Several notable sights await the visitor at Ivan Square within the Kremlin. The most obviously eye-catching is the vast, partly-shattered bell. Behind the bell stands the Ivan The Great Bell Tower, although the most photogenic aspect of the bell tower is from Cathedral Square – the other side. Across the square and beyond the Central Committee Military Academy stands the most famous of the towers of the Kremlin Wall, the Spasskaya (“Our Saviour”) Tower.
However, any attempt to even step off the kerb in the direction of Spasskaya will be blocked by a hyper-energetic cop with a whistle – the public aren’t permitted near the buildings of the Presidential Administration. However, you can take the footpath and walk across to the Tainitsky Garden – a haven of tranquility within the nerve-centre of the Russian State.
The Tsar-Bell is the largest ever cast in the world. Six metres tall (twenty feet), the bell weighs 200 metric tonnes, and was cast by master bell-founders Mikhail and Ivan Motorin, intended for the bell-tower of the Assumption Cathedral. However, a fire broke out during the casting process when the metal was still nearly molten.
The night-watchmen knew nothing about metal-working, and tried to put the fire out by pouring buckets of water onto the glowing bell – causing a massive twelve-tonne chunk of the bell’s wall to splinter away, and sending ruinous cracks through the rest of the bell. For many long years the cracked bell lay where it had been broken, but finally it was lifted upright and stood on its present plinth.
For many years there was an entirely apocryphal legend about how the Tsar-Bell was cracked – and that the guilt fell upon Tsar Peter The Great. According to this story, Peter had just returned to Moscow from his famous victory at the Battle Of Poltava, in which he finally vanquished the Swedes after the decades-long Great Northern Wars. Peter decreed that every bell in the city ought to ring out in honour of his triumph. But the Tsar-Bell didn’t ring, because the bell-ringers were too lazy to swing its huge heavy clapper.
Tsar Peter fell into a rage when the bell was not rung, and ordered his troops to take over ringing the Tsar-Bell instead – but they didn’t know how, and only succeeded in breaking the clapper altogether. Now the Tsar entirely lost his temper, and flew at the bell in person, attacking it and shouting “I’ll teach you to defy my orders! Bell that won’t celebrate my victory, eh?!” But the result was the bell fell out of its wooden bell-stand, smashing on the floor, with a huge chunk broken out of it. The story, however, is only a legend.
Photo Kreml in Moskau IMG 0015, by Jochims, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
However, any attempt to even step off the kerb in the direction of Spasskaya will be blocked by a hyper-energetic cop with a whistle – the public aren’t permitted near the buildings of the Presidential Administration. However, you can take the footpath and walk across to the Tainitsky Garden – a haven of tranquility within the nerve-centre of the Russian State.
The Tsar-Bell is the largest ever cast in the world. Six metres tall (twenty feet), the bell weighs 200 metric tonnes, and was cast by master bell-founders Mikhail and Ivan Motorin, intended for the bell-tower of the Assumption Cathedral. However, a fire broke out during the casting process when the metal was still nearly molten.
The night-watchmen knew nothing about metal-working, and tried to put the fire out by pouring buckets of water onto the glowing bell – causing a massive twelve-tonne chunk of the bell’s wall to splinter away, and sending ruinous cracks through the rest of the bell. For many long years the cracked bell lay where it had been broken, but finally it was lifted upright and stood on its present plinth.
For many years there was an entirely apocryphal legend about how the Tsar-Bell was cracked – and that the guilt fell upon Tsar Peter The Great. According to this story, Peter had just returned to Moscow from his famous victory at the Battle Of Poltava, in which he finally vanquished the Swedes after the decades-long Great Northern Wars. Peter decreed that every bell in the city ought to ring out in honour of his triumph. But the Tsar-Bell didn’t ring, because the bell-ringers were too lazy to swing its huge heavy clapper.
Tsar Peter fell into a rage when the bell was not rung, and ordered his troops to take over ringing the Tsar-Bell instead – but they didn’t know how, and only succeeded in breaking the clapper altogether. Now the Tsar entirely lost his temper, and flew at the bell in person, attacking it and shouting “I’ll teach you to defy my orders! Bell that won’t celebrate my victory, eh?!” But the result was the bell fell out of its wooden bell-stand, smashing on the floor, with a huge chunk broken out of it. The story, however, is only a legend.
Photo Kreml in Moskau IMG 0015, by Jochims, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
