entrance towers—the Borovitsky, the Constantine
and Helen, the Frolov, and the Nikolsky (all
1490–1493)—as well as the magnificent corner Ar-
senal Tower and the Kremlin wall facing the Red
Square, but also for his role in the completion of
the Faceted Chambers (Granovitaya palata), its
name due to the diamond-pointed rustication of its
limestone main facade. Used for banquets and state
receptions within the Kremlin palace complex, the
building was begun in 1487 by Marco Friazin, who
designed the three-storied structure with a great
hall whose vaulting was supported by a central
pier. Much of the ornamental detail, however, was
modified or effaced during a rebuilding of the
Chambers by Osip Startsev in 1682.
The rebuilding of the primary cathedral of
Moscow, the Dormition of the Virgin, began in the
early 1470s with the support of Grand Prince Ivan
III and Metropolitan Philip, leader of the Russian Or-
thodox Church. Local builders proved incapable of
so large and complex a task. Thus when a portion
of the walls collapsed, Ivan obtained the services of
an Italian architect and engineer, Aristotle Fiora-
vanti, who arrived in Moscow in 1475. He was in-
structed to model his structure on the Cathedral of
the Dormition in Vladimir; and while his design in-
corporates certain features of the Russo-Byzantine
style, the architect also introduced a number of tech-
nical innovations. The interior—with round columns
instead of massive piers—is lighter and more spa-
cious than any previous Muscovite church. The
same period also saw the construction of smaller
churches in traditional Russian styles, such as the
Church of the Deposition of the Robe (1484–1488)
and the Annunciation Cathedral (1484–1489).
The ensemble of Kremlin cathedrals commis-
sioned by Ivan III concludes with the Cathedral of
the Archangel Mikhail, built in 1505–1508 by Ale-
viz Novy. The building displays the most extrava-
gantly Italianate features of the Kremlin’s Italian
Period, such as the scallop motif, a Venetian fea-
ture soon to enter the repertoire of Moscovy’s ar-
chitects. The wall paintings on the interior date
from the mid-seventeenth century and contain, in
addition to religious subjects, the portraits of Russ-
ian rulers, including those buried in the cathedral
from the sixteenth to the end of the seventeenth
centuries.
The culminating monument in the rebuilding
of the Kremlin is the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great,
begun in 1505, like the Archangel Cathedral, and
completed in 1508. Virtually nothing is known of
its architect, Bon Friazin, who had no other recorded
structure in Moscow. Yet he was clearly a brilliant
engineer, for his bell tower—60 meters high, in two
tiers—withstood the fires and other disasters that
periodically devastated much of the Kremlin. The
tower, whose height was increased by an additional
21 meters during the reign of Boris Godunov, rests
on solid brick walls that are 5 meters thick at the
base and 2.5 meters on the second tier.
The most significant seventeenth-century ad-
dition to the Kremlin was the Church of the Twelve
Apostles, commissioned by Patriarch Nikon as part
of the Patriarchal Palace in the Kremlin. This large
church was originally dedicated to the Apostle
Philip, in implicit homage to the Metropolitan
Philip, who had achieved martyrdom for his op-
position to the terror of Ivan IV.
During the first part of the eighteenth century,
Russia’s rulers were preoccupied with the building
of St. Petersburg. But in the reign of Catherine the
Great, the Kremlin once again became the object of
autocratic attention. Although little came of
Catherine’s desire to rebuild the Kremlin in a neo-
classical style, she commissioned Matvei Kazakov
to design one of the most important state build-
ings of her reign: the Senate, or high court, in the
Kremlin. To create a triangular four-storied build-
ing, Kazakov masterfully exploited a large but
awkward lot wedged in the northeast corner of the
Kremlin. The great rotunda in its center provided
the main assembly space for the deliberations of the
Senate. To this day the rotunda is visible over the
center of the east Kremlin wall.
During the nineteenth century, Nicholas I ini-
tiated the rebuilding of the Great Kremlin Palace
(1839–1849), which had been severely damaged in
the 1812 occupation. In his design the architect
Konstantin Ton created an imposing facade for the
Kremlin above the Moscow River and provided a
stylistic link with the Terem Palace, the Faceted
Chambers, and the Annunciation Cathedral within
the Kremlin. Ton also designed the adjacent build-
ing of the Armory (1844–1851), whose historicist
style reflected its function as a museum for some
of Russia’s most sacred historical relics.
With the transfer of the Soviet capital to
Moscow in 1918, the Kremlin once again became
the seat of power in Russia. That proved a mixed
blessing, however, as some of its venerable monu-
ments, such as the Church of the Savior in the
Woods, the Ascension Convent, and the Chudov
Monastery, were destroyed in order to clear space
for government buildings. Only after the death of
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY