Kreml and red square

Once we so much have tried to conquer these places we might as well learn about them a little...

Red Square



http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/russia/redsquare/

Hundreds of years ago under the walls of the Kremlin there was a square alive with the bustle of street traders. In the XVI century it was called Trinity (Troitskaya) Square after the Holy Trinity Church which once stood here. Since the XVII century it has been known as Red (Krasnaya) Square – “red” meant ‘beautiful' in old Russian.

Red Square has always been the main square in Moscow. Occasionally the Tsar himself would make appeals to Moscow citizens from the Lobnoye Mesto or Place of the Skulls. This was where criminals were executed. Stepka Razin, the leader of one of the most famous peasant revolts in 1670, was led to his execution along the street now known as Razina Street.

After the revolution of 1917 Red Square maintained its significance. Lenin's Mausoleum was erected shortly after Lenin’s death in January 1924. Behind the Mausoleum, along the Kremlin wall are the graves and memorials of other honoured communists. The leaders of the Communist Party mounted the steps of the Mausoleum annually on November 7 to attend a military parade that marked the anniversary of the Revolution. In June 1945 Red Square was the scene for the Victory Parade, and hundreds of Nazi banners were thrown at the foot of the Mausoleum.

Behind the Mausoleum is Senate (Senatskaya) Tower built in 1491 by Pietro Solari. To the right is Nicholas (Nikolskaya) Tower named after the icon of St. Nicholas displayed on its wall in the past. The mosaic of St. Nicholas has been recently put on the wall to replace the icon that was removed during the time of the Soviet rule.

On the other side of the Mausoleum is the most recognisable Saviour (Spasskaya) Clock Tower designed by Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solary in 1491. The tent roof was added in 1625. The Tower gates, the main gates of the Kremlin, have always been treated with special honour. The icon of the Saviour was placed on the Tower wall, hence the name Spasskaya or Saviour in English. Served as the official entrance for the tsars and foreign ambassadors it’s now the main entrance used by government officials. Originally the tower clock played the melody of "God save the Tsar". After the October revolution the mechanism, damaged during the shelling of the Kremlin, was replaced to play "International". Like Big Ben in London, the chimes of Spasskaya Tower are broadcast over the radio to mark the hour. A new project is being currently developed to make the clock mechanism play the hymn of the Russian Federation. The weight of clock mechanism is about 250 tons. The diameter of each of four clock-faces equals to 6.12 m.

The Cathedral of the Holy Virgin’s Veil by the Moat (St. Basil’s Cathedral) erected in the XVI century has become an imperative decoration of the Red Square.

The Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of the Cathedral to commemorate the historic victory over the Tatars at Kazan in October 1552.

Built by Russian architects Barma and Postnik it consists of eight pillar-like chapels surrounding the tallest central chapel with a tent-roof. Each one is dedicated to one or another religious holiday. One of the chapels took its name from Basil the Blessed, a contemporary of Ivan the Terrible, a Holy Fool whose remains were interred here.

The garish colour scheme dates only from the late XVII century; the cathedral was at one time painted white with gilded domes. The interior with its maze of corridors, chapels and twisting staircases is amazing. It is now a museum.


Kremlin



Located on Borovitsky Hill on the left bank of the Moskva River the Moscow Kremlin has a fascinating eight-century history and is considered one of the most beautiful architectural ensembles in the world.

The Russian word kreml was once used to describe a fortified stronghold that encircled a small town. In 1156 the first fortified walls were built here to the order of Prince Yury Dolgoruky. In 1238 the invading Mongols burned the fortress to the ground. By 1326 new walls were built out of thick oak beams. In 1367 Prince Dmitry Donskoi replaced the wooden walls with limestone to fortify them against cannon attack. Moscow was then referred to as 'white stone city.' In 1475 Tsar Ivan III invited leading architects from Italy to assist in redesigning the fortifications.

The later history of the Kremlin is equally eventful. Burnt down in 1547 and sacked by the Tatars in 1571, it was subsequently occupied for a short time by the Polish invaders. In the XVIII century Catherine the Great intended to replace it with a new palace complex in classical style. Fortunately the project was abandoned. In 1812 Napoleon gave order for the Kremlin to be blown up. It survived to endure a final siege by the Bolsheviks at the time of the Revolution of 1917. After the Revolution the Bolsheviks government moved into the Kremlin, and one could visit its territory with a special pass. Only in 1955, shortly after Stalin's death, was the Kremlin opened as a state museum.


Twenty towers and gates and over 10 churches and palaces lie inside the Kremlin’s walls. As you enter the Trinity or Kutafya Towers the modern glass-fronted Palace of Congresses is on your right. Completed in 1961 it’s the Kremlin's most recent edifice. It was built during the days of the Khruschev administration to host Communist Party’s congresses. Sunk 45 feet (15 meters) into the ground so as not to dominate the Kremlin, the palace contains 800 rooms and its auditorium seats 6000.Today the palace is often used for ballet, opera and other performances.

The long yellow building to the left of the entrance tower was once used as the Arsenal. Peter the Great ordered to build it in 1702. After Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow the building became a trophy museum commemorating the Russian victory. 875 cannons and other trophies arrayed along its side were captured from Napoleon’s army in 1812. The Arsenal is now the headquarters of the Kremlin Guard.

The graceful classical style building with green dome is the former Senate building. Catherine the Great commissioned it to the architect Matvey Kazakov in 1787. From 1918 to 1923 Lenin lived and worked here. Today, the Senate serves as the headquarters of the Government.

The 40-ton Tsar’s Cannon cast in 1586 for feeble-minded Tsar Fyodor, a son of Ivan the Terrible, has never been fired. The decorative iron cannonballs (weighing one ton each) were cast in the XIX century.

Rising behind the cannon is the majestic three-tiered Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Built in early XVI century of bright white stone and soaring to a height of over eighty meters it was once the tallest structure in Russia (81 m) used as belfry, church and watch tower. The tower contains 21 bells, the largest of which is the Uspensky (Assumption) Bell, weighing 70 tons. The old slavonic inscription around the gilded dome notes that it was added to the belfry in 1600 by Boris Godunov.

The Tsar Bell is more 19 feet (6 m) high and weighs 189 tons. The largest bell in the world stands atop a stone pedestal. The Empress Anna ordered the bell that was cast in 1735. Two years later a large fragment broke off it during the fire when it was doused with water. After the fire the bell was returned to its casting pit. Another century passed before the bell was lifted and set in its present location. An 11-ton bit of it lies beside the bell.

In front of the Bell Tower stands the Kremlin’s main church, the Assumption Cathedral. It faces the Cathedral Square, the oldest square in Moscow where processions gathered and foreign ambassadors were received. In 1475 Ivan III (the Great) selected the Italian architect Fioravanti to design the church. Arrived from Bologna he conducted a tour of Vladimir, Pskov and Novgorod and eventually chose the Cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir as a model. The result is a near miraculous blend of Russian and Italian styles. For two centuries this national shrine stood as a sample for all Russian church architecture. Within its walls tsars were crowned. It also served as a burial place for patriarchs and metropolitans of the Orthodox Church.

Right next to the Assumption Cathedral is the smaller single-domed Church of the Deposition of the Robe. This comparatively modest structure was built by Russian craftsmen just a few years after the completion of the Cathedral of the Assumption. It was one time the private chapel of the patriarch. Now it houses a fascinating collection of wooden handicrafts.

In the small courtyard next to the church is the Terem Palace, a superb example of XVII century architecture. It was built for Tsar Mikhail Romanov, whose private chambers on the fourth floor were later occupied by his son, Alexis. Many state functions took place here and in the Hall of the Cross. Facing the bell tower is the two-story Renaissance-style Palace of Facets built by Ivan III in late XV century. It takes its name from the rusticated stone facade. The palace was used primarily for audiences and feasts. The Great Kremlin Palace, was built in the early 19th-century as Moscow residence for Nicholas I. There are 700 rooms and five elaborate reception halls. The long gold and white St. George Hall has 18 columns holding statues of Victory. The walls are lined with marble plaques with the names of heroes awarded the Order of St. George for courage. None of the three palaces of the Kremlin are open to visitors.

The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is the third main Cathedral in the Kremlin. Commissioned in 1505 by Ivan the Great to the Venetian architect Alevisio the Cathedral is a most Italian of the Kremlin's churches. With the exception of Boris Godunov (buried at the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergei in Zagorsk), the Cathedral houses the remains of the tsars from Grand Prince Ivan Kalita (1325-41) to Ivan V (1682-96). All the tombstones date from the XVII century and their bronze covers from the beginning of the XX.

The golden-domed Cathedral of the Annunciation served as the private chapel of the Tsars. It was built in 1440s on the foundation of another church. Since then it has been damaged, repaired, enlarged, and altered on numerous occasions. Forbidden by Church law to use the main entrance following his fourth marriage in 1572 Ivan the Terrible built a staircase, porch and chapel of his own, watching the services from behind a screen. The cathedral contains some of the finest works in the Kremlin. The finest in Russia iconostasis includes work by Andrey Rublev and Theophanes the Greek.

Opposite the former Senate is four-story Patriarch's Palace and his private chapel, the Church of the Twelve Apostles. Patriarch Nikon commissioned the palace in 1635. In 1721 Peter the Great gave it to the Church Council of the Holy Synod. Now it houses the Museum of XVII-century Life and Applied Art.

The Armoury is the oldest museum in the country, a storehouse of Imperial treasures accumulated from the XVI century onwards. The museum displays the unique collections of jewellery of the XII-XX centuries, West-European silver utensils of the XIII-XIX centuries (ambassador's gifts), Persian armour (XII-XIX centuries), beautifully embroidered vestments and imperial robes, carriages and sleighs. Don’t miss the Faberge eggs made for the tsar’s family each Easter!


http://www.exsytour.spb.ru/incoming/moscow/att.htm

http://www.moscowvoyage.msk.ru/en/moscow/moscow.htm

 

Very interesting Kai.

I didn't read in there (or maybe just didn't see it) that for a brief while after Stalin's death, his body was also kept by Lenin's. But it was soon removed from Red Square because of the "injustice" it did "to the great Lenin's body" because of what Stalin had done to "his" people during his rise/consolidation of power and his reign.

IL DUCE

 

Great stuff KAi.

Also did you know: That the first American-made movie to be allowed to be filmed in Red Square was: Red Heat W/ Arnold Schwarzenegger & Jim Belushi.

THE reason they were allowed to film there was because the Hero of the film was a Russian Hero. ((Schwarzenegger))

Also: Arnold spent two monthe learning Russian for his role in the film and--they were only allowed to film the Red Squars scenes with one camera.

 

Thanx Carl!

I´ve seen the film a couple of times and liked it as well. But I had not realized it was the first one by the Americans there!

Was the "Reds" done in Helsinki alone for the parts in Moscow? I guess so. ( Warren Beatty etc 1980´s )

 

I hope I can visit Moscow some day. Must be a very pretty place.

 

I bet it is much better now. I was there in the late 80's as part of the SALT II diplomatic team. Not much site seeing as we were always escorted by GRU guards to and from the meetings. I bet there are more vehicles and toursists.

 

Quite welcome Kai.

I've always had a fascination for those famous Onion-domed roofs--I love that archetechure and craftmanship put into these Imperial Russian Buildings.

I wonder if there are any pictures floating around of that famous Amber Room?

Kai--BTW--I don't know where Reds was filmed--I only watched a few minutes of that movie. Helsinki sounds correct and maybe Budapest?

PzJgr--I envy you--I would have loved to be there just to experiance what life was like at that time. About 20 years ago--someone from my hometown spendt two weeks in Moscow as an assignment from the towns local newspaper. The reporter stated that the streets were always well sweapt and clean. He reported that if a person dropped a cigarette butt or some other kind of small trash item--that there was always someone there to sweep it or pick it up.

I don't remember much more about this reporters stay in moscow, but he talked about the food--the people he had met. Also talked about catching the flu and spending a few days in bed in his hotel room. Also talked about the delicasies he was served at the hotel when the average Russian citizen made do without any or many such luxeries.

 

Same experience. Though we did not have much contact with the Moscowvites. It was freezing cold(you know how it is here in Texas) but I did get a Soviet Officer's Peaked Cap, a Soviet camo jacket, a fur cap and bought some binoculars at the store (forgot the name) where foreigners can purchase Soviet made products. these are cool because it says in english, Made in USSR. I exchanged my camo jacket, some gum, cigarettes and my electric shaver for the other stuff.

[ 03. March 2003, 05:32 PM: Message edited by: PzJgr ]

 

The coldest ive even been was when my family and I spent Christmas vacation at Cloudcroft, New Mexico. My first and only experiance being in the snow. I remember how cold my feet got when being outside for awhile--almost a numbing cold.

I also remember slipping on patches of ice nore often than not. I tried my attempt at Iceskating. After about an hour of struggeling to skate--I finally got a bit the hang of it and made several more laps around on the frozen pond. Everyone else were sitting around the open fires with their feet stuck into the fire trying to thaw em out. I had to do the same.

I never had so much fun playing in the snow and cold all day but, I was sure glad to get back to out log cabin and warm up a bit before just soaking in a tub of hot water.

Heh--I even remembered what we watched on TV that night--we watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Fred MacMurray. This was 29-30 years ago.

 

I read this post earlier in the day Kai and it's some good stuff. I agree that you always make very interesting and informative posts.

Greg

 

I've been there once. Really cool, especially seeing Lenin. It looks like he is sleeping. My mom told me that during the Soviet times you would have to wait for hours just to see him. Now it's open for few hours during the morning and you can't take pictures or anything. Really nice. Also, next to Kreml there is a shopping mall, its very famous.

I would recommend everyone to visit!

 

Err….Kai,the picture of Red Square is very nice, but it ain’t Red Square

Technically I don’t know what it’s called, but generally it’s the coach park behind St. Basil’s where they form-up for the May Day Parades

In your picture, if you were to walk up the hill, there’d be St. Basil’s on your right and part of the Kremlin wall on your left. Walk in front of St. Basil’s, you’ll see Red Square in front of you, like

On you right is what looks like a department store which is what it now is, with some cafes serving out onto the square. The ‘department store’ is a collection of ‘shop-in-shops’ selling western goods at western prices or higher – i.e. take a look but pointless to buy.

If you look left you see more of the Kremlin wall and Lenin’s Tomb, as in

You can go in the tomb and see a waxy Lenin if you wish. Really impressive, I think, is to watch the changing of the guard. The guards leave the guard room (which is in the tower immediately adjacent St. Basil’s in the Kremlin wall) and march in full ‘goose-step’ and perfect timing. They leave the guard room at precise time to the second, then march in measured and timed steps to relieve the guards on the tomb. When at the tomb the exchange is also timed to the second so that the change is effected on the precise strike of the square clock. Literally this MUST be on the last stroke. Therefore, they MUST leave the guard room at the precise second as they cannot make-up or loose one second. I am personally a great fan of precision drill and you won’t find better than this anywhere.

Now, if you walk straight across the square to the red brick building at the end, and turn round, this is the square you see.

To exit the square to the main road, (left for MacDonalds and right for the CIA listening post/American Express Office which is across from the KGB building ), turn round and pass right or left at the sides of this red brick building. There’s also an underground walk-way and subway entrance where people sell old coins, medals, badges, whatever for next to nothing in US dollars.

No.9

[ 03. March 2003, 10:43 PM: Message edited by: No.9 ]

 

Thanx No.9!

So that was THE famous coach park...!!

All right, actually I thought the Red Square was about everything around St. Basil’s, so thanx for the correction.Unfortunately never been there but hopefully one day!

 

Well, maybe technically it is all ‘Red Square’, even though it’s not square and slopes away down hill??? The parades shown on film are on the flat bit in front of Lenin’s waxworks – sorry, tomb. Something strange, optically, is St. Basil’s. When you enter the square from the High Street end, opposite St. Basil’s, the cathedral looks enormous. As you walk across the square towards it, it doesn’t appear to get larger the closer you get. When you’re ¾’s way across you appreciate it’s not massive at all! Quite a homely large church really, with many great features, but massive it ain’t.

I’ve heard St. Petersburg is well worth a visit, but you need ‘minders’ to walk about , (a bit like Peckham, South London, really?)

No.9

 

Thank you very much, Kai and No.9! Really amazing pictures and stories!

Definately Moscow is one of the most beautiful cities there are, art and architechture are very special because they are not Asian nor European. They're RUSSIAN! That is what's most beautiful about Russian culture, it all is UNIQUE!

And the Red Square, I think would have looked very very nice with some Wehrmacht division with marshal Von Bock in the front parading in October 1941...

 

A tale from Soviet Central. Along one wide avenue leading to the square is a huge silver statue on top of a high column. I’m riding in the back of a car with two Muscovites in the front.

One said; “You know man in statue?”

By what the figure was wearing and holding it wasn’t hard to work out. I replied; “Uri Gagarin, the first man in space”. This set the pair laughing and me wondering why?

Eventually one said; “No, is not first man in space. Is first man in space to come back alive!”

Apparently what the west secretly suspected was common knowledge out there!

No.9

 

Does anyone know what that style of archetechure is called--for the onion-shaped domes? or when they were first built?

 

Here’s some info Carl. Unfortunately the site the text came from has faults so I’ve resorted to the lengthy post below from the one successful hit I made.

No.9


"Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, 16th century, built by master builders Barma and Posnik

On the south side of Red Square the multi-coloured cupolas of the Cathedral of the Intercession, better known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, a wonderful creation of Old Russian architecture, rise high picturesquely. It was built as a monument to a major turning point in Russian history, the defeat of the Kazan Khanate (1552-1554). After each major victory, a small wooden church was erected near the Trinity Church which already stood here, in honour of the saint on whose feast day the victory was won. Thus, by the end of the war, there were eight churches on this site. After the final victory, Ivan the Terrible, on the advice of Metropolitan Makary, ordered stone churches to be built in place of the wooden ones.

Barma and Posnik, the master builders commissioned by the czar to do the job (there are reasons to assume that they were, in fact, one person), however, created a monument whose composition has no parallel in the entire history of world architecture. They built eight pillar-like churches on a single foundation, placed symmetrically round the ninth, central pillar crowned with a tent-like roof, which is the tallest and architecturally the most complex. The central church was dedicated to the Feast of the Intercession of Our Lady, celebrated on October I, the day when the walls of Kazan were blown up and the city was taken by assault. That is why the entire cathedral was named the Cathedral of the Intercession. Construction which employed bricks, a relatively new building material at the time, lasted from 1555 to 1561. The foundation, the base and some of the decorative elements were made of white stone. The cathedral is striking in the diversity of its architectural forms and the flights of imagination displayed by its creators: each of the cathedral's pillars differs from the others. Until the additions made to the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, it was the tallest structure in Moscow and from the moment of its appearance it became the most popular church in town.

From the very beginning the cathedral had no clearly defined main facade. The building was intended to be seen from all sides and to be walked around both on the outside and on the inside. In contrast to the monumental outward appearance, the interiors create an impression of a narrow labyrinth interrupted by the vertical inner spaces of the pillar churches. The biggest of them, the pillar of the Church of the Intercession (height, 46 meters above floor level), has an inside floor area of 64 square metros.

The cathedral retained its original shape until 1588, when a tenth church was added over the grave of Vasili (Basil) the Blessed, a Jester of the Lord well-known in Moscow at the time, on the north-west side. Ever since, the Cathedral of the Intercession has been known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed.

During restoration work in 1954-1955, when part of the brick facing of the walls eroded by the wind was replaced, a system which had made it possible to erect such a complex building without graphic drawings, formerly unknown in Russian architecture, was uncovered. All the walls of the building are pierced with wooden constructions which acted as a sort of "spatial drawing". The rather slender beams joined together both horizontally and vertically were used to outline the silhouette of the future building before bricklaying was started and to indicate the size and position of all its architectural and decorative elements. The cathedral has become an integral part of the ensemble of Red Square and one of its most vivid adornments."

 

These are very unique buildings. The guy who was behind the project was killed so nobody would copy the Red Square design.

Majority of Churches and rich places in Russia have similar designs, except they only have one color WHITE.


If you want to see something really nice you should check out a new Russian Church in Moscow. I've seen it, but don't know the name of it. The roof is made of gold and it looks really nice.

 

Well, Carl. The architechtural style is simply RUSSIAN. Russia has always been a country with everything 'backwards' or made in their own way. Russian style for every kind of Art and cultural thing is not Asian, nor European. It's RUSSIAN!!! Maybe we can catalogue Saint Bassil's Cathedral as Russian cinquecento or Russian reinassence, because it would be the Russian counterpart of reinassence. Although, it is very Russian, odd and unique.

This applies for everything else; you should remember that comopared with other Eastern Europe nations Russia had a different alphabet, a different calendar, a different kind of architecture, different kind of Art, different kind of opera and music, different railroad size, different social classes, etc., etc. We would never end pointing out all the differences and peculiarities of the great Russia.