Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

126 NORTH EASTERN EUROPE

For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp160–61 and pp162–3

The striking red-brick Trinity Tower,
with its contrasting conical spire

The Tsar Bell, with the hole left by the section that broke off

Ivan the Great

Bell Tower^2

Колокольня Ивана

Великого

Kolokolnya Ivana Velikovo

The Kremlin. Map D3. &

Built to a design by Marco

Bon Friazin, the 16th-century

bell tower takes its name

from the Church of St Ivan

Climacus, which stood on the

site in the 14th century. The

“Great” in its name is derived

from the height of the tower.

In 1600 it became the tallest

building in Moscow when

Tsar Boris Godunov added a

third storey, extend ing it to

81m (266 ft). The 16th-century

four-storey Assumption Belfry

was built beside the bell tower

by Petrok Maliy. It holds 21

bells, the lar gest of which is

the 64-tonne (71-tons)

Assumption Bell. A museum

on the first floor dis plays the

story of the Kremlin. The

annexe next to the belfry was

commissioned in 1642 by

Patriarch Filaret. Outside the

bell tower is the Tsar Bell. The

largest in the world, it weighs

over 200 tonnes (221 tons).

When it fell from the tower

and shat tered in a fire in 1701,

the fragments were used in a

bell ordered by Tsarina Anna.

This bell was still in its casting

pit when the Kremlin caught

fire in 1737. As a result, a large

piece broke off as water was

poured over the bell.

Trinity Tower^1

Трoицкая башня
Troitskaya bashnya

The Kremlin. Map D2. &

This tower takes its name
from the Trinity Monastery of
St Sergius, which once ran a
mission near by. The tower’s
Trinity Gate used to be the
entrance for patriarchs and
the tsars’ wives and daugh-
ters. It is one of the only two
towers – the other being
Borovitskaya Tower, to the
southwest – of the Kremlin
walls’ 19 towers that admit
visitors into the com plex.
At 76 m (249 ft), the seven-
storey Trinity Tower is the
Kremlin’s tallest. It was built
between 1495 and 1499 and
in 1516 it was linked by
a bridge over the Neglinnaya
river to the Kutafya Tower.
The river now runs under-
ground and the Kutafya
Tower is the sole survivor of
the circle of towers that were
originally built to defend the
Kremlin walls.
In September 1812,
Napoleon triumphantly
marched his army into the
Kremlin through the Trinity
Gate. They left just a month
later when Muscovites set fire
to their city and fled, leaving
the French Army without
shelter or provisions.

Cathedral of the

Assumption^3

Успенский собор

Uspenskiy sobor

The Kremlin. Map D3.

From the early 14th century,

the Cathedral of the

Assumption was Moscow’s

most important church,

where princes were crowned

and the metropoli tans and

patriarchs of the Orthodox

church buried. In the 1470s,

Ivan the Great decided to

build a more imposing

cathedral and summoned

Italian architect Aristotele

Fioravanti to Moscow.

Inspired by the spirit of the

Renaissance, the cathedral

is a spacious masterpiece.

It houses superb iconostasis

and frescoes, including Scenes

from the Life of Metropolitan

Frescoes on the entrance to the

Cathedral of the Assumption