White Kremlin. Background

Even in kindergarten, children hear about white stone Moscow. This name is a traditional epithet of the capital. But then the children get older and in history lessons they learn that the city got its name because of its main fortress - the Kremlin. And they have legitimate questions about where such a strange color blindness came from? The Kremlin is red, not white!

In fact, there is no error. Just a beautiful epithet appeared a long time ago, when the Kremlin was really bright.

What is the Kremlin?

This word in medieval Russia was called the central fortress of the city, the last and main stronghold of defense. On its territory there was usually the main (or only) city temple, the ruler of the city (prince or governor) lived.

In the event of an attack (and they happened very often in those days), not only the population of an unprotected or poorly protected urban settlement, but also the peasants of the nearest villages were hiding behind the walls of the Kremlin. Strong walls gave hope to repulse an attack or wait for help, withstanding a siege.

Not the first

For a very long time, stone fortifications were not built in Russia. They built it from wood - it was faster and easier. Therefore, the white-stone Kremlin in Moscow was not really the first - there was a wooden fortress before it. There is chronicle evidence of the construction of a wooden fortress in the city by the founder of Moscow, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (by the way, a war lover). This fact dates back 9 years after the first mention of Moscow in a written source.

Later, the wooden Kremlin was repeatedly restored and rebuilt. The reason is clear - the wooden walls protected well from the direct attack of enemies, but were powerless against fire. And Russia had just entered turbulent times - it all started with princely strife, and then the Tatars came. The last time the wooden fortress was rebuilt was the famous Ivan Kalita. He built it from oak and significantly increased the area. But it still didn't help.

All Saints Fire

Not even a Tatar attack was required - the Kremlin of Ivan Kalita was destroyed by a household fire. It was a terrible scourge of wooden medieval cities - in any fire they could burn out completely. This time, the Church of All Saints was the first to catch fire (hence the name of the fire). It happened in 1365.

At this time, young Dmitry Ivanovich (then not yet Donskoy) reigned in Moscow. He sought to pursue an independent policy, but he understood that with a "naked" capital, this would be a lost cause. Therefore, he hastened to begin the construction of a new fortress and, at the same time, made sure that it burned worse.

White stone

Russia already knew stone construction. But in many regions, strictly speaking, it was not stone, but brick - clay plinth was used. But in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, even before the invasion of the Mongols, a tradition of building from limestone arose. For its light color, it was called "white stone". It was necessary to be able to work with him, but in principle, limestone was easy to process. Blocks of the desired size could be cut from it.

There was a limestone deposit not far from Moscow in the village of Myachkovo, 30 km from the capital. This variety is now called so - Myachkovsky limestone. The historian and writer I. E. Zabelin suggested that it was this stone that the builders of the Kremlin of Dmitry Ivanovich should have used.

The big problem was the delivery of stone, and the prince did not want to start construction until all the necessary material was at hand. Transportation was carried out along the Moscow River, partly by water, but for the most part - in winter on ice.

Unseen Kremlin

The construction of the white-stone Kremlin in Moscow took two years (1367-68). He is often mentioned in sources, but our contemporaries do not know exactly what he looked like. There are no accurate images, and one has to rely on descriptions and archaeological data.

The Kremlin Square under Prince Dmitry was approaching the current one - he ordered the construction of new walls at a decent distance from the old ones. The walls were theoretically up to 3 m thick and had numerous loopholes, which were closed during an attack with wooden shields for better protection of the soldiers. A significant part of the walls stretched along the Moscow River and Neglinnaya (they served as additional protection). In the same place, where such protection was not enough, a ditch was dug (its traces were found by archaeologists). A stone bridge was thrown over the Neglinnaya - the first in Moscow (now there is the Trinity Bridge).

Historian M.I. Tikhomirov believes that initially the walls were thick, but rather low. They were built up gradually. This was a common practice in medieval towns and castles. There is a version that initially not the entire Kremlin was made of stone - less dangerous from the point of view of a possible assault remained wooden. Over time, this omission was also eliminated.

The white-stone Kremlin in Moscow (the year construction began - 1367) stood for 150 years. Prince Ivan III, known for putting an end to the Mongol yoke, decided to build a new fortress. The white walls were gradually dismantled, others were built in their place. The material this time is red brick. This is how the modern Kremlin appeared.

Some limestone blocks were left in the new wall as a bottle. Scientists later discovered them and thus made sure that the first stone Kremlin in Moscow was indeed white.

Miracles of Belokamennaya

In an effort to unite and strengthen Russia, Dmitry Ivanovich sought to make the Kremlin not only a fortress, but also a kind of center of gravity, which would symbolize Russian greatness. Therefore, the prince built not only walls, but also stone churches in the Kremlin monasteries. As a result, Moscow became one of the most “stone” Russian cities, and the Kremlin itself became the most powerful European fortress.

Dmitry's heirs sought to continue his undertaking and increase the number of miracles in the Kremlin. So, at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, the first tower clock in Russia appeared in the Kremlin. White stone began to be used not only for construction, but also for decoration. In the middle of the 15th century, a Russian sculptor made two bas-reliefs from limestone. One of them depicted the coat of arms of Moscow (with George the Victorious), the second - St. Demetrius of Thessalonica (heavenly patron of Dmitry Ivanovich). They were fixed on the Frolovskaya (today - Spasskaya) tower: the first in 1446 from the outside above the gate, the second - in 1466 in the same way, but from the inside.

Fortress Adventures

Despite its relatively short life, the first white-stone Kremlin in Moscow managed to serve the Motherland well. As soon as its construction was completed, in 1368, the army of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd appeared under the walls of Moscow. The Lithuanians got away without salty slurping - the fortress survived. In 1370 Olgerd tried again - with the same result.

But the white Kremlin unexpectedly “came out sideways” exactly the event that glorified its builder for centuries. In 1380, Dmitry Ivanovich led the army of the united Russian principalities against the Golden Horde, and for the first time inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy on the Kulikovo field near the Don. For this victory, the prince was awarded the honorary nickname Donskoy. But the angry Mongols had not yet been defeated at all. In 1382, Khan Tokhtamysh, who replaced the temnik Mamai defeated by Dmitry, took advantage of Dmitry's absence and attacked Moscow. The city fell and was burned clean.

It was then that Dmitry's foresight manifested itself - the white-stone Kremlin in Moscow (completion date - 1368) survived! It had only to be repaired, but not rebuilt.

The power of tradition

Although Prince Ivan used a different material for construction, he clearly had respect for the fortress built by his famous grandfather. The Kremlin remained white until the end of the 19th century! Although it was repeatedly completed and restored. Including after the "Time of Troubles" and the Patriotic War of 1812, the walls stubbornly continued to whitewash!

That is why the epithet "white stone" is so firmly attached to Moscow - it was formed far from 150 years, but much longer! The walls were painted white first of all to show respect for Dmitry Donskoy, and then out of habit.

You can see that St. Basil's Cathedral, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Kremlin, is mostly red. One might guess that this was a striking contrast. In addition, there was a tradition in the architecture of Russia - to build temples from plinth, and it resembles a modern red brick in color. Russian churches began to be whitewashed much later. And far from everywhere (having visited the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, you can be sure that its walls were not originally white - masonry fragments were deliberately left unpainted on the walls of the buildings). Thanks to this, the churches were strikingly different from secular buildings (at that time the houses were wooden or resembled Ukrainian huts). White churches were built in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality (for example, Intercession on the Nerl), but this was not an immutable rule.

Creations of the masters

Although none of the figures of the new time saw the first Kremlin, it aroused their interest. Some tried to "invent" the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy and depict the results of their reflections on the canvas. The most interesting version belongs to the artist A. Vasnetsov. The whitewashed Kremlin of later eras was often painted and described. It can be suspected that not all witnesses knew that the fortress used to be different - really white.

Back to white

Nowadays, the red walls of the Kremlin are tinted for showiness with red paint in the same way as they used to be whitewashed. But in recent years, there have been more and more proposals to repaint the Kremlin white. Say, it will be more in line with the historical spirit of Moscow.

In addition to thinking about how much paint is needed for this and what the work will cost, you need to remember two more things. Firstly, the current Kremlin was not born of white stone. Repainting will not restore the real fortress of Dmitry Donskoy. And secondly, the Kremlin and Red Square are a monument of world importance and are under the protection of UNESCO.

The Moscow Kremlin 1800 is a project to recreate the construction of the Moscow fortress of the early 19th century. The implementation used images of artists who captured the architecture of the Kremlin of that time. From a historical point of view, the fixed image of the Kremlin is closest to 1805. It was then that the painter Fyodor Alekseev, on behalf of Paul I, completed many sketches of old Moscow.

The White Kremlin is a gorgeous visualization of the old Kremlin and Red Square. Let's take a look in more detail...

1. The Kremlin, "alive" and constantly changing, by the beginning of the 19th century was losing many buildings of the previous era.

2. The project does not take into account dilapidated structures and those that were being dismantled at that time. Signatures are on the photographs themselves.

P. Vereshchagin. View of the Moscow Kremlin. 1879

67 years ago, Stalin ordered the Moscow Kremlin to be repainted red. We have collected pictures and photographs depicting the Moscow Kremlin from different eras.

Rather, the Kremlin was originally red-brick - the Italians, who built in 1485-1495 a new fortress for the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III Vasilyevich on the site of the old white-stone fortifications, erected walls and towers of ordinary brick - like, for example, the castle of Milan Castello Sforzesco.

The Kremlin became white only in the 18th century, when the fortress walls were whitewashed according to the then fashion (like the walls of all other Russian Kremlins - in Kazan, Zaraysk, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov Veliky, etc.).

J. Delabart. View of Moscow from the balcony of the Kremlin Palace towards the Moskvoretsky Bridge. 1797.

The White Kremlin appeared before Napoleon's army in 1812, and a few years later, already washed from the soot of warm Moscow, it again blinded travelers with snow-white walls and tents. The famous French playwright Jacques-Francois Anselot, who visited Moscow in 1826, described the Kremlin in his memoirs Six mois en Russie: “This is where we leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking again at this ancient citadel, we will regret that, while repairing the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the age-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an air of youth that does not match its shape and erases its past.”

12. If anyone has special anaglyph glasses, below are stereo anaglyph images of the White Kremlin:

S. M. Shukhvostov. View of the Red Square. 1855 (?) year

Kremlin. Chromolithograph from the collection of the US Library of Congress, 1890.

White Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, 1883

White Nikolskaya tower, 1883

Moscow and the Moscow River. Photo by Murray Howe (USA), 1909

Pictured by Murray Howe: shabby walls and towers, covered with a "noble urban patina." 1909

The Kremlin greeted the beginning of the 20th century like a real old fortress, covered, in the words of the writer Pavel Ettinger, with a “noble urban patina”: it was sometimes whitewashed for important events, and the rest of the time it stood as expected - with smudges and shabby. The Bolsheviks, who made the Kremlin a symbol and citadel of all state power, were not at all embarrassed by the white color of the fortress walls and towers.

Red Square, Parade of athletes, 1932. Pay attention to the walls of the Kremlin freshly whitewashed for the holiday

Moscow, 1934-35 (?)

But then the war began, and in June 1941, the commandant of the Kremlin, Major General Nikolai Spiridonov, offered to repaint all the walls and towers of the Kremlin - for camouflage. A fantastic project for that time was developed by a group of academician Boris Iofan: walls of houses, black holes of windows were painted on white walls, artificial streets were built on Red Square, and the empty Mausoleum (Lenin's body had already been evacuated from Moscow on July 3, 1941) was covered with a plywood cap representing a house. And the Kremlin naturally disappeared - the disguise confused all the cards for the fascist pilots.

"Disguised" Red Square: instead of the Mausoleum, a cozy house appeared. 1941-1942.

The “disguised” Kremlin: houses and windows are painted on the walls. 1942

During the restoration of the Kremlin walls and towers in 1947 - for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Then the idea arose in Stalin's head to make the Kremlin red: The red flag on the red Kremlin on Red Square

sources

Everyone has already heard that the Kremlin was white. Many articles have already been written about this, but people still manage to argue. But when did they start whitening it, and when did they stop? On this issue, statements in all articles diverge, as well as thoughts in people's heads. Some write that they began to whitewash in the 18th century, others that as early as the beginning of the 17th century, others are trying to provide evidence that the Kremlin walls were not whitewashed at all. Everywhere the phrase is replicated that the Kremlin was white until 1947, and then suddenly Stalin ordered it to be repainted red. Was it so? Let's finally dot all the and, since there are enough sources, both picturesque and photographic.

Dealing with the color of the Kremlin: red, white, when and why —>

So, the current Kremlin was built by the Italians at the end of the 15th century, and, of course, they did not whitewash it. The fortress retained the natural color of red brick, there are several similar ones in Italy, the closest analogue is the Sforza Castle in Milan. Yes, and whitewashing fortifications in those days was dangerous: when a cannonball hits a wall, the brick is damaged, the whitewash crumbles, and you can clearly see the weak spot where you should aim again to destroy the wall as soon as possible.

So, one of the first images of the Kremlin, where its color is clearly visible, is the icon of Simon Ushakov “Praise to the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. The tree of the Russian state. It was written in 1668, and the Kremlin is red here.

For the first time, in written sources, the whitewashing of the Kremlin was mentioned in 1680.
The historian Bartenev, in the book “The Moscow Kremlin in Antiquity and Now” writes: “In a memorandum filed on July 7, 1680 in the name of the tsar, it is said that the Kremlin’s fortifications were “not whitewashed”, and the Spassky Gates “were registered in black and white in brick". The note asked: whitewash the walls of the Kremlin, leave them as they are, or paint them “in brick” like the Spassky Gates? The Tsar ordered the Kremlin to be whitewashed with lime…”
So, at least since the 1680s, our main fortress has been whitewashed.

1766. Painting by P. Balabin after the engraving by M. Makhaev. The Kremlin is clearly white here.

1797, Gerard Delabart.

1819, artist Maxim Vorobyov.

In 1826, the French writer and playwright François Anselot came to Moscow, he described the white Kremlin in his memoirs: “On this we will leave the Kremlin, my dear Xavier; but, looking again at this ancient citadel, we will regret that, while repairing the destruction caused by the explosion, the builders removed from the walls the age-old patina that gave them so much grandeur. The white paint that hides the cracks gives the Kremlin an air of youth that does not match its shape and erases its past.”

1830s, artist Rauch.

1842, Lerebour's daguerreotype, the first documentary depiction of the Kremlin.

1850, Joseph Andreas Weiss.

1852, one of the very first photographs of Moscow, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is under construction, and the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.

1856, preparations for the coronation of Alexander II. For this event, the whitewashing was updated in places, the structures on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower were a frame for illumination.

The same 1856, view in the opposite direction, closest to us is the Taynitskaya tower with an archer overlooking the embankment.

Photo from 1860.

Photo from 1866.

1866-67.

1879, artist Pyotr Vereshchagin.

1880, painting by the English school of painting. The Kremlin is still white. From all previous images, we conclude that the Kremlin wall along the river was whitewashed in the 18th century, and remained white until the 1880s.

1880s, Konstantin-Eleninskaya tower of the Kremlin from the inside. The whitewash is gradually crumbling, and exposes the red-brick walls.

1884, wall along the Alexander Garden. The whitewash was crumbling badly, only the teeth were renewed.

1897, artist Nesterov. The walls are already closer to red than to white.

1909, peeling walls with remains of whitewash.

The same 1909, whitewash is still holding up well on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower. Most likely it was whitewashed for the last time later than the rest of the walls. It is clear from several previous photographs that the walls and most of the towers were last whitewashed in the 1880s.

1911 Grotto in the Alexander Garden and the Middle Arsenal Tower.

S. Vinogradov. Moscow Kremlin 1910s

1911, artist Yuon. In reality, the walls were, of course, of a dirtier shade, the stains from whitewashing were more pronounced than in the picture, but the overall gamut was already red.

1914, Konstantin Korovin.

The motley and shabby Kremlin in a photograph of the 1920s.

Kremlin. Chromolithograph from the collection of the US Library of Congress, 1890.

And on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, the whitewash was still holding on, mid-1930s.

But then the war began, and in June 1941, the commandant of the Kremlin, Major General Nikolai Spiridonov, offered to repaint all the walls and towers of the Kremlin - for camouflage. A fantastic project for that time was developed by a group of academician Boris Iofan: walls of houses, black holes of windows were painted on white walls, artificial streets were built on Red Square, and the empty Mausoleum (Lenin's body had already been evacuated from Moscow on July 3, 1941) was covered with a plywood cap representing a house. And the Kremlin naturally disappeared - the disguise confused all the cards for the fascist pilots.

"Disguised" Red Square: instead of the Mausoleum, a cozy house appeared. 1941-1942.

The "disguised" Kremlin: houses and windows are painted on the walls. 1942

During the restoration of the Kremlin walls and towers in 1947 - for the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Then the idea arose in Stalin's head to repaint the Kremlin in red: the Red flag on the red Kremlin on Red Square - so that everything would sound in unison and ideologically correct.

This instruction of Comrade Stalin is carried out by the Kremlin workers to this day.

Late 1940s, the Kremlin after restoration for the 800th anniversary of Moscow. Here the tower is already clearly red, with white details.

And two more color photographs from the 1950s. Somewhere they touched up, somewhere they left peeling walls. There was no total repainting in red.

1950s These two photos are taken from here:

Spasskaya Tower

But on the other hand, everything was not so simple. Some towers are out of the general chronology of whitewashing.

1778, Red Square by Friedrich Hilferding. The Spasskaya Tower is red with white details, but the walls of the Kremlin are whitewashed.

1801, watercolor by Fyodor Alekseev. Even with all the diversity of the picturesque range, it is clear that the Spasskaya Tower was still whitewashed at the end of the 18th century.

And after the fire of 1812, the red color was returned again. This is a painting by English masters, 1823. The walls are always white.

1855, artist Shukhvostov. If you look closely, you can see that the colors of the wall and the tower are different, the tower is darker and redder.

View of the Kremlin from Zamoskvorechye, painting by an unknown artist, mid-19th century. Here the Spasskaya Tower is again whitewashed, most likely for the celebrations on the occasion of the coronation of Alexander II in 1856.

Photo from the early 1860s. The tower is white.

Another photo from the early to mid-1860s. The whitewashing of the tower is crumbling here and there.

Late 1860s. And then suddenly the tower was painted red again.

1870s The tower is red.

1880s. The red paint is peeling off, in some places you can see the newly painted places, patches. After 1856, the Spasskaya Tower was never whitewashed again.

Nikolskaya tower

1780s, Friedrich Hilferding. The Nikolskaya tower is still without a Gothic top, it is decorated with early classical decor, red, with white details. In 1806-07, the tower was built on, in 1812 it was blown up by the French, almost half destroyed, and restored already at the end of the 1810s.

1823, brand new Nikolskaya tower after restoration, red.

1883, white tower. Perhaps they whitened it together with Spasskaya, for the coronation of Alexander II. And they updated the whitewash for the coronation of Alexander III in 1883.

1912 The White Tower remained until the revolution.

1925 The tower is already red with white details. It became red as a result of the restoration in 1918, after revolutionary damage.

Red Square, Parade of athletes, 1932. Pay attention to the walls of the Kremlin freshly whitewashed for the holiday

Trinity Tower

1860s. The tower is white.

On the watercolor of the English school of painting in 1880, the tower is gray, this color is given by the spoiled whitewash.

And in 1883 the tower was already red. Painted or cleaned of whitewash, most likely for the coronation of Alexander III.

Let's summarize. According to documentary sources, the Kremlin was first whitewashed in 1680, in the 18th and 19th centuries it was white, with the exception of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Trinity towers in certain periods. The walls were last whitewashed in the early 1880s, at the beginning of the 20th century the whitewashing was renewed only on the Nikolskaya tower, possibly also on Vodovzvodnaya. Since then, the whitewash has gradually crumbled and washed off, and by 1947 the Kremlin naturally adopted the ideologically correct red color, in some places it was tinted during restoration.

Kremlin walls today

photo: Ilya Varlamov

Today, in some places, the Kremlin retains the natural color of red brick, perhaps with a slight tint. These are bricks of the 19th century, the result of another restoration.

Wall from the river. Here you can clearly see that the bricks are painted red. Photo from Ilya Varlamov's blog

All old photos, unless otherwise noted, taken from the site

Alexander Ivanov worked on the publication.

And this is what the Kremlin would look like now if it was still whitewashed

In fact, there are many more illustrations of the white Kremlin than in the original post - I added something, and that's not all.

On November 25, 1339, Ivan Kalita erected the oak walls of the Moscow fortress. It was during this period that the Kremlin became the political center of the feudal state, the residence of the grand dukes and metropolitans.

Today the Moscow Kremlin is one of the brightest cultural assets of the Russian capital. "RG" has collected five little-known and curious facts about him.

1. The Moscow Kremlin is the largest fortress in the entire territory of Russia, as well as the largest active fortress in Europe today.

In world history, there were buildings and more, but only it has been preserved quite well and still performs its functions.

The total length of the Kremlin walls is 2235 meters, they form an irregular triangle. There are 20 towers along them, of which the highest is Troitskaya, together with the star, it has a height of 80 m.

2. The secret of the absolutely exact time of the Kremlin chimes now lies underground: the chimes are connected by cable to the control clock of the Sternberg Moscow Astronomical Institute.

In the middle of the 19th century, chimes were installed on the Spasskaya Tower, performing the "March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment" by Dmitry Bortnyansky. This melody sounded until 1917. In 1920, the music of the Internationale was picked up on the chimes.

Under Yeltsin, the chimes played Glinka, and now they play Alexandrov - the anthem of the Russian Federation.

3. During the Great Patriotic War, or rather, in 1941, the Kremlin began to be disguised: all the old buildings were stylized as ordinary houses, green roofs were painted over, dark paint was applied to gilded domes, crosses were removed, stars were sheathed on the towers. Windows and doors were painted on the Kremlin walls, and the battlements were covered with plywood, imitating the roofs of houses.

Interestingly, during the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin was practically not damaged, despite the massive bombardments that hit Moscow in 1941 and 1942. The authorities evacuated the treasures of the Armory, and in the event of the surrender of the capital to the German troops, a plan was provided for mining the main buildings of the complex.

4. In 1935, the Kremlin lost its double-headed eagles, and it was decided to install Soviet symbols in their place. In 1937, luminous ruby ​​stars were installed on the Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers.

Kremlin stars withstand the maximum pressure of a hurricane wind, each up to about 1200 kg. The weight of each star reaches one ton. During windy days, the stars rotate, changing their position so that they face the wind with their sides.

5. Almost until the end of the 19th century, Moscow was "white-stone". Following the established tradition, the Kremlin's red-brick walls were whitewashed for almost four centuries. At the same time, they were worried not only about the memory of the white-stone Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy, but also about the safety of the brick. This can be confirmed by numerous descriptions and images.

Today, the walls of the Kremlin are regularly tinted so that the red-brick color is always saturated.

FROM Today the Kremlin houses the residence of the President of Russia. In addition, the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin is included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List and the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve “Moscow Kremlin” is located on its territory. The total number of towers is 20.

"Red" Kremlin came to replace " White » Dmitry Donskoy's Kremlin. Its construction (during the reign of Grand Duke Ivan III) was due to the events that took place in Muscovy and on the world stage. In particular: 1420-1440 - the disintegration of the Golden Horde into smaller formations (uluses and khanates); 1425-1453 - Internecine war in Russia for a great reign; 1453 - fall of Constantinople (capture by the Turks) and the end of the existence of the Byzantine Empire; 1478 - the subjugation of Novgorod by Moscow and the final reunification of the Russian lands around Moscow; 1480 - standing on the Ugra River and the end of the Horde yoke. All these events influenced the social processes of Muscovy.

In 1472, Ivan III married a former Byzantine princess Sofia Paleolog, which, to one degree or another, contributed to the emergence of foreign masters in the Moscow State (mainly Greek and Italian). Many of them arrived in Russia in her retinue. In the future, the arriving masters (Pietro Antonio Solari, Anton Fryazin, Marco Fryazin, Aleviz Fryazin) will supervise the construction of the new Kremlin, while using both Italian and Russian urban planning techniques.

It must be said that the mentioned Fryazins were not relatives. The real name of Anton Fryazin is Antonio Gilardi, Marco Fryazin was actually called Marco Ruffo, and Aleviz Fryazin was Aloysio da Milano. "Fryazin" is a well-established nickname in Russia for immigrants from southern Europe, mainly Italians. After all, the very word "fryazin" is a distorted word "friag" - Italian.

The construction of the new Kremlin lasted more than one year. It happened step by step and did not imply a momentary demolition of white brick walls. This gradual replacement of the walls was begun in 1485. New walls began to be erected, without dismantling the old ones and without changing their direction, but only slightly retreating from them to the outside. Only in the north-eastern part, starting from the Spasskaya Tower, the wall was straightened, and thus the territory of the fortress increased.

The first was built Taynitskaya tower . According to the Novgorod Chronicle, “On May 29, a strelnitsa was laid on the Moskva River at the Shishkov Gates, and a hiding place was brought out under it; it was built by Anton Fryazin ... ". Two years later, the master Marco Fryazin laid the corner tower of the Beklemishevskaya tower, and in 1488 Anton Fryazin began to build another corner tower from the side of the Moscow River - Sviblov (in 1633 it was renamed into Vodovzvodnaya).

By 1490, the Annunciation, Petrovskaya, the first and second Unnamed towers and the walls between them were erected. New fortifications protected primarily the southern side of the Kremlin. Everyone who entered Moscow saw their impregnability, and they involuntarily conceived the idea of ​​the strength and power of the Muscovite state. At the beginning of 1490, the architect Pietro Antonio Solari arrived in Moscow from Milan, and he was immediately instructed to build a tower with a passage gate on the site of the old Borovitskaya and a wall from this tower to the corner Sviblova.

... on the Moscow River, an archer was laid at the Shishkov Gates, and a hiding place was brought out under it

Along the western wall of the Kremlin, the Neglinka river flowed, with swampy swampy banks at its mouth. From the Borovitskaya tower, it turned sharply to the southwest, leaving quite far from the walls. In 1510, it was decided to straighten its channel, bringing it closer to the wall. A canal was dug, starting near the Borovitskaya tower with its exit to the Moscow River near Sviblova. This section of the fortress militarily proved to be even more difficult to access. A drawbridge was thrown over the Neglinka to the Borovitskaya Tower. The lifting mechanism of the bridge was located in the second floor of the tower. The steep high bank of the Neglinka was a natural and reliable line of defense, therefore, after the construction of the Borovitskaya tower, the construction of the fortress was transferred to its northeastern side.

In the same 1490, the Konstantin-Eleninskaya travel tower was built with a diversion archer and a stone bridge across the moat. In the 15th century, a street that crossed Kitai-Gorod and was called Velikaya led to it. On the territory of the Kremlin, a street was also laid from this tower, crossing the Kremlin hem and leading to the Borovitsky Gates.

Until 1493, Solari built travel towers: the Frolovskaya (later Spasskaya), Nikolskaya and the corner Sobakin (Arsenal) towers. In 1495 the last large gate tower of Troitskaya and deaf ones were built: Arsenalnaya, Komendantskaya and Armory. The commandant's tower was originally called Kolymazhnaya - after the nearby kolymazhnaya yard. All work was supervised by Aleviz Fryazin.

The height of the Kremlin walls, not counting the battlements, ranges from 5 to 19 m, and the thickness is from 3.5 to 6.5 m. At the bottom of the walls on the inside, wide embrasures covered with arches were made for shelling the enemy from heavy artillery pieces. From the ground, you can climb the walls only through Spasskaya, Nabatnaya, Konstantin-Eleninskaya,