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.

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:—

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.

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.

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:—

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:—

“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 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:—

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

CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR BEHIND THE GOLDEN GATES
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.

POTIESHNI DVORETS (PLEASURE PALACE)
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.