Inside the Kremlin: Religious and Historical Buildings
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Annunciation Cathedral
Annunciation Cathedral (Благовещенский Собор)
Standing next to the Great Kremlin Palace is the Annunciation Cathedral built in 1489 as a private chapel for the royal family. There are several old murals and paintings inside the church. Ivan the Terrible, who was disqualified from Orthodox Christianity after his fourth wedding, built a small extension so that he could watch the services from a gallery.
This was the first Russian Orthodox Church I saw. I was impressed by gigantic paintings all over the walls, depicting hundreds of saints and godly figures.
Assumption Cathedral
Assumption Cathedral (Успенский Собор)
Standing on the north side of Sobornaya pl (Cathedral Square) located inside the Kremlin, this Cathedral was the focal point of worship of pre-revolutionary Russia. The church was built in 1479 and operates as a museum today. The iconography was very impressive.
Secrets Tower (first tower to be built) and Cathedral of Christ the Savior (located outside Kremlin)
This Cathedral, located close to the Kremlin, is one of the most important Cathedrals in Moscow. Its pretty big and beautiful (details later). The secrets tower is called so because there is believed to be a secret passage from here down to the river.
Hall of Facets (Грановитая Палата) housed the Tsar’s throne and was a place for ceremonies.
I wonder why the Soviet leaders did not destroy these religious structures located right within the Kremlin walls, while they tried to subvert religion elsewhere…
World’s biggest Bell
Tsar Bell
Sadly, this 202 tonne monster never rang. The current Tsar bell was cast in 1737 CE from the shattered remains of the previous 130 tonne bell. When the bell was cooling off, it accidentally came into contact with water, and a small chunk (which was 11 tons!) fell off.
Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Tsar Bell
This bell tower is the tallest structure inside Kremlin and was, ages ago, visible from all over Moscow (since it buildings taller than this were banned).
Tsar Canon
The Tsar Canon was cast in 16th century CE. This Canon or the canon balls around it have never been used either!
A modern canon placed outside the Arsenal
This ends the tour of the Kremlin. It was very interesting to see a cluster of old and new, religious, historical and administrative buildings standing next to each other. Budget 3-5 hours to thoroughly see all the structures.
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Hi
↵Greetings from Coimbatore,India. Came in through Lakshmi’s.You have a fascinating blog here with awesome pictures. The pics of the cathedrals, the great bell, the bell tower, the well crafted canons are all indicative of pre revolutionary Czarist Russia. Shall read the rest of your posts leisurely. You are welcome to my blog.Regards Ram
Hi Ram,
↵Thanks and welcome to my blog!! I’m glad you liked the stories here.
Priyank the first two towers again look like belonging to the fairy world.
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Mridula, its very vividly graphic I agree!
↵Is every religious onion in Russia golden? That seems to be the trend in your pictures here.
↵umm… not necessarily. Remember the colorful St. Basil’s Cathedral at the Red Square? It had colorful domes. I don’t know if the colors signify anything though…
↵Very interesting and love the images, so much history, reminds me of China that way, when flying over Russia on the way to China I noted the huge seeming barren territory it covers.
↵Thanks Bob. Yeah Russia is huge ans sparsely populated!
↵Enjoyed every post.
Israel, Russia, Peru all exotic stuff uncommon in the Blog sphere. What more can the audience expect? NZ, Egypt, Turkey, Antarctica… eh
↵Thanks Akhila, and welcome to my blog!
↵Oh I wish… all of those…
Nice images. They must have not allowed to take pictures inside the Cathedral. They must be beautiful from what I have seen here.
↵Yeah man, unfortunately no pictures inside. They were crowded and beautiful – Russian orthodox churches are quite different, they look like Hindu temples – with walls full of pictures of different saints, and musical bells, etc.
↵For some reason, I thought the world’s biggest bell was in China… must be my Chinese brainwashing!
Nice pictures – thanks for the tour!
↵hahaha, you know, I double checked about this bell – but according to (dubious) wikipedia, this is indeed the biggest one….
↵Hi Priyank!
). Enjoy and have a fabulous week!
↵Great shots! Love the wonderful blue sky you got there!!
Blogtrotter is back to the «urban jungle», which Reykjavik is far from being…
Iceland! Wow I’m joining you there in a while…
↵The Cathedral photographs are superb.
↵Thanks Celine!
↵[...] 30 hours in Platskartny: Part 1- Departure This post is part of a series of travelogues narrating my trip to Russia. Here are the other posts! « Previous post: Inside the Kremlin: Religious and Historical buildings [...]
↵[...] thought that these bells were huge, but they are dwarfs compared to the Tsar Bell in Moscow’s Kremlin, which is arguably world’s biggest [...]
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