Day 10: The Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin as seen from the Moscow River.  This photo was taken during my trip to Russia in September 2011.

After lunch we went back to the Alexander Gardens and got in line to get tickets to see the Kremlin itself.  We opted to get lunch before seeing the Kremlin in part due to the long lines in front of the ticket offices (located in the gardens near the base of the Troitskaya Tower, complete with gift shop).  Unfortunately, they were as long as ever, so we decided to suck it up and get in line.

The line was moving at an agonizing pace, so Dad kept our place in line while I went in search of other ticket offices.  Sure enough, there were two smaller ticket offices set up elsewhere in the gardens (with more limited operating hours than the main office).  The lines were much, much shorter at these, so we switched lines and started an inside joke between Dad and I about queuing theory that would last the rest of the trip.  On a side note, right after Dad and I got tickets and Lance came up to the counter, the clock struck 2PM and, in accordance with the posted break schedule, the ticket office cashier shut down her window and closed the blinds without a moment’s hesitation.  So, we ended up waiting for twenty minutes in the cramped makeshift ticket office waiting for Lance to get his tickets, but finding good company with a Swiss student who was out traveling through Eastern Europe and Russia (see below – blue shirt, looking toward camera).

Entering the Kremlin through the Troitskaya Tower. This is the most popular entrance, though you can also enter by the Moscow River at the Borovitskaya Tower.

Inside the Kremlin itself there are a number of off-limits buildings (I suppose the government actually does need to function in these buildings) such as the ceremonial residence of the Russian President, the Grand Kremlin Palace (see first picture – white building with green roof), or the 60s-style architecture State Kremlin Palace (see below) which was originally built for Communist Party meetings.

The State Kremlin Palace, formerly used as a place for Communist Party meetings and now used to receive VIPs or hold other political meetings.

The northern half of the Kremlin is kept completely off limits to tourists, separated by a wide street and numerous watchful guards.  The workers wearing blue overalls are construction workers remodeling the Kremlin Senate building.  This is the building with the green dome and Russian flag visible from Red Square.

The main tourist attraction centers around the Cathedral Square, containing five Orthodox Churches many of them formerly used by the czars or royalty when they were in Moscow.  There is very little English signage inside these churches and there is no audio guide available so the best way to get the most out of seeing the churches would be to either do the research in advance and just show up to see it in person, or to shell out some rubles for a guided tour.  We did neither, but still enjoyed the architecture and the icons.  Photography is not allowed inside the churches.

The southern half of Cathedral Square, with the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael (left) and Cathedral of the Annunciation (right) visible.  The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is where all of the Russian tsars and  were buried until Peter the Great relocated the capital to St. Petersburg in 1712.  The Cathedral of the Annunciation is where the coronation of tsars took place and served as the royal family’s personal cathedral.

The Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the accompanying Church of the Resurrection.  The bell tower was the tallest building in Moscow for several hundred years and resisted Napoleon’s attempt to destroy it when he retreated from the city.  Visible at the base of the tower is the Tsar Bell and to the right, the Tsar Cannon. 

The Russians have a tradition of building the biggest things in their usual game of one-upmanship, to the point of being impractical.  For example, the Tsar Bomb was the largest themonuclear weapon ever designed or tested (100 megatons designed yield, reduced to 50 in the test to reduce fallout).  Earlier examples from Russian history are the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell.

The Tsar Cannon is a 890mm (35”) cannon cast in 1586 and weighing roughly 55 tons including carriage.  It is a largely ceremonial cannon which was not fired when Napoleon took Moscow in 1812, and it remained in Moscow because Napoleon didn’t want to drag it all the way back to France for a war trophy.

Next to it, the Tsar Bell is the largest bell in the world.  It is actually a third-generation Tsar Bell, each one successively growing larger and more impractical than the former.  The first bell, weighing a meager 18 tons was actually functional and mounted in the Ivan the Great Bell Tower (a wooden tower that preceded the current one).  Unfortunately, it crashed to the ground in a fire and broke to pieces.  The second bell weighed 100 tons but was, again, destroyed in a fire.  This final iteration, weighing 220 tons, never made it out of the casting pit.  A fire destroyed the scaffolding and fire fighting efforts caused the 11-ton chunk to crack and fall off.  Several attempts to raise the bell, by both Russians and the French, failed.  I would say that this is the Russian’s early attempts at competing with the US as their bell is both larger than the Liberty Bell and is actually broken versus cracked, but the Tsar Bell predates the Liberty Bell by roughly 20 years.

Dad in front of the Tsar Cannon.  The cannonballs in the picture are actually too large to fit in the cannon.  In reality, the cannon would have fired a 800kg stone projectile.	The Tsar Bell, which is so large that it has never been successfully mounted or rung.  It is currently the largest bell in the world, weighing roughly 220 tons.

Finally, we walked through the Kremlin Gardens which overlook the Moscow River, before heading back to the Napoleon Hostel in preparation for an evening ballet. 

A view of Moscow as seen from the Kremlin Gardens.  The church in the distance is the Christ the Savior Cathedral, the tallest Orthodox church in the world.  This photo was taken on my previous trip to Moscow in 2011.