Moscow: The Kremlin and the Red Square 🇷🇺 Moscow Video Guide

One of the world's great cities, Moscow, is the capital of Russia. Since it was first mentioned in Chronicles of 1147, Moscow has played a vital role in Russian history. Indeed, the history of the city and of the Russian nation are closely interlinked. Moscow played a crucial role in the revolutionary events of 1917 and, fearing a German attack on Saint Petersburg, Lenin ordered that the capital be reverted once more to Moscow. Later, under Stalin's leadership in the 1930s, the city underwent a program of massive industrialization with a new urban plan for the city that unflintingly destroyed much of old Moscow and its wake. The Moscow that stands today presents a composite picture of the city's a place where medieval churches and fortifications, Stalinist central planning, Khrushchev-era public housing projects, and post-Soviet modernism can all be found side by side. Moscow is not only the political center of Russia, but also the country's leading city in population, in industrial output, and in cultural, scientific, and educational importance. For more than 600 years, Moscow has been the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although many places of worship were closed, converted into museums, or destroyed after the revolution, Moscow retained a number of functioning Russian Orthodox churches, in addition to a few other Christian churches and Jewish and Muslim places of worship. Arbat Street, the most famous street in Moscow, lies to the west of the Kremlin. It is one of the oldest roads in the city and was first mentioned as early as 1493, in connection with a fire that started here in the Church of St. Nicholas. In the reminder of this central Moscow, within the Garden Ring are buildings representative of every period of Moscow's development, from the 15th century to the present. Examples of the Moscow Baroque style, the Classical period, and the revivalist Old Russian style may be found. In the Soviet period, streets were widened and much of the old part of the inner city was demolished and replaced by large office and apartment buildings, government ministries, headquarters of national and international bodies and organizations, hotels and larger shops, and principal cultural centers. Walking to the western end of the Arbat, visitors can see the imposing towers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, one of Stalin's so-called Seven Sisters. The towers were constructed for the glorification of the Soviet state after the Second World War. Inextricably linked to all the most important historical and political events in Russia The Kremlin, built between the 14th and the 17th centuries by outstanding Russian and foreign architects, was a residence of the great prince and also a religious center. The Kremlin contained within its walls a unique series of masterpieces of architecture and the plastic arts, religious monuments of exceptional beauty, such as the Church of the Annunciation, Cathedral of the Domitian, Church of the Archangel and the Bell Tower of Ivan Veliky, and palaces such as the Great Palace of the Kremlin, which comprises within its walls the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin and the Teremenoi Palace. Russian architecture was clearly affected many times in its history by influences emanating from the Kremlin. A particular example is the Italian Renaissance. As the center of Moscow, streets in all directions branch out from the Red Square. It covers 75,000 square meters, is closely associated with the Kremlin, lying beneath its east wall. The old history of the Red Square began life as a slum, a shanty town of wooden huts clustered beneath the Kremlin walls that housed a collection of peddlers, criminals and drunks, whose statues left them outside the official boundaries of the medieval city. It was cleared on the orders of Ivan III at the end of the 15th century, but remained the province of the mob, the site of public executions and rebel rousing until much later. The Mausoleum of Lenin on Red Square is the Soviet Union's prime example of symbolic monumental architecture. To proclaim the universal significance of the Russian Revolution, the funerary urns of heroes of the revolution were incorporated into the Kremlin's walls. The site thus combines, in an exceptional manner, the preserved vestiges of bygone days with the present-day signs of one of the greatest events in modern history. Once the location of public ceremonies, today the Moscow Red Square is most well known for its architecture and as being the burial place of Lenin. What began as the main marketplace for the capital of Russia has transformed into a tourist attraction. At the south end of the Red Square is the famous Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed, one of the most beautiful monuments of orthodox art. Although it's known to everyone as Saint Basil's, this legendary building is officially called the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat. The popular alternative refers to Basil the Blessed, a Moscovite holy fool who was buried on the site a few years before the present building was erected. The cathedral was ordered by Ivan the Terrible to mark the 1552 capture of Kazan for the Mongol forces. It was completed in 1560. The original conceptualization of Saint Basil's Cathedral Moscow is concealed under many blankets of addition and renovations, creating a controversy among architectural masterminds as to what the true significance really is. Torn between two ideas, one of the representation of the medieval star and the other paying praise and respect to Jerusalem churches, the fact stands that no matter what the cathedral truly represents, it is indeed magnificent. Originally Saint Basil's Cathedral Moscow builders created it entirely out of the white stone, perfectly pairing it with the white-hued Kremlin and the domes then topping the cathedral with oyster and gold. Although the towers and domes appear chaotic, there is a symmetry and symbolism in its design. There are eight domed chapels symbolizing the eight assaults on Kazan. The interior is a maze of galleries winding from chapel to chapel and level to level via narrow stairways and low arches. The interiors of the cathedral are designed in a very interesting and unusual manner as well. Narrow staircases and passages not high churches contrast strikingly with the imposing exterior appearance of the cathedral. Thorough brickwork of the arches with a spiral design draws visitors attention. One realizes the real scale of this monumental building only having found yourself in the central church. The cathedral was originally one of a pair of churches, the other being the Cathedral of Kazan erected in 163 in the vast open area bordering the GUM by Prince Pusatsky to commemorate the victory over the Poles. It disappeared in the early 1930s along with several convents in the neighboring area. In modern times Saint Basil's came very close to falling victim to Stalin who resented that it prevented his soldiers from leaving Red Square en masse. But the architect Vernovsky stood on the cathedral steps and threatened to cut his own throat if the masterpiece was destroyed and Stalin relented. The more modest interior design includes corridors which feel more like mazes and chapels dimly lit by existing light. The interior walls of Saint Basil's Cathedral are adorned with fine spun floral patterns in soft hues all dating back to the 17th century. The cathedral became a branch of the State History Museum. The imposing buildings that stand on the Red Square is a state historical museum. The museum was opened in 1894 to mark the third and was the result of a 20-year-long project to consolidate various archaeological and anthropological collections into a single museum that told the story of the history of Russia according to the latest scientific methodology. The building which promised mixed aesthetic reactions is undeniably impressive. With a mass of jagged towers and cornices it is a typical example of Russian revivalism, the eastern equivalent of the neo-gothic movement. It was built by architect Vladimir Sherwood on the site of the old pharmacy building which was the original home of the Moscow University. Alexander Garden stretches along the entire span of the Kremlin's western wall from Revolution Square to the Kremlin Embankment. The initial name of the grounds was the Kremlin Gardens with three discrete gardens sharing a matching layout and landscape design. Numerous pieces of trees and ornamental bushes decorate the lawns between them and blossom at different times of the year. The garden right outside the Kremlin walls in the very heart of Moscow served as a symbol of Moscow's recovery and the liberation of Europe after Napoleon's defeat. The massive cast iron gate to the upper garden overlooking the historical museum. In 1967 a memorial was built in the upper garden to mark the 25th anniversary of the defeat of fascist troops near Moscow. The tomb of the unknown soldier where they buried unknown red army soldiers killed in 1941. The memorial has been post number one of the honor guard with an hourly change. Within its 28 hectare triangle and saint the Kremlin of Moscow which according to chronicles dates from 1156 contains an ensemble of monuments of outstanding quality. The towering red brick Kremlin walls following the counters of the Kremlin hill as they have done for over five centuries form an irregular triangle with its southern flank against the Moscow river, its western wall rising high above the Aleksandrovsky gardens and its northeastern side following the edge of the red square. The walls are a total of 2205 meters long between 3.5 and 6.5 meters thick range from 5 till 19 meters in height and are topped by a wall of tailed crenellations. Punctuating the walls are no less than 20 separate defensive towers of varying heights and shapes. Today the Kremlin remains as alluring and enigmatic as ever. The Tsar cannon is a unique artillery piece and was cast at the Moscow cannon foundry in 1586. A bronze cannon more than five meters long and with a weight of more than 39 tons. Since 1960 it has stood on a gun carriage in Ivanovskaya square surrounded by a vast cast iron cannon balls each of which weighs about a thousand kilos. The cannon balls are purely decorative as the Tsar cannon has never been used in military action although it was originally intended as a powerful weapon in the Kremlin's defenses. The gun's barrel is decorated with figurative reliefs and a portrait of Tsar Fedor Yanovich on horseback. Thanks to its unusual measurements this is one of the largest and oldest cannons in the world and has earned the proud name of Tsar cannon. Initially the Tsar cannon was fixed on the red square. In 1706 it was moved into the Kremlin fixed at first in the arsenal's inner yard and then at the main gate. In the eastern side of the cathedral square stands a magnificent even the great bell tower which at a height of 81 meters was the tallest building in all Russia for almost 400 years. It was the work of an Italian Marco Bono who was ordered by even the great to design a bell tower for the archangel. Assumption and Annunciation cathedrals next to the 1329 church of Saint John Climacus under the bells. The tower is the main compositional focal point on the Kremlin example. There are 21 bells in the tower and belfry of which the Assumption bell located in the central arch of the belfry is the largest at 70 tons. It was always the first bell to ring on church holidays a signal that started all the other church bells in Moscow. The bell tower was completed in 1508 at the same time as the archangel cathedral. It consisted of two octagonal pillars placed one on top of the other tapering towards the top and crowned with a dome on a circular drum. The lower tier had an arcade at the top for bells and ended with a cornice. The second tier was more elongated and also had an arcade for bells at the top. The walls of the bell tower were pierced by a few narrow windows which emphasized the building's massive proportions. Between 1532 and 1543 architect Petrok Mali built the four-story Assumption belfry. The Even the Great Bell Tower complex is the key of the Moscow Kremlin's composition. It separates Cathedral Square from Ivanov Square. It includes three objects of different time, the pillar of Even the Great Bell Tower, the Assumption belfry and the Filaret's Annex. The Tsar bell, a masterpiece of the Russian casting of the 18th century, stands on the stone base to the east of the Even the Great Bell Tower. It was cast in 1733 till 1735 on the order of Empress Anne Yanovna by the casting masters Ivan Motorin and his son Mikhail. Up till now the Tsar bell is considered to be the biggest one in the world. It weighs about 202 ton and is 6.14 meters high. Its diameter is 6.6 meters. In 1735 the Tsar bell was finally cast, however it still remained in the mouldering pit. In 1737 a terrible trinity fire broke out in Moscow and spread to the Kremlin buildings. When the flames on the scaffolding around the bell were being extinguished cold water fell on the bell itself. The difference in temperature caused it to crack and a huge piece of 11.5 ton broke off. In 1836 the Tsar bell was lifted up for the mouldering pit and placed on a stone pedestal by French architect Auguste Montferrand. The Tsar bell is decorated with bas-relief portraits of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Empress Anne Yanovna, also adorned with vegetation ornament in the baroque style and images of saints, angels and inscriptions telling the story of the bell. The archangel Michael, a suitably warlike heavenly figure, was chosen as the patron saint of the rulers of Moscow in the 14th century. The cathedral that bears his name was erected between 1505 and 1508, the culmination of a grandiose building project begun by even the great to reflect the growing power of the state and provide a fitting resting place for Russian royalty. The cathedral was built under the guidance of Italian architect Alavisio Novi. He created a highly original structure by superimposing elements of architectural styles of the Italian renaissance into the traditional Russian form of five domes and six pillars. The archangel cathedral has played an important role in Russian political history, hosting celebrations of victories by the Russian military and the burials of Tsars and Grand Princes until 1712, when the capital moved to Saint Petersburg. The cathedral's necropolis is a reminder of many important events in the history of the state. Here lies the remains of Grand Dukes and Tsars, even Kalita, even the terrible Mikhail Fedorovich, Alexei Mikhailovich and others. Some 54 tombs in all. The northern and the western entrances are decorated with carved white stone portals. Originally, the cathedral was not completely whited as nowadays. Red color of its brick walls combining with the white stone architectural details made the cathedral look bright and ornate. The cathedral's outlook combines severity of order divisions and plentiness of decorative details. The tachomeras are filled with huge carved conches. The walls of the cathedral are divided into sections following the altar pattern, which is typical for architecture of the renaissance. The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest autocephalous or ecclesiastically independent Eastern Orthodox Church in the world. Removal of the empire's capital from Rome to Constantinople, the second Rome, in 330 greatly strengthened the temporal power of the Bishop of Rome. In the Byzantine Empire, the Patriarch of Constantinople remained under the political control of the Christian Emperor. Cultural, political, philosophical and theological differences strained relations between the two cities. Rome demanded Latin as the one ecclesiastical language, but Constantinople encouraged national languages for the liturgy and emphasized translation of the scriptures. In 1054, leaders of the two bodies excommunicated each other. One reflection of growing difficulties lay in the counterclaims to pursue mission and hold the alliance of water areas between the two jurisdictions. Wrocław of Great Moravia sought help from the Emperor, who in about 862 sent two brothers, Constantine and Methodius, from Constantinople to Moravia. They provided scriptures and liturgy in the mother tongue of each people evangelized. They also trained others in their methods, a major factor in winning Bulgaria. Constantinople's greatest mission outreach was to areas known as Kievan Rus', that later became Russia. Christianity was apparently introduced into Kievan Rus' by Greek missionaries from Byzantium in the 9th century. An organized Christian community is known to have existed at Kiev as early as the first half of the 10th century, and in 957, Olga, the Regent of Kiev, was baptized in Constantinople. Undoubtedly influenced by his Christian grandmother and by a proposed marriage alliance with the Byzantine imperial family, Olga's grandson Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev, from among several options, chose the Byzantine rite. Under Vladimir's successors and until 1448, the Russian church was headed by the metropolitans of Kiev and formed a metropolitanate of Byzantine Patriarchate. While Russia lay under Mongol rule from the 13th through the 15th century, the Russian church enjoyed a favorite position, obtaining immunity from taxation in 1270. This period saw remarkable growth of monasticism. In 1448, the Russian bishops elected their own Patriarch without recourse to Constantinople, and the Russian church was thenceforth autocephalous. In 1589, Job, the Metropolitan of Moscow, was elevated to the position of Patriarch with the approval of Constantinople and received the fifth rank in honor after the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. In the mid-17th century, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Nikon came into violent conflict with the Russian Tsar Alexis. Nikon, pursuing the ideal of theocratic state, attempted to establish the primacy of the Orthodox Church over the state of Russia, and he also undertook a thorough revision of Russian Orthodox texts and rituals to bring them into accord with the rest of the Eastern Orthodoxy. Nikon was deposed in 1666, but the Russian church retained his reforms and athematized those who continued to oppose them. The latter became known as Old Believers and formed a vigorous body of dissenters within the Russian Orthodox Church for the next two centuries. After Constantinople fell to the Turks, Russia continued for several centuries to develop a national art that had grown out of the Middle Byzantine period. During the 10th till the 15th centuries, Russian art had begun to show marked local variation from the Byzantine model, and after the fall of Constantinople, it continued along these distinctive lines of development. This period of Russian art, which lasted until the adoption of Western European culture in the 18th century, is also known as the Moscow or National period. After the hegemony in the world of the Orthodox Christianity shifted to Moscow with Russia, Moscow, having become the new city of Constantine, the third Rome, and aspiring to rival the older centers of culture, launched a building program commensurate with its international importance. The Kremlin and two of its important churches were rebuilt by Italian architects. These churches, the Assumption Cathedral and the Cathedral of Saint Michael the Archangel, were largely modeled after the churches of Vladimir. Lying at the very center of the Kremlin, the Cathedral Square traditionally welcomed all guests to the town who entered through the main gates. The square's name relates to the great cathedrals that stand here – the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Cathedral of the Archangel, as well as the Church of the Twelve Apostles and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe. The Cathedral of the Assumption is simple and austere, a vaulted limestone block topped by five golden copulas. The building is the oldest church in the Kremlin and was also the most important. The seat of the Russian Orthodox Church was transferred here from Vladimir in 1326, making it the center of the state of Moscow and Moscow the most powerful of the Russian principalities. Here, Russian emperors were crowned and before them Tsars and Grand Dukes. Patriarchs, metropolitans and bishops were also consecrated here. In an age when state power and religion were barely separable, it was also a center of state ritual, a place where governmental decrees were read and official state services were held. The geometrically lucid composition, the distinct proportions monumentally and significance distinguished the cathedral from the surrounding buildings. The new Kremlin was to symbolize the grandeur of the Russian state, which had united practically all Russian principalities and was now the center of orthodoxy after the downfall of Byzantium. He began with the erection of the Cathedral of the Assumption, which was to reproduce the size and appearance of the majestic Cathedral of the Assumption that Vladimir built in the 12th century, the golden age of the Vladimir-Susl land. Yet the construction work, started in 1427 by architects Krivtsov and Mishkin, eventuated in a disaster in 1474, when the already vaulted huge building collapsed. To resume work, even the third invited Aristotle Fioravanti, a prominent Bologna engineer and architect. In a matter of five summer seasons, he cleared the debris and built the Cathedral, which we see today. Contemporaries attached special significance to that undertaking, and a detailed story about the erection of the Cathedral of the Assumption was written into chronicles. The garbled frescoes on the east and west faces were added in the 1660s, and otherwise the exterior has remained almost unchanged to this day. The tradition of Byzantine fresco painting continued in the Balkans up to the 19th century. In Russia, an evolution took place from the 15th century onwards, when mural painting began to grow stylistically closer to an icon painting. Over centuries, the Cathedral did not change its aspect appreciably, notwithstanding numerous repairs and restorations. In the beginning of the 17th century, the vaults were rebuilt and the shapes of the roofs and domes were somewhat changed. At the end of the past century, major restoration operations were carried out, reconstructing the initial shape of the windows, removing layers of plaster from the walls and exposing the white stone masonry. Several magnificently preserved historic cathedrals and churches stand within the Kremlin walls. Constructed at different times by master craftsmen of the age, under varying historical circumstances, these magnificent churches have background stories which are at least as interesting as the monuments themselves. Each of these churches play a vital role in the Throughout the ages, the Cathedral has suffered along with the people of Russia. Napoleon's troops stapled their horses here during his Russian campaign and, in 1918, the Cathedral was damaged as Whites and Bolsheviks exchanged fire. The last liturgy was held on Easter in 1918 by Patriarch Tikhon, after which the Cathedral was closed and its treasures requisitioned by the Bolsheviks. The Cathedral was reopened to the public in 1990. Most of the frescoes in the Cathedral of the Assumption date back to the 17th century. Under a special edict from Tsar in 1642, about 150 artists were brought to Moscow from various towns to decorate the Cathedral. Icon painters Ivan and Boris Peysen and Sida Pospeyev led the team. It is their paintings that we see now, although many are missing. The Kremlin of Moscow, which according to dates from 1156, contains an ensemble of monuments of outstanding quality. Ever since the establishment of the Principality of Moscow in 1263 and the transfer to Moscow of the seat of Vladimir Metropolitan in 1328, this was the center of both temporal and spiritual power. Some of these original buildings bordered Cathedral Square. Others, such as the Nativity of the Virgin in 1393, were incorporated into the Great Palace when it was rebuilt. The nucleus expanded northwards with the Palace of the Patriarchs and the Church of the Twelve Apostles, erected in the 17th century, and especially with the Arsenal of Peter the Great, which fills the northwest angle of the encente. The Kremlin is Russia's mythic refugee, a self-contained city with a multitude of palaces, armories and churches, a medieval fortress that links the modern nation to its legendary past in the ancient state of Kievan Rus'. The ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.