeted by a detachment of cadets of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. The head of the guard was at first dumbfounded, and then rushed to call Gorki to find out why Vladimir Ilyich was unaccompanied. It was then that he learned that Lenin had not traveled anywhere. After this incident, real devilry began in the leader’s Kremlin apartment: the sounds of moving furniture, the crackle of a telephone, the creak of floorboards and even voices were heard. This continued until Ilyich's apartment with all his belongings was transferred to Gorki. But until now, the guards and employees of the Kremlin sometimes see frosty January evenings on

In ancient times, the first settlement of the future Moscow appeared at the confluence of the Neglinnaya River with the Moscow River on the Borovitsky Cape. In 1147, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky gave his feast here. This chronicle mention went down in history as the year of foundation of our capital.

Already at that time the settlement was surrounded by ramparts and wooden walls. In this place, Yuri Dolgoruky in 1156 equips a fortress that has become the famous Moscow Kremlin.

Fires in Moscow at that time were not uncommon. In 1337, almost the entire city burned down, so by 1340 the Kremlin was surrounded by new oak walls.

Another fire in 1354 again destroys the Kremlin. A repeat event occurs in another 10 years. The rulers of the city were in dire need of solving this problem.

Dmitry Ivanovich decides to surround the Kremlin with stone fortifications. Dense work began on the delivery of limestone, and since 1368 white stone walls have been rising in the city.

The modern view of the Kremlin was formed in 1485-1495 on the initiative of Ivan III. A huge number of the best architects of "all Rus'" were involved in the construction. Also in the construction of the walls and towers of the fortress, Italian masters in the field of construction of defensive structures were involved. The Italians at that time were building Moscow everywhere, but still the original Russian plans were not killed, the foreign influence came to naught.

The first Tainitskaya Tower in the Kremlin was built in 1485 by Anton Fryazin. Secret passages to the river and a well were provided here, providing the defenders of the fortress with water.

In 1487, the southeastern corner was occupied by the Beklemishevskaya round tower by Marco Fryazin. A little later, all the other towers of the Kremlin were built.

Clock of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

The people revered the main gate of the Frolovskaya tower. They did not pass through them on horseback and with a covered head. Later, the Frolovskaya tower was renamed Spasskaya because of the icons of the Savior of Smolensk and the Savior Not Made by Hands placed here. According to the documents, the main clock of the state in this tower appeared in 1491.

In 1625, the clock was replaced with new ones. The master was Christopher Golovey, and Kirill Samoilov cast 30 bells for them.

The next update of the clock took place under Peter I. With the transition to a single daily count of time, the Dutch clock with 12 divisions was fixed on the Spasskaya Tower. But after the fire of 1737 they also had to step down from their honorary post.

The clock of our time was installed in 1852 by the Butenope brothers.

Ruby stars of the Moscow Kremlin

In 1935, stainless steel stars lined with red gilded copper were installed on the tops of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya and Troitskaya towers. In the center of the stars is a 2-meter hammer and sickle emblem, adorned with precious stones. To install the stars, even the towers had to be slightly rebuilt. One way or another, in two years the stones on the stars faded, and in 1937 a decision was made to install ruby ​​stars.

The Moscow Kremlin is a symbol of the Russian Federation, is revered by its entire population and attracts foreign tourists who want to plunge into the history of our great country.

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The Kremlin or Kremenets in Rus' has long been called a stone fortress, which reliably protected from enemies from the West and East. But only the Moscow Kremlin acquired the status of a sacred symbol, embodying the power of a great country. Behind its redbrick walls are government buildings and a gigantic museum complex containing hundreds of thousands of artifacts that tell about the history and culture of Russia. Archaeological work does not stop for a day, revealing new secrets of the most unusual place in our country.

Kremlin walls and towers

At the end of the 15th century, Tsar Ivan III launched a large-scale construction on Borovitsky Hill. The Italians were considered the best fortifiers of that time, so the emperor invited Milanese craftsmen to build the fortress. And they did not disgrace the glory of their workshop, having built not only a powerful defensive line, but also a complete architectural ensemble. None of the 20 towers is repeated, the walls are decorated with dovetailed merlon teeth. Only hipped roofs appeared much later.

The main symbol of Russia, the building is so status, significant, outstanding that only such world-famous historical architectural objects as the Egyptian pyramids or the Tower of London can be compared with it ...

Appolinary Vasnetsov. The heyday of the Kremlin at the end of the 17th century

The Moscow Kremlin is the oldest part of the Russian capital, the heart of the city, the official residence of the country's leader, one of the world's largest complexes with unique architecture, a treasury of historical relics and a spiritual center.

The significance of the Kremlin in our country is evidenced by the fact that it is with the Moscow complex that the very concept of the “Kremlin” is associated. Meanwhile, Kolomna, Syzran, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Astrakhan and other cities not only in Russia, but also in Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus have their own Kremlins.

According to the definition given in the "explanatory dictionary" by Vladimir Dahl, "krem" is a large and strong timber forest, and "kremlin" is a coniferous forest growing in a moss swamp. And the “Kremlin” is a city surrounded by a fortress wall, with towers and loopholes. Thus, the name of these structures comes from the type of wood that was used in their construction. Unfortunately, not a single wooden Kremlin has been preserved in Russia, except for the guard towers in the Trans-Urals, but the stone structures, which until the 14th century were called detinets and performed a protective function, remained, and the Moscow Kremlin is, of course, the most famous of them.

The main symbol of Russia is located on Borovitsky Hill, on the higher left bank of the Moskva River, in the place where the Neglinnaya River flows into it. If we consider the complex from a height, then the Kremlin is an irregularly shaped triangle with a total area of ​​27.7 hectares, surrounded by a massive wall with towers.

The first detailed plan of the Moscow Kremlin, 1601

The architectural complex of the Moscow Kremlin includes 4 palaces and 4 cathedrals, the southern wall faces the Moscow River, the eastern one faces Red Square, and the northwestern one faces the Alexander Garden. Currently, the Kremlin is an independent administrative unit within Moscow and is included in the UNESCO World Natural and Cultural Heritage List.

Plan of the Moscow Kremlin presented on its official website

Listing all the events that took place over the course of more than 900 years of the history of the Moscow Kremlin is not an easy task. Interestingly, the first human settlements on Borovitsky Hill are dated by archaeologists to the 2nd millennium BC. At that time, the construction site of the future Kremlin was completely covered with dense forests, hence the name of the hill - Borovitsky.

Other archaeological finds found on the territory of the Kremlin date back to the period of the 8th-3rd centuries BC, scientists suggest that even then the first wooden fortifications were erected on the site where the Cathedral Square of the Kremlin is now located. You can see items related to the life of the ancient inhabitants of the Kremlin Mountain in the basement of the Annunciation Cathedral, where the exhibition "Archaeology of the Moscow Kremlin" is operating.

From the 12th century until the first half of the 13th century, a border fortress was located on the site of the Moscow Kremlin, which became the beginning of the history of Moscow. Archaeologists managed to discover an ancient cemetery of the 12th century, which was located on the site of the Assumption Cathedral, presumably, there was also a wooden church nearby.

Border fortress on the site of the Moscow Kremlin, watercolor by G.V. Borisevich

The founder of Moscow, Vladimir-Suzdal Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, laid a fortress at the mouth of the Neglinnaya River, a little higher than the Yauza River. The new fortress united 2 fortified centers located on the Borovitsky hill into a single whole. The fortress, which stood on the site of the future Kremlin, occupied an irregular triangle between the current Trinity, Borovitsky and Tainitsky gates.

Monument to Yuri Dolgoruky in Moscow

During this period, Moscow and the Kremlin experienced numerous internecine wars of the Russian princes, a severe fire and looting overtook the city during the invasion of Batu Khan, so that the wooden structures of the old Kremlin were seriously damaged.

The first "high-ranking person" who settled in the Moscow Kremlin was Prince Daniel - the youngest son of Prince Alexander Nevsky from Vladimir, then the son of Moscow Prince Daniel - Ivan Kalita ruled in Moscow, who did a lot to make the city one of the largest and strongest in the world. Rus'. Ivan Kalita was also engaged in the arrangement of his residence, which, under him, in 1331 received its current name - the Moscow Kremlin and became a separate, main part of the city.

In 1326-1327, the Assumption Cathedral was erected - already at that time it became the main temple of the principality, and in 1329 the construction of the church and the bell tower of John of the Ladder was completed. The following year, the domes of the Cathedral of the Savior on Bor rose in the Kremlin, and in 1333 the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael was built, in which Ivan Kalita himself, his children and grandchildren, were then buried. These first not wooden, but white-stone temples of Moscow later determined the spatial composition of the Kremlin center, in its main features it is still preserved today.

By the way, it was under Ivan Kalita, in the first half of the 14th century, that the treasury of the Moscow princes began to form, the place of storage of which, of course, became the Kremlin. One of the main items of the treasury was the “golden hat” — scientists identify it with the famous Monomakh’s hat, which served as a crown for all Moscow rulers.

Moscow Kremlin under Ivan Kalita, painting by A.M. Vasnetsov

In 1365, after another fire, Prince Dmitry (in 1380, after the victory over Mamai, he received the nickname Donskoy), who ruled at that time in Moscow, decided to build towers and fortifications of stone, for which they brought to Borovitsky Hill in the winter of 1367 sleigh limestone. In the spring of the same year, the construction of the first white-stone fortress of North-Eastern Rus' began.

Cathedral Square became the cult center of the Kremlin, on which the wooden princely chambers, the white-stone Annunciation Cathedral were located, Metropolitan Alexei founded the Chudov Monastery in the eastern part of the Kremlin, and the residence of the Metropolitan himself was located in the Kremlin.

In 1404, on a special tower of the Moscow Kremlin, the Athos monk Lazar, a Serb, installed a special city clock, which became the first in the territory of Rus'.

In the second half of the 15th century, a grandiose restructuring of the Moscow Kremlin began, after which it acquired modern features familiar to every Russian. Prince Ivan the Third, who married Sophia Paleolog, a Byzantine princess, was able to complete the unification of the principalities of Rus' and Moscow acquired a new status - the capital of a large state. Naturally, the residence of the head of such a vast country needed alteration and expansion.

In 1475-1479, the Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti erected a new Assumption Cathedral, which was the main temple of the Moscow principality under Ivan Kalita, and now has received the status of the main cathedral of the Russian state.

Assumption Cathedral on a postcard from the early 20th century

Another Italian architect, Aleviz Novy, was engaged in the construction of the grand-ducal temple-tomb - the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael. On the western side of the square, the palace of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan the Third was erected, which included the Middle Golden Chamber, the Embankment Chamber and the Great Faceted Chamber, that is, a whole complex of ceremonial buildings. Unfortunately, not all of them have survived to this day.

Moscow Kremlin at the end of the 15th century, painting by A.M. Vasnetsov

After the Italian craftsmen erected new towers and walls of the Kremlin, many foreign guests began to call the building a castle, similar to which the battlements on the walls give the complex. The Moscow Kremlin was also compared with the Scaliger castle in Verona and the famous Sforza castle in Milan. However, unlike these structures, the Kremlin became not only the residence of the ruler of the country, but also the center of the cultural, religious life of the entire state, here are the most famous temples of Rus', the residence of the metropolitan and monasteries.

Of course, the history of the Moscow Kremlin is inextricably linked with the history of the princes, tsars and emperors who ruled the Moscow principality, then the kingdom, and then the Russian Empire. So, Tsar Ivan the Fourth (better known as the Terrible), who came to the throne in 1547, also did a lot to form the Kremlin ensemble. Under him, the Church of the Annunciation was rebuilt, and orders were placed on Ivanovskaya Square, including the Ambassadorial Order, which was in charge of receiving foreign guests. Already then there was the Armory, also on the territory of the Kremlin there were royal stables, a sleeping chamber, storage facilities and workshops.

In 1652-1656, Patriarch Nikon was involved in the reconstruction of the patriarchal palace in the Kremlin, the treasures of the Patriarchal sacristy were stored in this building, and church councils met in the Cross Chamber and feasts were held for distinguished guests.

Only in 1712, after Peter the Great decided to move the capital to the newly erected St. Petersburg, the Moscow Kremlin lost its status as the permanent and only residence of the rulers of the state, in addition, the beginning of the 18th century was marked for Moscow by a new devastating fire. When restoring the damaged parts of the Kremlin, it was decided to build an Arsenal between the Sobakina and Troitskaya towers.

In 1749-1753, the old chambers of the Sovereign's Court dating back to the 15th century were dismantled; on their foundations, the famous architect F.-B. Rastrelli erected a new stone Winter Palace in the Baroque style. The building faced on one side to the Moskva River, and on the other - to the Cathedral Square.

In 1756-1764, the architect D.V. Ukhtomsky erected a new building of the Armory Gallery between the Archangel and Annunciation Cathedrals, but then, in the course of planning a large-scale reconstruction of the Kremlin, this building was demolished. The idea of ​​V.I. Bazhenov to build a new palace was never realized, however, in the course of preparing for the start of this project, the Kremlin lost many ancient buildings.

In 1776-1787, the architect M. F. Kazakov, by decree of Catherine the Second, built the Senate building opposite the Arsenal, and only then Senate Square acquired its completed look.

In 1810, by decree of Emperor Alexander the First, the Armory was erected, architect I.V. Egotov managed to fit the new building into the ensemble of the Kremlin, as a result of the construction a new Kremlin square appeared - Troitskaya, formed between the new museum building, the Arsenal and the Trinity Tower.

The Kremlin was seriously damaged during the Napoleonic invasion; after the fire of 1812, many of the blown up and burnt buildings of the complex had to be restored.

In 1838-1851, in accordance with the decree of Emperor Nicholas I, a new palace complex was built in the Moscow Kremlin, designed in the “national Russian style”. It included the building of the Apartments, the Grand Kremlin Palace, erected on the site of the Winter Palace, and the more solemn building of the museum - the Moscow Armory. The architect Konstantin Ton carried out construction strictly within the boundaries of the ancient Sovereign's Court, took into account all the historical features, managed to combine in one composition both new buildings and architectural monuments of the 15th-17th centuries. At the same time, the reconstruction of old churches was also carried out. New buildings formed in the Moscow Kremlin and a new area - Imperial or Palace.

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the Moscow Kremlin was considered a monument of history and architecture. Nicholas II intended to turn the Poteshny Palace into a museum dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812, but 1917 crossed out all the plans of the emperor.

As you know, after the coup, the Bolshevik government moved from St. Petersburg to the Kremlin and until 1953, that is, until the death of Stalin, who occupied an office and an apartment in the Kremlin, the complex was closed to ordinary tourists and Muscovites.

In 1935, the Kremlin lost its double-headed eagles, and in 1937, luminous ruby ​​stars were installed in their place on the Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers.

On the site of the demolished Ascension and Chudov monasteries, the building of the Military School was erected, which greatly changed the appearance of the architectural complex.

Interestingly, during the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin was practically not damaged, despite the massive bombardments that hit Moscow in 1941 and 1942. The authorities evacuated the treasures of the Armory, and in the event of the surrender of the capital to the German troops, a plan was provided for mining the main buildings of the complex.

In 1955, the Moscow Kremlin reopened its doors to ordinary visitors, the Museum of Applied Arts and Life of Russia of the 17th century, located in the Patriarchal Palace, began its work. The last large-scale construction on the territory of the Kremlin was the construction in 1961 of the Palace of Congresses, which many modern architects and ordinary Muscovites call “glass against the backdrop of the ancient Kremlin” and consider its construction to be another crime of the Soviet regime.

Like any ancient, historical building, the Moscow Kremlin has its own secrets, legends associated with it, and often rather dark secrets.

Most of these legends are associated with the Kremlin dungeons. Since their exact map was lost a long time ago (perhaps it was destroyed by the builders themselves), many underground passages, corridors and tunnels of the Moscow Kremlin have not yet been fully explored.

For example, the search for the famous library of Ivan the Terrible was resumed several times, but the vast repository of books and documents of that time has not yet been found. Scientists argue whether the legendary library really existed, whether it burned down during one of the fires that repeatedly raged on the territory of the complex, or is hidden so well that modern archaeologists are not able to find it on the huge square of the Moscow Kremlin.

Most likely, until the 18th century, all the towers and walls of the Kremlin were literally “permeated” with numerous secret passages and tunnels.

It was during the search for Liberia (as the library of Ivan the Terrible is usually called) that the archaeologist Shcherbatov in 1894 stumbled upon a mysterious underground structure located under the first floor of the Nabatnaya Tower. Trying to explore the found tunnel, the archaeologist hit a dead end, but then he discovered the same tunnel leading from the Konstantin-Eleninskaya Tower.

The archaeologist Shcherbatov also found a secret passage connecting the Nikolskaya tower with the Corner Arsenal, however, in 1920, all information, photographs taken by scientists and reports on the passages found were classified by the Bolsheviks and became a state secret. It is possible that the new authorities have decided to use the secret passages of the Kremlin for their own purposes.

According to scientists, since the Moscow Kremlin was built according to all the rules of fortification of the Middle Ages and was primarily a fortress designed to protect the townspeople from attacks by enemies, the Italian architect Fioravanti also built places for lower combat and "rumors" - secret corners from which you can it was secretly to observe (and eavesdrop) on the enemy. Most likely (it is already quite difficult to collect evidence at present), until the 18th century, all the towers and walls of the Kremlin were literally “permeated” with numerous secret passages and tunnels, but then, as unnecessary, most of them were simply walled up and covered up.

By the way, the very name of the Tainitskaya tower clearly indicates that there was a hiding place under it, there are references to the construction of secret passages in the annals that recorded the process of building towers in the 15th century.

Tainitskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin

There were also rumors about the dungeons of the Beklemishevskaya Tower, which, by the way, enjoys the most notorious reputation - it was here that the torture chamber, created by order of Ivan the Terrible, was located. In the 19th century, Archpriest Lebedev, who served in the Kremlin for more than 45 years, counted 9 failures that formed on the vaults of various underground structures. It is known about the secret passage leading from the Tainitskaya to the Spasskaya Tower, another secret road leads from the Troitskaya to the Nikolskaya Tower and further to Kitai-Gorod.

And Ignatius Stelletsky, a well-known historian and specialist specifically in the “archeology of dungeons”, the initiator of the digger movement in Moscow, intended to go from the Beklemishevskaya Tower to the Moscow River, and from the Spasskaya Tower through a secret underground passage directly to St. Basil’s Cathedral, and then along the existing near the temple descent into a large tunnel under Red Square.

There were remains of underground passages in various parts of the Moscow Kremlin more than once, almost during each reconstruction, but most often such dead ends, failures or vaults were simply walled up or even poured with concrete.

On the eve of his coronation, the ghost of Ivan the Terrible was seen by Emperor Nicholas II himself, about which he informed his wife Alexandra Feodorovna.

There are in the Moscow Kremlin, of course, and their ghosts. So, in the Commandant's Tower they saw a disheveled, pale woman with a revolver in her hand, in which they allegedly recognized Fanny Kaplan, who was shot by the then Kremlin commandant.

For several centuries, the ghost of this Russian tyrant has been found on the lower tiers of the bell tower of Ivan the Terrible. By the way, the ghost of Ivan the Terrible also has a crowned witness - on the eve of his coronation, Emperor Nicholas II himself saw him, about which he informed his wife Alexandra Feodorovna.

Flickers sometimes over the teeth of the Moscow Kremlin and the ghost of the Pretender - False Dmitry executed here. The Constantino-Eleninskaya Tower also enjoys a bad reputation - here, too, in the 17th century there was a torture chamber and a case was recorded of the appearance of drops of blood on the masonry, which then disappeared on their own.

Another ghostly inhabitant of the Moscow Kremlin is, of course, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who was seen both in his office and in his former apartment. Stalin's well-known comrade-in-arms, the head of the NKVD Yezhov, "visited" his former office ... But Iosif Vissarionovich himself was never noted in an appearance in the Kremlin after March 5, 1953.

It is not surprising that such an ancient structure, replete with burials, secrets and secret rooms, is of interest not only to archaeologists, scientists and historians, but also to mystics.

Data

If we talk about the Moscow Kremlin only from the point of view of a large-scale complex of buildings, it is impossible not to mention all its structures.

So, the architectural complex of the Moscow Kremlin includes 20 towers: Tainitskaya, Beklemishevskaya, Blagoveshchenskaya, Vodovzvodnaya, Petrovskaya tower, Borovitskaya, First Nameless, Second Nameless, Konstantin-Eleninskaya, Nikolskaya, Spasskaya, Corner Arsenalnaya, Nabatnaya, Senatskaya, Middle Arsenalnaya, Armory, Komendantskaya, Troitskaya, Tsarskaya and Kutafya.

Each of the towers has its own history, purpose and a special architectural image. The most famous of them is, of course, the Spasskaya Tower with its famous clock, which appeared on the tower erected in 1491 in 1625 according to the project of Christopher Galoway and subsequently changed and improved several times.

The modern Kremlin chimes were made in 1852 by the Russian watchmakers brothers Budenop, in 1917 the clock suffered from a shell hit, and after repair in 1918, the “Internationale” began to play, the last restoration of the chimes was carried out in 1999.

The Kremlin complex also includes five squares: Troitskaya, Dvortsovaya, Senatskaya, Ivanovskaya and Sobornaya.

Located on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin and 18 buildings: the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin on the Senyakh, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, the Assumption Cathedral, the Annunciation Cathedral, the Archangel Cathedral, the Faceted Chamber, the Ensemble of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the Terem Palace, the Golden Tsarina's Chamber, the Upper Savior Cathedral and the Terem churches, the Arsenal, The Patriarchal Chambers with the Church of the Twelve Apostles, the Senate, the Poteshny Palace, the Grand Kremlin Palace, the State Kremlin Palace, the Armory and the Military School named after the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

It is impossible not to mention such significant objects of the Kremlin, which attract millions of tourists, such as the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell.

The Tsar Bell is indeed the largest bell in the world, created back in 1733-1735 by order of Anna Ivanovna, and installed in the Kremlin as a monument to foundry craftsmanship. And the Tsar Cannon, with its caliber of 890 millimeters, is still the largest artillery gun on the planet. The cannon, weighing 40 tons, did not have to fire a single shot, but it became an excellent decoration for the museum composition of the Moscow Kremlin.

Yes, and the Moscow Kremlin itself is rightfully considered the largest in Europe, preserved, operating and currently used architectural and historical complex.

Currently, on the territory of the Kremlin there is the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Moscow Kremlin", numerous exhibitions, exhibits and relics of which are available to everyone who wants to see with their own eyes all the beauty and charm of the ancient building.

Not so long ago, Vladimir Kozhin, managing director of the President of the Russian Federation, said that even after the expansion of Moscow and the relocation of all departments and ministries to new locations, the presidential administration and the head of state himself would still remain in the Kremlin. Apparently, the country's leadership is well aware that it is difficult to find a better place to receive foreign guests and govern the state. And you can’t break the centuries-old traditions in any way ...

Anna Sedykh, rmnt.ru