Moscow Kremlin - all the towers of the Kremlin, the history of construction. Who built the Moscow Kremlin - a symbol of the Russian state

The Moscow Kremlin is located. The history of our Motherland is reflected in each of its buildings. This vintage cannons and bells, cathedrals and palaces, museums and the residence of the President of Russia. High walls and loopholes tell us that this powerful and majestic building is a fortress. At the same time, this building also reflects the spiritual life of Russia. The Kremlin in Moscow is an all-Russian national shrine, a symbol of Russia.

The ensemble of the Kremlin in Moscow includes the fortress itself with its powerful walls and towers, as well as temples and chambers, majestic palaces and grand administrative buildings. These are ensembles of squares - Cathedral and Ivanovskaya, Senate and Palace, Trinity, as well as streets - Spasskaya, Borovitskaya and Palace.

Moscow Kremlin towers

The walls of the Moscow Kremlin have 20 towers, among which there are no identical ones. The history of Moscow began at the Borovitsky Gates. Here is one of the southwestern towers of the Kremlin wall - Borovitskaya. She goes to the Alexander Garden and Borovitskaya Square. According to legend, her name comes from the forest that covered one of the seven hills on which Moscow stands.

Cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin

The architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin includes eight cathedrals. One of the main temples of the Russian state - Uspensky. It hosted the coronation of emperors, the wedding to the kingdom, the election of the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church and the burial of metropolitans and patriarchs. Now here you can see the prayer place of Ivan the Terrible, especially valuable icons, a necropolis and a majestic iconostasis.

Blagoveshchensky cathedral served as the personal temple of the Grand Dukes and Tsars of Moscow. It is believed that some of the icons of the temple were created by Andrei Rublev, as well as Theophan the Greek.

Cathedral of the Archangel was the ancestral tomb of the great princes and kings. It has 47 tombstones and 2 shrines. Grand Dukes Ivan Kalita and Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan III and Ivan the Terrible, Tsarevich Dmitry and Tsars Mikhail and Alexei Romanovs are buried here. The image of "Archangel Michael with deeds" created during the Battle of Kulikovo can be seen in the iconostasis of the temple.

The house church of Russian metropolitans and patriarchs is a small Church of the Deposition of the Robe. In it, in a single ensemble, a four-tiered iconostasis in a silver frame and wall paintings are presented.

To the north of the Assumption Church and the bell tower of Ivan the Great are Patriarchal Chambers and small five-domed temple of the Twelve Apostles, built by Russian masters Antip Konstantinov and Bazhen Ogurtsov.

ten-headed St. Basil's Cathedral been in danger of demolition many times. Napoleon in 1812 dreamed of taking him to Paris, and later wanted to blow him up. IN Soviet time the cathedral interfered with the passage of demonstrations and they also wanted to destroy it.

To the east of the Terem Palace are four house churches: St. Catherine and Verkhospassky Cathedral, the Church of the Crucifixion of Christ and the Church of the Resurrection of the Word.

Moscow Kremlin - history and architecture

The first mention of Moscow is found in the annals and refers to 1147. In 1156, the first wooden walls were built on the banks of the Moskva River and the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. Russia at that time was divided into separate principalities, therefore, in 1238, it could not resist the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Moscow was devastated and the Kremlin burned.

During the reign of Ivan Kalita Muscovy was fortified and the Kremlin rebuilt. Built stone churches, cathedrals and strong oak walls. By decree of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, the grandson of Ivan Kalita, in 1367 white-stone walls and towers were erected. Moscow began to be called white-stone. Under Grand Duke Ivan III, the territory of the Kremlin expanded, a moat was dug around the walls. Together with foreign architects, the Assumption and Annunciation churches, the Faceted Chamber and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower (watch tower) are being built. The Archangel Temple was founded. With the flourishing of culture and architecture in the 17th century, the buildings of the Kremlin were also transformed. High brick tents with tile coverings and gilded weathercocks appeared on the Kremlin towers.

At the beginning of the 18th century, by decree of Peter I, the building of the Arsenal was laid. With the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg, the Kremlin remained in an abandoned state. Almost all wooden buildings were destroyed by fires and were not restored.

Its construction began only in the second half of the 18th century. According to the project of the architect M. F. Kazakov, the building of the Senate is being built. Under the leadership of the architect Ivan Egotov, the first building for the Armory was built. During the War of 1812, Napoleon decided to blow up the Kremlin during his retreat. Only thanks to the courage of the Muscovites, he was miraculously saved. Soon all the damaged buildings were restored.

In 1917, the capture of the Kremlin completed the revolution in Moscow. Here in March 1918 from Petrograd moved Soviet government. Today, the residence of the President of Russia is located here.

On the territory of the Kremlin of Moscow, the State museum complex, which includes the Armory and churches (Assumption, Arkhangelsk and Annunciation), the Church of the Deposition of the Robe and the Patriarch's Chambers with the Church of the Twelve Apostles, the ensemble of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, as well as collections artillery pieces and bells. The complex of the Kremlin and Red Square in 1990 were included in the list of the world cultural heritage UNESCO as one of the outstanding historical monuments of the planet.

For hundreds of years they stood guard over the Russian lands, cities grew up around them, there were more than 400 of them. The pride of the country and the keepers of its history are the Russian Kremlin. We talk about the most interesting and unusual.

The history of the word "Kremlin" is rooted in early Middle Ages, and today its origin is explained in different ways.

The name of the city fortification is associated with the words "krem" (part of the notch where the best timber grows), "kremlin" - strong, durable (forest), "kremlin" - coniferous forest in the moss swamp. In this context, the "Kremlin" is associated with the concept of "chopped wooden fortress" - such were the first Kremlins.

According to another version, "Kremlin" and "Krom" are related to the word "Krom" - the extreme strip, boundary, border (water's edge, edge of fabric). In this context, the word "kremlin" ("krom") was used as a frontier or edge of the fortress. And “krom” also meant a “warehouse” in the rear of a city, a fortified settlement, and in this case, the concept of “krom” is revealed by the same-root words “secluded” and “bins”.

Tobolsk: the only Kremlin in Siberia

Beyond the Urals, where there was no need to defend against the Tatar-Mongol raids, there are no powerful stone fortresses. And the complex in Tobolsk was built in an already existing city rather as an administrative and commercial center. The white-stone miracle over the Irtysh was erected in the 17th and XVIII centuries, so that the architecture of the Kremlin combined the traditions of baroque and classicism, ancient Russian architecture and the Italian Renaissance. On the high Trinity Cape, the St. Sophia Cathedral was first built - the oldest in Siberia, later four-meter walls with round and square towers grew around it. Now the ensemble of the Tobolsk Kremlin includes 32 objects: Gostiny Dvor, temples, bell towers and several museums. At the Governor's Palace, they will tell you everything about the history of Siberia and even treat you with Siberian gingerbread made according to old recipes. And in the "House of Masters" you can not only get acquainted with folk crafts, but also do something with your own hands.

Verkhoturye: the smallest Kremlin

The smallest Kremlin in Russia is nestled on the rocky bank of the Tura River, 300 km from Yekaterinburg. There were only two such structures in the Urals, but the wooden Cherdyn Kremlin did not survive, and in Verkhoturye, a stone one was erected on the site of a burned-out fortress. Behind the Kremlin wall with corner towers, only 2 hectares of land 300 years ago fit the bell tower of the Trinity Cathedral, the clerk's chambers, the treasury, the governor's house. In the whirlpool of history, only east wall and the five-domed cathedral connected to it, decorated with lace stucco and tiles. In the 21st century, the only Kremlin in the Urals has waited for reconstruction - walls, towers and other buildings are being restored here. Now a suspension pedestrian bridge leads to the Kremlin, and you can get inside through the arched front gate. From the bell tower of the Trinity Museum, the whole city is visible, and its history is presented in detail in local history museum- it is located in a wooden house built without a single nail.

Yoshkar-Ola: the newest Kremlin

For a long time it was believed that the construction of stone kremlins in Russia ended in the 18th century, but the authorities of the Republic of Mari El broke this stereotype. In 2009, in the center of Yoshkar-Ola, on the site of a wooden prison, the Tsarevokokshaysky Kremlin was erected - the newest and most controversial. The only monument in Russia to Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the founding father of Tsarevokokshaysk and other cities of the Volga region, was erected in the fortress. Not far from the Kremlin rises another remake - the Annunciation Tower with chimes, a copy of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, and the Annunciation Cathedral was built on the model of St. Basil's Cathedral. And that's not all: in the Mari capital there is the Bruges embankment with Flemish houses, a square in Venetian style and the small Eiffel Tower - traditions of all times and peoples are mixed in creative architecture.

Astrakhan: the southernmost Kremlin

The outpost of the Russian state on the southeastern borders was an impregnable citadel. The southernmost Kremlin of Russia was surrounded on all sides by natural barriers: the Volga and its channels. During the peasant uprising, the Astrakhan Kremlin was held by the detachments of Stepan Razin for almost a year and a half - the tsarist troops managed to occupy the fortress only after a long siege. Due to the complex terrain, the building has an unusual shape: white stone walls with towers form a triangle. The monumental ensemble of the Kremlin took shape over the centuries, and now its territory is dominated by two cathedrals built with a difference of 100 years - the Trinity and the Assumption. The buildings of the Astrakhan garrison remind of the military past of the fortress: an artillery yard with the reconstruction of siege weapons, an armory and barracks. From the observation deck of the "Red Gate" you can see the old Astrakhan and the Volga expanses, and in the ethnographic museum you can learn about the life and traditions of the peoples peacefully coexisting on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Kazan: a symbiosis of two cultures

The Kazan Kremlin is a unique building at the junction of two cultures: the turquoise minarets of Kul-Sharif rise from behind the white-stone walls erected by Pskov architects. The history of the fortress begins in the time of the Volga Bulgaria, and the stone Kremlin was built here after the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible. Now Islam and Orthodoxy, East and West, old and new coexist on the territory of the Kremlin. The oldest building is the Annunciation Cathedral, built in the Pskov style 450 years ago. The youngest is the luxurious Kul-Sharif mosque, restored for the millennium of the city. Nearby rises the legend of old Kazan - the leaning Syuyumbike tower, and the former governor's palace houses the main modern building of the Kremlin complex - the residence of the President of Tatarstan. Six Kremlin museums will show the history of the region from all sides: from fossil animals to religion and culture.

Zaraysk: stronghold of the militia

Against the background of its mighty neighbors, the Zaraisky Kremlin looks just like a toy: it is almost ten times smaller than the Kolomna, but it is the only completely preserved Kremlin in the Moscow region. A rectangular fortress with seven towers rises above a small town at the confluence of two rivers. It was built in the same style of Italian castles, and in a small area there are two cathedrals, a Sunday school and a museum. Right under the Kremlin wall there is a church garden, outside it is surrounded by private houses. But once a miniature fortress was a serious fortification, and in Time of Troubles events unfolded here that changed the course Russian history. In the Zaraisk Kremlin, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky gathered the people's militia to march on Moscow and liberate it from the Poles. We celebrate this victory to this day - November 4th.

Kolomna: twin of the Moscow Kremlin

The younger brother and a worthy rival of the Moscow Kremlin is Kolomensky. It almost did not concede to the main symbol of Russia in power and scope. Moreover, the Kolomna Kremlin repeats the Moscow one in important details: multi-tiered towers, the form of battlements and loopholes, masonry walls. Nothing surprising - it is believed that the two strongholds have one author, the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin, and he built the city fortification in Kolomna according to the capital model. The fortress protected the southern approaches to Moscow, its walls remember more than one battle, and the Assumption Cathedral was built here by decree of Dmitry Donskoy after the victory on the Kulikovo field - this temple is still active today. The Kolomna Kremlin is a real time machine: here you can wear medieval armor, shoot out ancient weapons and look for the treasure of Marina Mnishek. According to legend, the wife of two False Dmitrys was imprisoned in one of the towers, and before that she managed to hide the royal treasures somewhere in the city so that they still have not been found.

Veliky Novgorod: one of the most ancient Kremlins

According to the latest data, the wooden fortress was built in the middle of the 10th century, more than 1000 years ago. And the stone walls and towers of the citadel that we see now were rebuilt in the 15th century. The heart of the Kremlin and the symbol of Veliky Novgorod is St. Sophia Cathedral, the oldest temple in Russia. It began to be built in 1045, and literally everything here breathes history: powerful stone walls, the mysterious Magdeburg Gates, ancient icons and frescoes. And in the 19th century, the glorious past was immortalized in bronze - on the contrary Sophia Cathedral erected a monument to the Millennium of Russia. This is a multi-figure composition with statues of kings and heroes - from Prince Rurik to Alexander II. There are several more churches and museums on the territory of the Kremlin, and from the fortress walls you can see the epic Volkhov and the Trade Side.

Pskov: the most powerful Kremlin

Another contender for the title of the most ancient Kremlin is Pskov Krom. It is believed that earthen fortifications surrounded Pskov as early as the beginning of the 10th century, and stone buildings appeared in the 13th. The Kremlin stood in the center of the largest fortress in Europe, which consisted of five belts of defensive structures, each with its own walls and towers. Only the ruins of the city of Dovmont and Krom have survived to this day. In the center of the Kremlin rise the Trinity Cathedral and its bell tower with the oldest sounding set of bells in Russia. All important decisions and laws of the Pskov Republic were made on Veche square in front of the cathedral. The Kremlin was not only the spiritual and administrative center, but also the most powerful Russian fortress: it withstood 26 sieges, protecting the city from Polish troops, knights Livonian Order, Swedes and Lithuanians.

Sviyazhsk: mobile Kremlin

No walls or towers have been preserved from the wooden Sviyazhsky Kremlin, but a trace has remained in history. On the top of a mountain at the mouth of the Sviyaga River, Ivan the Terrible founded a fortified city, from which he marched on Kazan and took it. It was impossible to build powerful walls right under the nose of the enemy, so the Kremlin was assembled in the Uglich forests. Then they dismantled, numbered each log, floated down the Volga and reassembled the fortress already at its current location - in just four weeks. The only surviving building of wooden Sviyazhsk is the Trinity Church of the middle of the 16th century, from which the spread of Orthodoxy in the Volga region began. The spirit of the past is still alive today: the “Lazy Torzhok” is noisy, the blacksmith’s hammer is knocking, bread is baked in wood-burning ovens, tea is boiling in a samovar. And at the far end of the island from the entrance bridge, you can swim in the Volga.

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The Kremlin or Kremenets in Russia 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 sacred symbol representing power great country. Behind its redbrick walls are government buildings and a gigantic museum complex housing 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.

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 Russia" 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 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, decorated 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 Russian Federation, is revered by its entire population and attracts foreign tourists who want to plunge into the history of our great country.

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 towers and palaces rise above the Moscow River and form a beautiful architectural ensemble.

“Above Moscow there is the Kremlin, and above the Kremlin there is only the sky,” says the old proverb. The Kremlin is the oldest part of Moscow, currently the residence supreme bodies state power Russia and one of the main historical and artistic complexes of the country.

In plan, the Kremlin is an irregular triangle. Its southern wall faces the Moscow River, Red Square is located in the north, and Alexander Garden is in the northwest. In the XIV century, cathedrals and monasteries were already built here, the Kremlin was the center of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the XV and XVI centuries three gigantic cathedrals were erected. There is something 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 stands the largest bell in the Kremlin - the Tsar Bell; the Armory houses a wide variety of treasures, including royal crowns. In addition, there is the Amusement Palace, the Senate, which houses the office of the President.

The most famous building on Red Square is St. Basil's Cathedral, its fabulous multi-colored domes are crowned with golden crosses, and a gilded dome rises above the main tower. Near the Kremlin wall is the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin, and still people line up to walk past 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 with the Moscow River. Here was the oldest Moscow church - the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior, or the 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 Arsenal Tower was seriously damaged, and the extensions to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower were also destroyed. It took 20 years to restore. 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 air bombs fell on the Kremlin, but it almost unharmed. 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 a clumsy, ugly dressed woman.

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

Previously, there was located the most complicated medieval city with cramped uneven streets, each quarter of which contained multiple temples and chambers, courtyards and passages. The only fragment of that incredible city is in the drive along right hand from the gate is the Amusing Palace mid-seventeenth 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 mounds and hanging apple orchards, laid out on high stone terraces - the entire female half of the Sovereign's Court, which occupied the site of the current Palace of Congresses, was arranged in approximately the same outlandish way.

The Patriarchal Palace, which also has its own house church and probably also had a roof garden. Through its arch you can get to the Cathedral Square. From here, the square opens up in an old-fashioned way brightly and unexpectedly: straight ahead 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 14th century until 1918, the tomb of ancient metropolitans and patriarchs. The current building was built in the 1470s by the Italian master Aristotle. The temple is small (in architecture textbooks, a picture is popular where the silhouette of the cathedral fits into the giant outlines of the Roman St. Peter, like the youngest matryoshka), but at the same time incredibly strong and large-scale - inside and out: the Italians knew a lot about such illusions.

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

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

The Armory and the Diamond Fund are located in another part of the Kremlin, at the Borovitsky Gates, and you need to buy separate tickets in advance to see them. Unfortunately, the Kremlin Palace is closed for free access, although theoretically excursions are held in it, but on a very separate record and for separate money. The working population can only be content with an external view of the Palace of Facets - the throne room of sovereigns from the end of the 15th century, as well as a fragment of residential royal choirs visible to the right of it, 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 the Tsar Bell are also located on the territory. When mentioning the square, many people recall the saying “shout at all Ivanovskaya”, believing that it was here that the royal decrees were announced. However, there is another way to decipher this saying. The bell tower of Ivan the Great was the main Russian bell tower, it had forty bells, and each with own name. All the bells rang only in the most special occasions. So the expression "in all Ivanovskaya" means that some work must be done with all its strength and fullness.

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

The ceremony of 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 each month at 14.00 on Red Square.

And most importantly: do not miss the first shrine of the new time, the mystical oak "Cosmos", planted by Yuri Gagarin a day after the flight. Muscovites have long believed in its magical properties, remember that you too: if someone walks around a tree three times, saying “Gagarin, Gagarin, fly with greetings, return with an answer,” his children will certainly be born great cosmonauts.

By the way, the Moscow Kremlin, the main of all Kremlins, is the only one spelled with 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 territory of the Kremlin, personal belongings of visitors are searched. All unauthorized items will have to be handed over to the storage room located in the lower tier of the Kutafya Tower. Photo and video filming, including amateur photography, is prohibited in museum-cathedrals. Armory and Diamond Fund.

Construction history

Since the time of Dmitry Donskoy, Moscow has been decorated with a white stone Kremlin (built in 1368). Behind last century its walls had worn out so much that foreigners, due to the abundance of gaping bald spots that were laid with logs, happened to mistake them for wooden ones. Yes, and this Kremlin was built in those years when the Italian masters in Russia had not yet heard. Having the master Aristotle Fioravanti at the court, Ivan III could well think 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 tend to consider the true creator master plan it was Aristotle 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 separate sections. Work on the Moscow Kremlin was carried out in a way that no other fortress had ever been built in Russia. On an area with a radius of 100 fathoms, not a single building was left around. Even churches that stood there for several centuries were demolished. The area behind 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.