The Moscow Kremlin is the sovereign crown of Russia. Kremlin walls and towers Kremlin wall height

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 Moskva 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 wonderful 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 Kremlin's largest bell - 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 office of the President 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 the 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 that crowned the main towers of the Kremlin: Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya, were replaced by ruby stars with a diameter of 3-4 m.In 1941-1942, 167 German aerial 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 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 opens up in the old-time bright and unexpected way: right on the course - the bell tower of Ivan the Great, on the right - 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 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 gravestones 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 view 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 Great 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 tsar's 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 a 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 kremlins, 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 also 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.

The oldest center of Moscow - the Moscow Kremlin- was founded as a fortification of a small settlement located on Borovitsky Hill, when its history began.

The first mentions of Moscow were found in the annals for 1147. They also say that the wooden walls of the Kremlin were erected by order of Yuri Dolgoruky. Initially, the size of the fortress was small, the length of the wall reached 1200 meters.

Versions of origin There are several words "Kremlin".

According to one of them, this name comes from the name of the central part of the ancient cities, called "Krom". Another version suggests that this word could have come from the "kremleny", a very strong tree used to build the fortress walls. There is even an assumption that the roots of this word are Greek, that is, "flint" - a steep mountain, steepness over a ravine or coast. Judging by where the fortress was built, this version has every right to exist.

But all this does not change the essence, which lies in the fact that the Moscow Kremlin is the largest surviving fortress in Europe.

And at first it was a small fortification on an area of about nine hectares, where the inhabitants of the townships located outside the walls of the fortress could take refuge in the event of a threat of an enemy attack. Over time, the settlements grew, and the fortress grew along with them.

New Kremlin walls were erected during the reign of Ivan Kalita. They were stone inside, and outside they were wooden and plastered with clay.

It is noteworthy that even in the difficult years of the yoke in Russia, the Moscow princes rebuilt the existing and erected new fortresses. So, under Dmitry Donskoy, the Kremlin, damaged in a fire in 1365, was rebuilt. For the construction of the walls, the length of which became about two kilometers, and the Kremlin towers, white stone was used. Since then, in the annals, Moscow began to be called white-stone.

At the very beginning of the 18th century, Peter I ordered the removal of government offices outside the Kremlin. All dilapidated buildings are demolished, and the Arsenal building is laid. It was built from 1702 to 1736. From 1776 to 1788, the Senate building with a spectacular round hall covered with a dome was built in the Kremlin.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the idea of building the Grand Kremlin Palace appeared. There were many projects, but it was built according to the drawings of the architect K.A. Tones. The years of construction are 1839-1849.

A tangible damage was inflicted on the buildings of the Moscow Kremlin in 1812.

Napoleon, during his retreat from Moscow, ordered to blow up the Kremlin. Mines were laid under buildings, walls and towers. Some explosions were prevented thanks to Russian patriots, but, nevertheless, significant destruction nevertheless occurred. After the French emperor was expelled from the country, they began to restore the destroyed palaces, towers and walls, then they completed the Armory and the Grand Kremlin Palace. In those days, the Moscow Kremlin was accessible to the public. Visitors entered the territory through the open Spassky Gate, having previously bowed to the icon of the Savior.

Kremlin in Moscow after the 1917 revolution

In 1917, there were cadets on the territory of the Kremlin. As a result of the shelling, which was carried out by the revolutionary troops, the Moscow Kremlin was partially destroyed: the walls, the Small Nicholas Palace, almost all the cathedrals, the Beklemishevskaya, Nikolskaya and Spasskaya towers were damaged.

In 1918 V.I. Lenin and the entire government of Soviet Russia, since the capital was transferred to Moscow. Because of this, the bells in the Kremlin are silenced, churches are closed, Muscovites are deprived of free access to the territory.

The dissatisfaction of believers with the closure of cathedrals was quickly stopped by Yakov Sverdlov, who was not slow to declare the primacy of the interests of the revolution over all prejudices. In 1922, more than thirty kilograms of gold, about five hundred kilograms of silver, the shrine of Patriarch Hermogenes and more than a thousand different precious stones were seized from the religious buildings of the Moscow Kremlin.

During the Soviet era, the Kremlin architectural ensemble suffered more than in the entire previous history of its existence.

Of the 54 structures marked on the Kremlin plan at the very beginning of the last century, less than half remain. Monuments to Alexander II, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich were demolished. Congresses of Soviets began to be held in the large Kremlin palace, a public dining room was set up in the Faceted Chamber, and a kitchen in the Golden Chamber. The Catherine Church of the Ascension Monastery was adapted into a gymnasium; the Kremlin hospital is located in the Chudov Monastery. In the thirties, the Small Nicholas Palace and all the monasteries with buildings were demolished. Almost the entire eastern part of the Moscow Kremlin has turned into ruins. The Soviet power destroyed 17 churches.

Many years passed before the restoration of the Moscow Kremlin began.

To celebrate Moscow's 800th anniversary, the towers and walls were thoroughly restored. Palekh artists in the Annunciation Cathedral opened the murals of 1508. A large amount of restoration work has been carried out in the Archangel Cathedral (wall paintings have been restored). The Assumption Cathedral has also undergone a major restoration.

The ban on living in the Kremlin was introduced in 1955, and the ancient architectural ensemble becomes a museum, partially open to the public.

In today's multifaceted Moscow, the Kremlin remains a historical place that millions of tourists strive to visit, hoping to touch the history of the white-stone capital there, to feel and understand it.

The Moscow Kremlin to this day is the main socio-political, artistic, historical and religious-spiritual center of Russia. In addition, the Moscow Kremlin is the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.

In 1990, UNESCO included the Moscow Kremlin, whose history continues, into the list of world cultural heritage.

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 a circular attack, the rest are square, very different from one another.
The length of the Kremlin wall is 2335 m, height is 8-19 m, and its thickness is 3.5-6.5 m.
The towers have inherent details 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 pointed 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.

Technique for building the Kremlin and the plan of the fortress

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 over the gates of some of the towers.

Most of the towers were supplemented 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 out of the walls to protect the city from mines. 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 filled with the remnants 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 "swallowtails" was a typical detail of Northern Italian architecture, typical 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 decorated 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 towers and passage 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. At 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 the 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 over 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”. Currently, the movement occupies three floors, and until 1937 this watch was wound by hand with a cast iron key.

Famous Kremlin towers and the history of their names

Let's dwell in a little more detail 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 that was 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 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 Troitskaya 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 in the Kutafya tower there was only one gate, 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.

In the historical center of the capital there is the most recognizable architectural structure in Russia - the Moscow Kremlin. The main feature of the architectural ensemble is its strengthening complex, consisting of walls in the form of a triangle with twenty towers.

The complex was built between 1485 and 1499 and is well preserved to this day. Several times it served as a model for similar fortresses that appeared in other cities of Russia - Kazan, Tula, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod, etc. Within the walls of the Kremlin there are numerous religious and secular buildings - cathedrals, palaces and administrative buildings of different eras. The Kremlin was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1990. Together with adjoining Red Square, which is on this list, the Kremlin is generally considered to be Moscow's main attraction.

Cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin

The architectural ensemble is formed by three temples, located in the center. The history of the cathedral began in 1475. It is the oldest fully preserved building among all the Kremlin buildings.

Initially, construction took place in 1326-1327 under the leadership of Ivan I. After the completion of the construction, the cathedral served as the home church of the Metropolitan of Moscow, who settled in the predecessor of the current Patriarchal Palace.

By 1472, the now collapsed cathedral was destroyed, and then a new building was built in its place. However, it collapsed in May 1474, possibly due to an earthquake or due to construction errors. A new attempt at revival was made by the Grand Duke Ivan III. It was in this cathedral that prayers were held before important campaigns, kings were crowned and elevated to the dignity of patriarchs.

Dedicated to Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Russian rulers, was built in 1505 on the site of the church of the same name in 1333. It was built by the Italian architect Aloisio Lamberti da Montignana. The architectural style combines traditional Old Russian religious architecture and elements of the Italian Renaissance.

Located at the southwest corner of the square. In 1291 a wooden church was built here, but a century later it burned down and was replaced by a stone church. The white-stone cathedral has nine onion domes on its facades and is intended for family ceremonies.

Working hours of cathedrals: 10:00 to 17:00 (closed on Thursday). A single ticket for visits will cost 500 rubles for adults and 250 rubles for children.

Palaces and squares of the Moscow Kremlin

- These are several representative secular buildings, created in different centuries and served as a home for Russian grand dukes and tsars, and in our time for presidents.
- a five-story building, decorated with richly carved decorative frames and a tiled roof.
- the building of the 17th century, has preserved the rare architectural features of civil architecture of that time. The museum exhibits jewelry, exquisite dishes, paintings, items of the royal hunt. The magnificent iconostasis of the Ascension Monastery, destroyed in 1929, has survived.
- a three-storey building made in the early neoclassical style. Initially, the palace was supposed to serve as the residence of the Senate, but nowadays it exists as the central working representation of the President of Russia.

Among the popular places in the Moscow Kremlin, the following squares should be noted:

Moscow Kremlin towers

The walls are 2235 meters long, their maximum height is 19 meters, and the thickness reaches 6.5 meters.

There are 20 defensive towers similar in architectural style. Three corner towers have a cylindrical base, the other 17 are quadrangular.

Trinity Tower is the tallest, rising 80 meters.

Lowest - Kutafya tower(13.5 meters) located outside the wall.

Four towers have access gates:

The tops of these 4 towers, which are considered especially beautiful, are decorated with the symbolic red ruby stars of the Soviet era.

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower first appeared in the 15th century, but burned down in 1656. On December 9, 1706, the capital heard the chimes for the first time, which announced a new hour. Since then, many events have happened: wars were fought, cities were renamed, capitals changed, but the famous chimes of the Moscow Kremlin remain the main chronometer of Russia.

The bell tower (81 meters high) is the tallest building in the Kremlin ensemble. It was built between 1505 and 1508 and still serves its function for three cathedrals that do not have their own bell towers - Arkhangelsk, Assumption and Annunciation.

Nearby there is a small church of St. John, where the name of the bell tower and the square came from. It existed until the beginning of the 16th century, then collapsed and since then has significantly decayed.

The Faceted Chamber is the main banquet hall of the Moscow princes; it is the oldest surviving secular building in the city. It is currently the official ceremonial hall for the President of Russia, so it is closed for excursions.

The Armory and the Diamond Fund

The chamber was built by decree of Peter I to keep weapons obtained in wars. Construction was delayed, starting in 1702 and ending only in 1736 due to financial difficulties. In 1812 the chamber was blown up in the war against Napoleon, it was reconstructed only in 1828. Now the Armory is a museum, which can be visited any day of the week from 10:00 to 18:00, with the exception of Thursday. The ticket price for adults is 700 rubles, for children it is free.

Here are not only the exhibits of the arms trade, but also the Diamond Fund. The permanent exhibition of the State Diamond Fund first opened in the Moscow Kremlin in 1967. Unique jewelry and precious stones are especially valuable here, most of them were confiscated after the October Revolution. Opening hours - from 10:00 to 17:20 on any day except Thursday. For a ticket for adults, you will have to pay 500 rubles, for a ticket for children, it costs 100 rubles.

Two diamonds on display deserve special attention, as they belong to the most famous examples of this gem in the world:

It is not only the largest medieval fortress in Russia, but also the largest active fortress in all of Europe. Of course, there were more such structures, but the Moscow Kremlin is the only one that is still in use.
The Kremlin walls were white. The walls "acquired" their red brick at the end of the 19th century. To see the White Kremlin, look for works by 18th or 19th century artists such as Pyotr Vereshchagin or Alexei Savrasov.
Red Square has nothing to do with red. The name comes from the Old Russian word for "red", which means beautiful, and has nothing to do with the color of buildings that we now know were white until the end of the 19th century.
The stars of the Moscow Kremlin were eagles. During the time of tsarist Russia, the four Kremlin towers were crowned with double-headed eagles, which have been the Russian coat of arms since the 15th century. In 1935, the Soviet government replaced the eagles, which were melted down and replaced with the five-pointed stars that we see today. The fifth star on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower was added later.
The Kremlin towers have names. Of the 20 Kremlin towers, only two do not have their own names.
The Kremlin is densely built up. Behind the 2235-meter Kremlin walls there are 5 squares and 18 buildings, among which the most popular are the Spasskaya Tower, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the Assumption Cathedral, the Trinity Tower and the Terem Palace.
The Moscow Kremlin was practically not damaged in the Second World War. During the war, the Kremlin was carefully camouflaged to look like a residential building block. The domes of the church and the famous green towers were painted gray and brown, respectively, fake doors and windows were attached to the walls of the Kremlin, and Red Square was burdened with wooden structures.
The Kremlin is in the Guinness Book of Records. In the Moscow Kremlin, you can see the world's largest bell and the world's largest cannon. In 1735, a 6.14 meter bell was made from metal casting, the Tsar Cannon weighing 39.312 tons was lost in 1586 and was never used in the war.
The stars of the Kremlin always shine. In 80 years of its existence, the lighting of the Kremlin stars has been turned off only twice. The first time was during World War II when the Kremlin was disguised to hide it from bombers. The second time they were turned off for the movie. Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov filmed the scene for the Siberian Barber.
The Kremlin clock has a deep secret. The secret of the accuracy of the Kremlin clock literally lies under our feet. The clock is connected to the control clock at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute via a cable.

The Kremlin wall was built in 1485-1495. from red brick. Its length is 2,235 meters. The wall, as if following the outline of the Kremlin hill, becomes either higher or lower. The thickness of the Kremlin wall is 3.5-6.5 meters with a height of 5 to 19 meters. There are 20 towers of various heights, shapes and styles.

Today we will make walk along the Kremlin wall and climb the inaccessible towers.

This was probably one of the most difficult shoots I have ever taken. It took more than one month to agree on it - I had to collect a lot of signatures, write a list of desired points and get a dozen permits. At some point I had already forgotten about the Kremlin, when suddenly the shooting was taken and allowed!

The list of desired points was severely cut - they did not allow shooting from the roofs of buildings, they were not allowed to climb some towers, but most importantly, they left the Kremlin wall. Walking the Kremlin walls, climbing inaccessible towers was my old dream, and now it has come true!

This is a staircase that leads to the Spasskaya Tower. There are two platforms on the tower, one under the clock, the second above it:

Trees grow on the Spasskaya tower! From almost every side behind the clock, it is not visible from Red Square, but they are there:

Bricks on the floor of the Spasskaya Tower:

View of Red Square from the Spasskaya Tower:

View of the Historical Museum and the Mausoleum from the Spasskaya Tower:

Kremlin Wall. View from Konstantino-Eleninskaya tower:

Beyond the Wall, everything is not as beautiful as in the tourist areas. for instance behind the Beklemishevskaya tower some rubbish is stacked. On the left you can see the mount for the Kremlin tree:

There are spotlights on the Kremlin wall. It is difficult to walk freely there:

A staircase in one of the towers. Most of the towers empty inside, there is located electrical equipment and communications:

Despite the large number of sensors and cameras, urban lunatics sometimes try to take the wall by storm.

Near the Kremlin wall between the Komendatskaya and Troitskaya towers there is an interesting civil structure from the middle of the 17th century. - the so-called Amusement Palace:

In the XIX century. the commandant of Moscow lived in the Amusement Palace; in the 20th century, the first Kremlin apartment of I.V. Stalin (until 1932). The Amusing Palace is the only architectural monument of boyar housing preserved in the Kremlin.

Commandant Tower:

View from the observation deck of the Borovitskaya tower to the Armory and the BKD:

Kremlin wall, view from the tower:

There are such people behind the wall crow traps... It happens that up to 200 birds are crammed into a cage. Their further fate is not known. What do you think then do with the crows? An FSO officer denied information that I was making cutlets from crows in the Kremlin canteen 😉

Bench in Taynitsky Garden. The president sat on it:

Some towers have a special communication telephone:

The walls inside some towers do not differ from the entrances of houses in disadvantaged areas. This refutes the theory of some scientists that they shit and shit where it is dirty. The Kremlin is very clean, but cattle crap even on the centuries-old Kremlin walls:

Surprisingly, there is a gate on the wall. Here they are needed so that the musicians of the Presidential Orchestra located in the Trinity Tower cannot escape 😉

There are many pipes running along the Kremlin wall:

And this is a greenhouse that grows plants in it, which decorate the interiors of the Kremlin:

Eternal flame of glory at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:

Grotto "Ruins" in the Alexander Garden:

The doors in the tower are old:

And this Tsar tower... A small turret was erected directly on the wall in the 80s of the 17th century between the Kremlin's Spasskaya and Nabatnaya towers. Its octagonal tent on pitcher-shaped pillars resembles the common porch lockers of stone dwelling mansions that were common at that time:

The name of the tower is associated with a legend, according to which it served as a kind of canopy over the royal throne, from where the sovereign of All Russia could observe the events taking place on Red Square from the walls of the Kremlin.