_The Kremlin_
"The Kremlin is our Sanctuary and our Fortress; the source of our
strength and the treasury of our Holy Faith."
VIAZEMSKI.
Russians very rightly regard the Kremlin as their Holy of Holies. All
that Moscow is to Russia, the Kremlin is to Moscow. Nowhere else are so
many and diverse relics grouped in so small a space; no place of its
size is so rich in historical associations. It contains what is best
worth seeing in Russia, it is what is best worth knowing. The people
know this; know that--as their poet Medich tersely expresses its
value--"Here it is that the great Russian eagle raised its eyrie and
spread its immense protecting wings over an enormous empire." To the
antiquary, of beauty, to the tourist in search of distraction, the
Kremlin is equally attractive. To see it to best advantage, all who
visit Moscow for the first time should make the tour outside the walls
before entering by any one of its five practicable gates; or, if the
complete circuit--some two miles--cannot conveniently be made then,
instead of entering by the nearest gate from the Kitai Gorod, let the
hurried visitor at least drive across the Moskvoretski Bridge, along the
quay on the south side of the river, and, returning by the Kammeny Most,
make an entrance by either the Borovitski or the Troitski Gate.
The exact position of the wall of white stone, built in the reign of
Dmitri Donskoi (1367), is unknown; in all probability it was within the
space at present enclosed. The wall of burnt tiles, erected during the
reign of Ivan III., was the work of Aleviso Fioraventi, an Italian
architect; but a few years later, between 1485 and 1492, the present
wall was raised on the foundations of the old one, in part by Italian
workmen, in part by native artisans. This wall, repaired from time to
time, has escaped all the fires and disasters which wrought such havoc
elsewhere in the Kremlin; but in its original state consisted of three
distinct parapets, set back and rising above each other over the ditch,
much as the tiers of the old towers still remaining. The wall, the
inmost of the three, is of an exaggerated Italian style, the battlements
unnecessarily deep. The towers and gates are various: some as the
Spasski and Troitski, Gothic; some as the Borovitski and the Gun Towers,
Russian; others bastard and nondescript. The Borovitski, Tainitski, and
the similar smaller square pyramidal towers, are clearly copies of the
older wooden erections on the earlier walls. The design is that of
carpenters, not of masons. The green tiles are the original covering;
the secret of making them has been lost. For centuries the wall was
painted white, the present brick colour is an innovation.
[Illustration: KREMLIN--RAMPART AND GUN TOWER]
An early writer states that "the wall is two miles about, and it hath
sixteen gates and as many bulwarks." It is better to be precise. The
length of the wall is 1 mile 700 yards, and it follows exactly the
contour and windings of the hill, forming an irregular triangle; the
thickness varies from 14 to 20 feet, the height from 30 to 70 feet.
Throughout the entire length there is a rampart 9 feet wide and a low
parapet on the inner side. This walk is paved with stone flags, and is
reached from any of the towers and by special stairways within the wall.
The Borovitski Gate, surmounted by a tower 200 feet high (see page 299),
preserves the name of the forest (Bor), with which the hill was long ago
covered, its official name is the Prechistenka Gate; here all that
remains of the old church of the Nativity of St John the Baptist is
conserved in the chapel on the right of the gate in entering. In the
second storey is the Royal Chapel of St John, one of the ten churches of
the palace; in it a service is held once a year, to which worshippers
are summoned by ringing the bells on the third storey of the tower. By
this gate the Tsars left the Kremlin on other than state occasions, by
it Napoleon's troops entered.
Turning towards the river, the round tower at the corner of the wall was
used at one time as a water reservoir for the palace gardens. Peter the
Great had need of all the lead he possessed when building his new
capital on the Neva, and the tower was then dismantled. It suffered from
the mines exploded by the French in 1812; in 1856 it was used to store
certain valuables removed from St Petersburg.
The first tower eastward from the "Chateau d'Eau" is the old granary,
"Jitny Dvor," now used by the priest of the adjoining church of the
Annunciation. According to the legend on the wall at this point a vision
of the Annunciation was seen; to commemorate which this church was
built.
The next tower is over the Tainitski or "Secret" Gate, a postern leading
to the river, now practicable for pedestrians only. On this spot there
has been a gate ever since the Kremlin was first enclosed; it was at one
time used for the procession of January 6, on its way to the river, but
"The Blessing of the Water" is now performed from the New Cathedral of
our Saviour.
The wall then runs eastward as far as the round tower near the
Moskvoretski Bridge, then turns north as far as the Spasski Gate. The
corner comprised within this length of the wall and a straight line from
the Tainitski to the Spasski Gate is full of story. The first two towers
have now no name; the next is that of the Metropolitan Peter; after the
corner tower, the first is that of Constantine and Helen, the next the
Tsarina's tower, then comes the small open tower in the wall itself and
quite close to the Spasski Tower. It was at this corner, at first within
the Kremlin itself, later outside on the Grand Place that the public
executions took place. The wall here has prison cells within its vaulted
arches, dungeons are beneath the towers, the corner tower once an
oubliette, is still supposed to have the remains of the iron blades and
spikes, upon which the prisoners fell, projecting from its walls; in the
tower of Constantine and Helen were the instruments of torture used to
extort confessions, and the church of the same name is that to which the
accused were taken to make their oath before being led to the rack or
cast into some secret dungeon. The Tsarina's Tower, now a dwelling and
storehouse, has no pleasant history; the small tower in which once hung
the great bell brought from Novgorod is popularly believed to have been
constructed by Ivan Groznoi to afford him a better view of the
executions, but, if authorities may be believed, on such occasions he
more often figured as an actor than an onlooker. However this may be,
it is undoubtedly the truth that of this portion of the Kremlin much
that is interesting will some day be written. Sneguirev and other
writers are content to describe it in very general terms; Fabricius, who
for eight years was employed in the Kremlin and knows it more thoroughly
than most men, in his monumental work on the Kremlin, scamps this
section, although giving minute details respecting other towers and
portions of the wall. It is not accessible to the public, and special
permission from the commandant of the fortress is now required before
admission is given to the rampart walk.
The Spasski (Redeemer) Gate, constructed in the reign of Ivan III.
(1491), by Peter Antonio Solarius of Milan, was at first known as the
Florovski gate from a church dedicated to St Florus in its vicinity. It
bears the following inscription:--
"Johannes Vassilii Dei gratia magnus Dux Volodomiræ, Moscoviæ.
Novoguardiæ, Iferiæ, Plescoviæ, Veticiæ, Ougariæ, Permiæ, Volgariæ
et aliarum totiusque Roxiæ dominus: anno 30 imperii sui has turres
condere jussit, et statuit Petrus Solarius Mediolanensis, anno
nativitatis Domini 1491."
When the church of the Holy Trinity was built this gate took the name of
the "Jerusalem Gate," because the Palm Sunday procession passed beneath
it. In 1626 during the reign of the Tsar Mikhail Theodorovich,
Christopher Galloway, an English clockmaker, constructed the spire and
placed therein a striking clock, which, however, was subsequently
removed. After various changes, in 1737 the Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna
caused the one now in use to be placed there. The building itself is
formed of thick double walls, between which are passages and staircases
of wood and stone; brick buttresses connect the walls and support the
upper storeys. The second is the clock tower; the third of octagonal
form, has eight arches on which the spire is carried. Over the entrance
is the miraculous ikon of the Redeemer, brought back from Smolensk by
the Tsar Alexis in 1647. It is to this picture that the orthodox
attribute the raising of the siege of Moscow by the Tartars under
Makhmet-Ghiree in 1526; it is still held in great veneration, and it is
customary for all to uncover whilst passing through the gate. Formerly
an omission to do so was punished with two score and half compulsory
prostrations. The Redeemer Gate is the state entrance to the Kremlin; by
it the Tsars entered and left on all important occasions. Ivan III.
passed through after quelling the revolt at Nijni Novgorod; Ivan
"Groznoi" after taking Kazan; Vasili Shooiski after the delivery of
Moscow from the Poles; here the people went to meet the young Tsar
Michael Romanof after his election. The remains of Shooiski were brought
through this gate, and by it passed the funeral processions of the Tsars
Peter II., Alexander I. and Alexander II. Since the eighteenth century
the Tsars have made their state entry to the Kremlin for the coronation
by the Redeemer Gate. Criminals executed near the Lobnoe Mesto
addressed their last prayers to the ikon above its portal; near it the
"hundreds" of Streltsi were executed by order of Peter the Great, and in
his reign the heterodox who refused to shave their heads paid a fine on
passing it. The French tried to blow up the gate with gunpowder, but it
was saved by the timely intervention of the Cossacks.
The Nikolski Gate on the north-east was also built by Peter Solarius,
but has been several times restored, having suffered by fire and from
other disasters. Tokhtamysh entered the Kremlin by this gate; so did the
troops of Sigismund III., and it was here that Edigei most strongly
assaulted the Kremlin, here that the Krim-Tartars ineffectually tried to
gain an entrance in 1551, and here that the battle raged between the
Poles and Russians for the possession of Moscow. Like the Spasski Gate
it also has its miraculous ikon. It is a mosaic of St Nicholas of
Mojaisk. "The dread of perjurers and the comfort of those in pain,"
before it litigants made their solemn oaths preliminary to the hearing
of the cause. The inscription upon it records how, when the French
attempted to blow it up, the ikon escaped destruction.
"In the year 1812, during the time of the invasion by the enemy
almost the whole of this strong tower was demolished by the
explosion of a mine; but, by the wonderful power of God, the holy
image of the greatly favoured by God, here designed, and, not only
the image, but the pane of glass covering it, as also the lantern
with the candle, remained uninjured.
"Who is greater than God, our God? Thou art the God, the marvellous
God, who doest miracles by Thy saints."
This gate is the most generally used entrance to the Kremlin, and in the
tower above the law archives of the town are now stored.
Northward from the Nikolski gate there is an abrupt descent to the
corner tower--which is polygonal, not round like the others--for here is
the old bed of the river Neglinnaia. Formerly the stream was dammed up
near its junction with the Moskva so as to constitute an impassable
moat, and thus protect the western side of the Kremlin. Nevertheless the
wall is continued at the same height for its whole length. The arsenal,
a commonplace building, extends from the corner tower to the Troitski
gate, the monotony of its dreary line broken by two characteristic
gun-towers on the wall. In the Alexander Gardens, outside the Kremlin,
arches and rough masonry may be seen, and possibly mistaken for a part
of the foundations of the Kremlin wall; they are only decorations
dating from the Exhibition held there in 1872.
The Troitski (Trinity) Gate was constructed to give access to the
palaces in the Kremlin from the suburb on the other side of the
Neglinnaia, in the seventeenth century occupied almost entirely by Court
servants and artisans. Towards the close of the eighteenth century this
quarter was a slum, the chief haunt of the robbers and desperadoes of
Moscow; thence came the men who fired the city during the French
occupation. The tower over the gate, in the Gothic style, was added by
Galloway early in the seventeenth century and has been twice restored;
the rooms in it are now used by the staff in charge of the old archives
stored in the various towers of the Kremlin. The bridge is protected by
a barbican, the Kutaïfa, a large white tower of original design, the
work of Italians, about 1500, battlemented and once furnished with gates
and portcullis. The French entered and left the Kremlin by this route.
It is the only gate in the Kremlin without a chapel, the church of the
Trinity once adjoining having been demolished.
[Illustration: BELVEDERE OF PLEASURE PALACE]
About midway along the wall between the Troitski and Borovitski gates
appear the bright-coloured roofs and gables of an old Russian house, the
Potieshni Dvorets, whose striking architecture, together with that of
the characteristic smaller towers on the walls, relieves the ugliness of
the service buildings on the left and the heavy façade of the Treasury
building on the right. This side of the Kremlin should be seen from the
far side of the gardens, or from the street beyond.
The best view of the Kremlin is that seen from the south end of the
Moskvoretski bridge (see page 13.) The balconies of the Hotel Kokoref
command the same view, one which reveals at a glance more that is
characteristic of Moscow than even the bird's-eye view from the dome of
Ivan Veliki. In the foreground the river and quays; beyond, the walls of
the Kremlin with towers in all styles; the fantastic pinnacles of Vasili
Blajenni; the blunted spires of the Vossnesenski convent, behind which
rise the gilded domes of the Chudov church and the great cupola of the
hall of St Catherine in the Senate. Beyond the striking Alexander
memorial rises the belfry of Ivan Veliki, and around it cluster the
gilded and gay-coloured domes of the cathedrals, then, further to the
left, the long façade of the Palace, the pyramidal tower of the
Borovitski gate, and, apparently near by, the huge golden dome of the
new Cathedral. (See page 299.)
Entering the Kremlin by the Nikolski gate, to the right is the arsenal,
to the left the Senate (Law Courts), reaching the transverse route from
the Troitski gate, the barracks are in front, the buildings of the
service corps to the right, the Chudov monastery to the left; continuing
straight on, a large open space is reached; then on the left is the
smaller palace, on the far side of the square is the Alexander memorial;
close by, on the right, the Synod, then, railed off, the Sobornia
Ploshchad with the cathedrals and beyond them the Grand Palace. In the
centre rises Ivan Veliki tower which serves as belfry for all the
cathedrals.
The cathedrals are, for the most part, described in detail in "Moscow of
the Ecclesiastics"; the palaces in the chapter on "Moscow of the
Tsars," and the Chudov and Vossnesenski monasteries in chapter xii.;
here the other buildings and sights of the Kremlin may be mentioned.
First and foremost to treat of Ivan Veliki; of Moscow and its bells.
According to tradition the tall bell tower has a very ancient origin but
as a matter of fact it was constructed at the close of the sixteenth
century to find employment for a starving population. Its foundations
are on a level with the river bed, 120 feet below the surface; its
height above is 320 feet, built in five storeys, the first four
octagonal, the topmost cylindrical. In the eighteenth century it was
considered one of the wonders of the world, and to this day the orthodox
invariably cross themselves when passing it. Dedicated to St John and
containing in the basement a chapel to the same saint, it is supposed to
owe its name to this, but tradition states that it was constructed by
one John (Ivan) Viliers whose patronymic has been corrupted into
Veliki--that is, "great" or "big."
There are 450 steps to the gallery under the cupola, whereon is an
inscription of which the following is a translation:--
"Under the protection of the Holy Trinity and by order of the Tsar
and Grand Duke Boris Theodorovich autocrat of all the Russias, and
of his son the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Theodore Borisovich, this
church has been completed and gold-crowned the second year of their
reign. A.M. 7180."[A]
[A] Date erroneous: built 1590-1600 A.D.
Adjoining Ivan Veliki is another tower, that of the Assumption, in which
are hung the larger bells, and still further to the north a third belfry
with a pyramidal spire, known as the Tower of Philaret.
The chapel of St John is on, or near, the spot occupied by a small wood
church first erected in 1320; it contains several ikons of interest. On
the first storey under the dome of the Assumption Tower is a chapel
dedicated to St Nicholas, replacing a fourteenth-century church in the
Kremlin. It is specially visited by the orthodox about to marry, and
contains some ikons removed from the church of St Nicholas of Galstun,
demolished during the reign of Alexander I. (1816). A deacon of the old
church, Ivan Theodorof, introduced printing into Russia, and in 1567
produced a book of hours on Moscow. Hence, the book depôt lodged in the
tower. Very characteristic of Moscow are these three towers, of
different styles of architecture, massed to form one building; that the
three should all be white is a pleasing convention which has long
endured. It is needless to state that there is an excellent view from
the upper storeys, one well worth the toilsome ascent. Moreover the
bells are interesting; though some visitors are content with an
examination of the great Bell of Moscow which, broken and flawed, stands
upon a pedestal at the foot of the Ivan Veliki tower.
The art of bell-founding first practised at Nola in Campania in the
ninth century, has been known in Russia since the fourteenth; in 1553 a
bell of about 15 tons was cast in Moscow and hung in a wooden tower.
Since that date many large bells have been cast and recast. The largest,
the Tsar Kolokol, the "Great Bell of Moscow," is supposed to have been
first cast in the sixteenth century, probably during the reign of Boris
Godunov; in 1611 a traveller states that in Moscow is a bell whose
clapper is rung by two dozen men; in 1636, a fire in the Kremlin caused
the bell to fall and it was broken. In 1654 it was recast and then
weighed some 130 tons; it was 2 feet thick and its circumference over 50
feet. It was suspended at the foot of the tower, and the wooden beam
supporting it being burned by the fire of 1706 it once more fell to the
ground and broke. It was recast by order of the Empress Anne in 1733,
but it is doubtful whether it was hung. From 1737 to 1836 it lay beneath
the surface. By the order of the Tsar Nicholas, De Ferrand raised it
from the pit and mounted it on the pedestal it now occupies. It is 2
feet thick, 21 feet high (26 feet, 4 inches with ball and cross) 68 feet
in girth, and weighs 185 tons. The fragment is 7 feet high and weighs 11
tons. The figures represent the Tsar Alexis and the Empress Anne. It
bears a long inscription:--
"Alexis Michaelovich of happy memory, Autocrat of Great and Small
Russia and of White Russia, gave the order that for the Cathedral
of the pure and glorious Assumption of the Holy Virgin, a bell
should be cast with 8000 poods of copper, in the year of the world
7162 and of the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour, 1645. This bell
was used in the year 7176 (A.D. 1668), and served until the year of
the creation 7208 and of Jesus Christ 1701; in which last year on
the 19 June it was broken in a great fire that destroyed the
Kremlin: it was mute until the year of the creation ... and of our
Lord.... By the command of the majestic Empress-Autocrat Anna
Ivanovna, for the glory of God, of the Holy Trinity, and in honour
of the Holy Virgin, in the Cathedral of her glorious Assumption,
they melted the metal of the old bell of 8000 poods, damaged by the
fire and added thereto 2000 poods of new metal, the year of the
world 7241 and of the birth of our Saviour 1734, and the fourth of
the glorious reign of Her Majesty."
"Thirty-four bells hang in these three towers; the largest is the "big
bell" of the Uspenski Sobor, which is in the middle tower and on the
lowest tier. It was cast in 1817 by Bogdanof, to replace the bell broken
when the tower was wrecked by the mine exploded beneath it in 1812. A
bell of 7 tons is the largest in the tower of Ivan, which, originally
founded in 1501 by Afanasief, has been subsequently recast; the next
storey has three old bells and amongst those of the highest storey are
two "silver" bells. The oldest here dates from 1550; other old bells,
Russian, Dutch, and others, are hung in the belfry of Spass na Boru, in
that of St Michael in the courtyard of the Chudov Monastery, and in the
belfry of the Vossnesenski Convent. Russian bells are not swung, but are
sounded by moving the clapper, to the tongue of which the bell rope is
attached; the clapper of the "Kolokol" is 14 feet in length and 6 feet
in circumference. The famous bells of Moscow are:--
"The Tsar Kolokol, 185 tons; Assumption or 'Big Bell'--in use--64
tons; The Thunderer (Reut), 30 tons, cast by Chokov in 1689, it
also fell in 1812 but was not broken; The Every Day (Vsednievni),
15 tons, cast in 1782; The Seven-hundredth (Semisotni), 10 tons;
Bear (Medvied), 7 tons; Swan (Lebeda), 7 tons; Novgorodsk, 6 tons;
The 'Wide' Bell (Shirokoi), 4½ tons; Slobodski, 4½ tons;
Rostovski, 3 tons."
The casting of the great bells was made a state function as well as a
church ceremony; as late as the nineteenth century, the old form of
blessing the bell was followed in the case of the Big Bell, which is
described at length by Dr Lyall who was present:--
"On the 17th March 1817, the Archbishop Augustine went into the
cavity in which the metal was to be run, and sprinkled the place
with holy water, as also the metals to be used in founding the
bell; gave his benediction to the masters of the foundry, and
called the workmen to receive his blessing and kiss the cross. The
molten metal ran by a gutter into the mould; and, the casting
finished, the Archbishop again gave thanks to God. The leading
inhabitants were present at the casting, and freely threw in gold
and silver trinkets. On the 23rd February 1819 this bell was
removed from the foundry. It was placed on an oak sledge, and after
the Te Deum had been sung, a willing crowd seized the many ropes
attached and drew the sledge down the Srietenka and Lubianka to the
Kusnetski Most, Mokhovaya, and the whole length of the Kremlin wall
to the Borovitski Gate by which it made its entrance, and reached
the Belfry of Ivan Veliki, where the Te Deum was sung again. It was
hung in the summer of 1819."
Closely allied to the art of the bell-maker was that of cannon-founder,
and the Kremlin contains some curious and excellent specimens of old
weapons. The most striking is the huge gun known as the Tsar Pushka,
"King of Guns," familiarly as the "drobovnik" (fowling piece), which was
cast in the reign of Theodore Ivanovich (1586), by one Chokof. It weighs
36 tons, and is of too large calibre and too weak metal ever to have
been used as a weapon. When Peter I. after the battle of Narva, ordered
old cannon and church bells to be cast into new ordnance, this was
spared. So was the mortar by its side, for it was cast by the false
Dmitri, who not only took a great interest in the manufacture of fire
arms, but tested them himself. Among the cannon arranged along the
barrack terrace is "The Unicorn" cast in 1670; the carriage of this, of
the Tsar Pushka, and of others are new, made by Baird, of St Petersburg.
Along the front of the arsenal are arranged the 875 cannon, 365 French,
taken from "the twenty nations" who invaded Russia with Napoleon.
It has already been stated that the Kremlin was at one time a complete
city; to a certain extent it is so still. Again and again buildings have
been destroyed and restored; streets made, and swept away. In sinking
the foundations for the Alexander memorial the debris of three distinct
ruins superimposed showed how one town has succeeded another, and as at
that point, so at many others. The exercising ground was long covered
with dwellings; there were the hostelries of the Krutitski monastery,
the houses of the priests, seminaries, private dwellings--at one time as
many as twenty streets were to be found within the Kremlin walls. Under
the barracks and the Chudov monastery are immense vaults of ancient
brick; below the Synod are known to be two large chambers which have
not
[Illustration: CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR BEHIND THE GOLDEN GATES]
been examined, and, in the very centre of the Kremlin, between the Tsar
Pushka and the Chudov Monastery, but three feet beneath the pavement, is
the basement of an old edifice, vaults of white stone, probably the
remains of the palace of the Tsar Boris Godunov. The smaller palace is
built upon the side of an early cemetery; at one time in the open space
near Ivan Veliki criminals were publicly executed and the _ukases_ of
the Tsar proclaimed. In the same way that the Kremlin is honeycombed
with vaults for the storage of great quantities of food and munitions of
war, it is penetrated by different conduits for the water drawn from the
bed of the neighbouring stream; a supply so plentiful and constant that
the Tsar Alexis used it to flow through great lead bottomed tanks and
ornamental lakes, whereon, like later Tsars, he amused himself with a
toy fleet.
The railed in Sobornia Ploshchad has been from time immemorial the Grand
enclosure. Here the religious processions formed, and form; here Dmitri
Ivanovich unfurled the black standard before going out to give battle to
Mamai; here most Tsars have passed to their coronation, or have walked
with their brides to the altar for the wedding sacrament; across it the
princes and Tsars of Moscow have been carried to their last resting
place. Outside that door crouched the excommunicated Ivan Groznoi, from
this the frenzied people dragged their priest, towards that the
threatened metropolitan bravely made his way to officiate at a forbidden
mass. Before the Grand entrance (Krasnoe Kriltso) foreign ambassadors
drew up in pomp to make their calls of state, on that same terrace Ivan
with his staff transfixed the foot of the brave messenger of the not
less bold Kourbski, there, too, he gazed at the comet supposed to
foretell his death. To this place the basket for the petitions of the
people was daily lowered from the Tsar's palace window; on this spot
fell the body of the murdered false Dmitri. Here at different times have
gathered Tartar envoys, merchant venturers, turbulent Streltsi; the
famished, the terrified and the pestilent stricken; Polish soldiers,
French grenadiers, foreign fightingmen as a bodyguard, the dreaded
"opritchniki"; bountiful boyards, Napoleon's riff-raff; humble Russians
to petition, pious ones to pray, grateful ones to return thanks.
The imaginative visitor may conjure up amidst the buildings whatever
scene he will from the history of Moscow and find adequate setting. May
picture state pageantry; church ceremonial; military display; the
expression of perfervid piety; the ruin following fearful
disaster--whether wrought by the hand of man or the act of God. Such
scenes that the walls will seem to echo in turn the laughter of homely
merry-making, the huzzahs of victory, the wails of the afflicted, the
uproar of the turbulent, the sighs of the worshipper--for here every
emotion has been many times expressed by the varying multitudes that
have thronged these courts.
Entering by the tower of Philaret, the Church of the Twelve Apostles is
on the extreme right, the Cathedral of the Assumption immediately in
front, that of the Archangels on the left, opposite it is the Cathedral
of the Annunciation communicating with the royal palaces by a terrace
from which descends the wide flight of steps which as their name,
Krasnoe Kriltso, indicates is the grand or state entrance to the
palace. It was on this terrace that the Tsars of old allowed the people
to see "the light of their eyes," and there that those of noble race
stood to be "beholden of the people." At one time this flight had the
usual porch at the foot, and a red roof above, just as the approaches to
the old churches and the modern house, Dom Chukina off the Tverskaia.
Fires have destroyed the roofs and now an awning only is used upon state
occasions. These steps flank the old Granovitaia Palace and on its other
side, in an obscure corner, almost behind the Cathedral of the
Assumption, is the Holy Spot of the Kremlin, being to the church what
the Krasnoe Kriltso was to the state.
It is the old entrance to the private apartments of the Patriarchs, and
the chapel of the metropolitans, that known as the Pecherski
Bogeimateri, raised on the site of the earliest stone edifice built in
the Kremlin. Founded by Jonas it suffered the fate of most buildings in
Moscow, but was always rebuilt in much the same style, and still
conserves many characteristics of the most ancient of Moscow churches.
The present building is composed of the fragments left from the fires of
1626, 1637, 1644 and 1682. The roof is vaulted, supported by four
columns; the walls have pictures of the virgin and saints, and above the
altar is that of the Madonna. The ikonostas has four stages and is
adorned with most venerable ikons, notably those of "The Reception of
the sacred vestments of the Virgin" of the Virgin of Vladimir (an early
copy), and of the Holy Trinity, before which are ancient candelabra with
the remains of tapers made like the old rushlights and gaily coloured.
The inscription is to the effect that they were placed there by the
Patriarch Joseph in 1643 and 1645. The old chandelier in the centre is
by Sviechkov, a master craftsman of the Tsarian workshops in 1624. The
Virgin of Pechersk, brought from Kiev, is hung upon the wall and
surrounded with portraits of Peter, Alexis, Jonas, Philip, and other of
the patron saints of Moscow: before this ikon all must bow or suffer
eternal punishment. The church is never closed; day and night it is
visited by pious pilgrims and the sacred lamp is ever burning before the
ikon. It communicates with the corridor of the Terem, and behind it rise
the domes of the churches within the palace, notably those of the
Saviour behind the Golden Gates and St Catherine's: near them the roof
of the Terem and the walls of the Granovitaia Palace complete a picture
wholly Muscovite; but, if tradition may be trusted, the work upon the
most picturesque portion, St Catherine's, is due to an Englishman, one
John Taylor, in the service of the Tsars.
On Palm Sundays there used to form in the little square before the porch
the head of that procession in which the Tsar led the Patriarch, seated
upon an ass, by the Redeemer Gate to the Lobnoe Mesto. Peter the Great
turned the procession to mere burlesque, mounting the Patriarch upon an
ox and himself playing the buffoon. Here, too, were the miracle plays
and church mysteries performed in the seventeenth century, and here the
church processions still form for the more stately pageants of to-day.
The only old private dwelling remaining within the Kremlin is that now
known as the Potieshni Dvorets, or "palace of amusements," which was
originally the house of the boyards Miloslavski and was acquired by the
crown after the marriage of the Tsar Alexis with Maria Miloslavski. The
interior has now nothing of particular interest, but the exterior is an
excellent example of Russian architecture as modified by mid-European
influence in the late seventeenth century. Part of the third and fourth
storeys instead of retreating, in the Russian style, is made to project,
but the "belvedere," with a balcony all round, is retained for the top
storey; retained, too, are the bulbous pillars which serve as, or
decorate the side posts of doors and windows, and the long pendant
keystones to form the double-arch instead of a lintel; all of which are
peculiar to Russian architecture.
[Illustration: POTIESHNI DVORETS (PLEASURE PALACE)]
Several explanations for the common use of the ogival arch, the bulbous
dome, and the double arch with hanging keystones, have been advanced by
antiquaries, but none are altogether satisfactory. The errors have
possibly resulted from studying masonry to the exclusion of carpentry,
and the early Slavs were users of wood--not of stone or brick. It may be
that these forms were due to the execution in light elastic wood of
arches and vaults copied from foreign work composed of voussoirs, but
such is unlikely. Assuming that round wood poles, the stems of the
plentiful young birch trees, and wattles were the materials of which the
frames of the early dwellings were constructed, then such forms
naturally result.
If the ends of poles are stuck into the earth, and the opposite
extremities brought to a common centre and weight--as that of the
roof--added, the timbers will sag and a concave section result. That
this was one Russian form of roof, the illustration of the Belvedere of
the Terem exemplifies (see page 117), where the curve is purposely
exaggerated for the purpose of decorative effect. If, instead of being
placed loosely in the earth to allow of this set, the poles are thrust
down deep into the soil or otherwise made immovable and the upper
extremities forcibly brought in towards the centre and fastened there,
then when the weight of the roof bends the poles, they will bulge
outward in the middle, and when the weight of the roof has been so
adjusted as to correct the curve in order to give to the structure the
desired greatest possible interior space for domestic accommodation,
then the bulbous dome naturally results if the poles be arranged in a
circle. The ogival arch is only a section of that.
Granted that if the poles cross each other near the tops a more or less
concave cone will result--as exemplified in the tepoes of the American
Indians--yet if instead of two or three poles, many more have to be
brought to the common apex it will be easier not to cross them but bind
all firmly to each other--or a central post--then the ogival section
must result. If a single pole is bent to form the support of a roof and
both its extremities are thrust into the ground, the horseshoe arch is
obtained as soon as the weight of the roof acts upon such supports. If,
instead of the single pole, two shorter ones are taken and instead of
being lashed together to form the pointed arch the upper extremities are
brought towards each other and downwards and then lashed, a more rigid
bow is obtained, and this is the crude form of the double arch with
pendant keystone so common in Moscow; and its use generally is over
doorways, etc., where a wide span with great stability is required, and
with poles as the only available material this form gives rigidity not
obtainable by bending to any other so simple form.
The form of arched vault that had served as the lowly dwelling of a
primitive people was retained in its entirety for the roof of later and
larger buildings; the walls, whether of logs or shaped timber, served as
imposts, just as the soil had done, and so the bulbous domes, the square
and oblong attic roofs with their characteristic gonflements have been
retained. It is merely an example of the persistence as decoration of
forms which were originally wholly utilitarian. This is particularly the
case with the double arch where the pendant keystone descends to the
level of the imposts and is of course supported from the lintel when
executed in masonry. Another characteristic Russian form is the circular
arch of masonry, which has the voussoirs of the intrados of the usual
regular form but of the extrados slightly elevated at the corner to
indicate the "ogival arch," which was the common form of the wooden arch
in Moscow. As already stated (ch. ii.) the early forms of Russian
dwellings may be studied from the models in the Historical Museum; one
peculiarity is that each successive storey is set back from that
immediately below instead of projecting as in the half-timbered houses,
of mediæval England. In addition to the belvederes of the Terem and
Potieshni Dvorets, it is noticeable in the towers of the Kremlin wall.
They were originally of timber and the earlier form is retained--even to
the double walls and tiers--so necessary to a wooden bulwark, but quite
foreign to the method of the Italian masons who erected these buildings.
The steep roofs of the towers is also common and convenient in
constructing with timber, but needless and difficult when working with
tiles and bricks. So long as these remain the wooden original Moscow
cannot be wholly forgotten.
The attempt to retain the pyramidal or retreating form when building
with bricks has resulted in a distinctly Muscovite style for towers and
spires. Instead of a parapet on the walls of the tower, a tier of small
circular arches is imposed, and form the crowns of these, also set back,
spring the voussoirs of a second tier, and in like manner other tiers
until the desired height is reached for the spire, or the cylindrical
shaft that is to support the dome, or whatever other ornament is used to
crown the structure. One of the best examples of this form is the church
of the Nativity on the Mala Dmitrovka, which was built in the "golden"
period of Moscow--1625-1680--when for all buildings of first importance
masonry had supplanted the use of wood (see p. 181). The earlier form
may be seen in the roof of the Blagovieshchenski Sobor; and the
varieties of pattern are reproduced in the attic roofs of the Historical
Museum building.
The absurdity of the pendant keystone in the double arch is
demonstrated by the arch over the doorway to the courtyard of the synod,
and the lintels of doors and windows of the Potieshni Dvorets.
The magnificent monument to the Great Tsar Liberator, Alexander II., is
the latest addition to the Kremlin, that heart of Moscow which echoes
the glorious past of the Russian empire and is its true Pantheon. None
have graced it more than those early Romanofs whose work is evident in
every ancient building, but still more imperishable was the noble labour
of him to whom this generation has expressed its gratitude in an
imposing and characteristic memorial to the most loved Tsar.