Text/Mu Mu
Photo: Review - crab yellow rice, production - seven
Cover image: One Map Network
Body photos (pictures) unless noted: all from the author
Standing on the east side of the Cathedral of the Christian Savior in Moscow, bending the Moskva River, looking north, on the high Borovetsky Hill, there is a complex of buildings with bright colors and unique styles. This complex is the largest and oldest palace complex in the world, the Moscow Kremlin.
Moscow River with the Kremlin
Photo: Baturina Yuliya/Shutterstock
▾
More than a thousand years ago, a pine forest grew on the Bolovetsky Hill, and this land came under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Suzdal, and in 1156, the Grand Duke of Suzdal, Yuri (nicknamed "Long Arm", 1090-1157), built a small wooden castle on the Borovetsky Hill, which was the prototype of the Moscow Kremlin. With the establishment of the castle, there are more and more houses around it, and the city is gradually formed.
Long-armed Yuri first built the Moscow Kremlin
Russian painter Apollinari Mikhailovich
Works by Vasnetsov
Figure: russian7.ru
By the 13th century, Moscow had become an independent small principality, and the princes of this small principality had expanded their territory and gradually became stronger. Around 1320, Ivan I (Ivan I Danilovich, 1283 or 1288-1340 or 1341, nicknamed "Money Bag") began to build the Kremlin out of hard old oak, and built towering towers on the city walls, and built stone churches and palaces within the walls, and the Kremlin became the center of the Muscovite principality and the residence of the Muscovite princes and nobles of the time.
The wooden Kremlin from the time of Ivan I
Figure: moscovery.com
In 1367, during the reign of Grand Duke Dmitry Ivanovich (1350-1389), due to repeated fires in wooden buildings, he rebuilt the Kremlin with stone, and the white stone wall turned the Moscow Kremlin into a real fortress, and from then on, Moscow was known as White Rock.
The White Rock Kremlin in Moscow during the Dmitry period
More than a hundred years later, during the reign of Ivan III (Ivan III Vasilievich, 1440-1505), the white stone walls of the Moscow Kremlin were severely damaged, and Ivan III invited Italian architects to participate in the design and began to rebuild the Moscow Kremlin with red bricks. At the same time, in order to prevent further fires, he ordered the demolition of all buildings within about two hundred meters of the east side of the Kremlin, and the vacant land formed what became Red Square.
The Moscow Kremlin during ivan III
Figure: mystudios.com
Today, we see the walls of the Moscow Kremlin, built during the time of Ivan III and are more than 500 years old.
Today's Moscow Kremlin walls
Pictured: Sailorr/Shutterstock
Map of the Moscow Kremlin
Figure: Google map
The kremlin's tower
▼
The entrance to the Moscow Kremlin is the Kutafya tower outside the Western Wall.
The Moscow Kremlin is triangular in shape, with walls of about 2,000 meters in total length, connected by 21 towers (one of which has been destroyed), all of which were built on the walls except for the Kutafia Tower. Located at the three corners of the "triangle", there are circular towers, and the rest are square towers.
Floor plan of the Moscow Kremlin
Of the 19 towers on the walls of the palace, five of the larger – the Sbasque Tower, the Nikolai Tower, the Troitsk Tower, the Borovetsky Tower and the Vodovswold Tower – have a huge ruby five-star, and there is a lighting system inside, which shines red day and night, implying that the red star will always shine on Moscow. The red five stars on the Spasskaya Tower are the biggest and brightest of them, which is often referred to as the "red star of the Kremlin".
The tower of the Moscow Kremlin
Pictured: Sergey Dzyuba/Shutterstock
Tower Red Star
Pictured: Ekaterina Bykova/Shutterstock
Built in 1516 and located outside the city walls, kutafia tower is a white tower without a spire that serves as the entrance for visitors to the Kremlin.
Kutafia Tower
Pictured: VladFotoMag/Shutterstock
Stepping out of Kutafia Tower is a long bridge, under which is the moat of the past, and at the other end of the bridge is the Troitsk tower, the Tower of the Holy Trinity, or Trinity Tower for short. Built in 1495, it is 80 meters high and has a red five-star at the top, making it the tallest tower in the Moscow Kremlin.
Troitsk Tower
Photo: THANAN KONGDOUNG /Shutterstock
After entering the Kremlin from the Trinity Tower, the yellow-and-white building on the left is the Armoury, which is used to house ancient weapons and the spoils of past wars. When Napoleon withdrew from Russia, the iron cannons captured by the Russians were also stored here.
Troitsk Tower and Armory
Photo: Karachev Yuriy/Shutterstock
Opposite the armory is a rectangular modern building, somewhat out of place with the old Kremlin, the Kremlin Assembly Hall (also known as the Duma Building), built by the Soviet Union in 1961 and later renamed the "National Kremlin". In 1990, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square were inscribed on the World Heritage List, however, the Great Hall was excluded due to inconsistencies with other ancient architectural styles within the Kremlin.
State Kremlin
Pictured: Popova Valeriya/Shutterstock
Grand Kremlin
Next to the Great Hall is the magnificent Grand Kremlin Palace, the royal palace where Russia's tsars lived. The palace is rectangular, with an area of about 25,000 square meters and a courtyard inside. The early Grand Kremlin was destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars in 1812 and rebuilt on the site during Tsar Nicholas I (Nicholas I Pavlovich, 1796–1855).
Figure: rbth.com
The main building of the Grand Kremlin, facing the Moskva River, has a copper dome in the middle that rises above the main building, with flagpoles on which the flag is raised during festivals.
The main palace of the Grand Kremlin
Photo: Volkova natalia/Shutterstock
The Interior of the Grand Kremlin is spacious and lavishly decorated, including the Tsar's private palace, the Palace of Trem, the Palace of dolegs, etc., and is most famous for its five halls on the second floor, each named after a Tsar.
St George's Hall is an imposing white hall with murals of the Russian War. On the oval dome of the hall, there are six huge bronze chandeliers, and the whole hall is solemn and solemn, like a temple. Today, St. George's Hall is the place where the Russian government holds a welcoming ceremony.
St. George's Hall
Pictured: ID1974/Shutterstock
Next to St. George's Hall is Alexander's Hall. The interior of Alexander Hall is vast, with walls of pale pink marble covered with exquisite gold reliefs. Today's Alexander Hall is mainly used for receptions and banquets of the Russian government.
Alexander Hall
On the west side of Alexander Hall is St Andrew's Hall. St. Andrew's Hall is the coronation of the Tsar of the past, and the inauguration of the current Russian president is also held here. St. Andrew's Hall is decorated in blue and gold, and is gorgeous and noble, and there are various exquisite coats of arms in the hall.
St. Andrew's Hall
Catherine Hall, also known as St Catherine's Hall, used to be the place where the Tsar gave important speeches, and it was also the Queen's Throne Hall. Today, this is where the Russian government welcomes foreign delegations and diplomats.
Catherine Hall
St. Vladimir'Hall has a beautiful tall dome, and there are many jewel-encrusted medals in the hall, so it is also called the Hall of the Order of St. Vladimir. The hall is decorated in white and gold tones, which are gorgeous yet elegant.
Hall of St. Vladimir
Figure: wallpapers13.com
Located in the western part of the Grand Kremlin, Terem Palace was the living place of the former royals, including the Tsar's bedroom, dining room, reception room, guest room, etc.
Trem Palace
Figure: kremlin-architectural-ensemble.kreml.ru
Tsar's private room
Church Square complex
The Church Square complex is located in the heart of the Kremlin and includes the "Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin" for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the "Cathedral of the Archangel" dedicated to the Archangel Michael, the "Cathedral of the Annunciation" for the baptism and marriage of the descendants of the Royal Family, the "Palace of the Patriarch" and the Church of the Twelve Apostles, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great.
The Cathedral of the Assumption was first built during the reign of Ivan I and was destroyed in an earthquake in 1474. Today's Cathedral of the Assumption was designed and rebuilt by An italian architect during the reign of Ivan III. The Assumption Cathedral was built to commemorate the Assumption Day and is the most important Orthodox church in Russia.
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Photo: Elena Koromyslova/Shutterstock
The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary has five golden domes, and in the past, in this church the appointment of the new Archduke, the appointment of the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, the reading of state decrees, etc. It is also the burial place of the Patriarch and Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church.
Frescoes in the interior of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Figure: assumption-cathedral.kreml.ru
Pictured: Viacheslav Lopatin/Shutterstock
The predecessor of the Cathedral of the Archangel, the White Stone Church built during the time of Ivan I, was dedicated to the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of the Grand Dukes, who would come here to pray before the war. The current Basilica of the Archangel was built by Italian architects in 1508.
Cathedral of the Archangel
The Archangel Cathedral is also the family mausoleum of the Grand Duke of Moscow, where successive Moscow Grand Dukes and Russian Tsars have rested here after their deaths, including the famous "Money Bag Ivan I", "Dmitry of the Don", "Ivan the Terrible" and so on.
Frescoes in the Cathedral of archangels
图：Alexander Bayburov / Shutterstock
Presidential Residence. On the other side of the church square is a classical yellow and white building, built in the 18th century, called the Privy Council Palace, or Senate, in the Tsarist era. In the 19th century, it was a government office building and is now the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.
Presidential Residence
Photo: FotograFFF/Shutterstock
Above this building, there is a huge dome, which in the past had a statue of St. George. After the October Revolution, a Soviet flag was raised from the dome. On December 25, 1991, the flag of the Soviet Union was lowered and the flag of the Russian Federation was raised.
Senate Building
Not far from the presidential residence is the famous Sbasque Tower, also known as the Christ the Redeemer Tower, topped by the Kremlin's brightest ruby five-star. The tower is surrounded by a huge clock, and it is from here that the Russian New Year bell rings. The tower serves as a thoroughfare for Russian presidents, dignitaries and dignitaries of the Kremlin, and it also allows ordinary visitors to pass through. After visiting the entire Kremlin, it's just right to get out of here.
Sbasque Tower
The Kremlin that once "disappeared"
In the history of the Moscow Kremlin, there has been a bizarre thing, that is, during World War II, this huge palace complex inexplicably evaporated. Hitler had sent a large number of bombers to bomb the Kremlin, but after reaching the skies over Moscow, he could not find the target at all, and the great Kremlin magically disappeared. The German planes had to be bombed indiscriminately and without success.
However, when World War II ended, the Moscow Kremlin miraculously reappeared and was intact.
It turned out that during the war, in order to prevent the bombing of German aircraft, the Moscow Kremlin carried out elaborate camouflage. In order to prevent the enemy from finding the target, the red five stars on the tower were extinguished and covered. The golden cross on the top of the church was also sheathed, while the tall towers were covered with huge sacks.
On the streets of Moscow after the outbreak,
Camouflaged small buildings painted on the facades of large buildings are clearly visible
Figure: Network
The buildings below the distance are painted with different patches of zonal color,
to confuse the Luftwaffe
The walls of the Kremlin, also painted in a variety of different colors, used to "cut" the long walls into many small buildings.
In addition, since the buildings of the Kremlin are mostly bright yellow and green, and the buildings in Moscow are mainly reddish-brown, the roofs of all the buildings in the Kremlin are painted with the same color as the urban buildings, making the Kremlin and the whole city mixed together and difficult to distinguish.
Even the ground inside the Kremlin was camouflaged. From the Borovetsky Tower to the Sbasque Tower, first paved with stones, then covered with a layer of sand, disguised as a large road, from the plane down, like an ordinary city street.
Lenin's Tomb outside the Kremlin walls is directly covered with a huge wooden model of a building, which, from the air, is an ordinary building.
Work to cover up the construction of the Kremlin
These sacks, colours, and wooden models of camouflage, which appear childish and amusing in the face of modern high-precision weapons, saved the Kremlin during the war. This unique ancient palace complex has been preserved to this day.
The Moscow Kremlin has a history of nearly a thousand years, and its strong walls and towers, ancient churches and palaces, towering high on the banks of the Moscow River, constitute a magnificent medieval complex.
The Russian proverb describes the Moscow Kremlin as follows: "On the land of Moscow, only the Kremlin is seen towering; on the Kremlin, only the sky is far away." ”
END
This content is provided by the author and does not represent the position of Circumnavigating planets.
Without permission, please contact the background.