Jax Stumpes: Waterways of the Tsars: Moscow: The Kremlin (10/11/2019)

Friday, October 11, 2019
Because we had missed the Tetryakov Museum that we thought was on an included tour, we added the Armory Museum to today's included shore excursion, "The Kremlin."
Sights seen from the motor coach:

Dinamo Stadium (2018) for association football (i.e., soccer) and
includes an indoor arena, VTB Arena, for ice hockey (KSS)

Советский/Soviet Hotel (1951-1952, in Soviet Empire style) was
the official hotel of the Soviet government for foreign officials

Ministry of Defense Building (1940-1951, by Lev Rudnev);
in front on the R is the Chapel of Sts Boris and Gleb (rebuilt 1997,
on the site of a church destroyed by the Bolsheviks) (KSS)

The star-shaped Arbatsky Metro Station (1935, by L Teplitskiy) (KSS)

Kremlin Tour:

Trinity Tower (1495-1499, by Italian architect Aloisio da Milano/
Aleviz Fryazin Milanets) is reached by a bridge from Kutafia Tower
(which was covered in scaffolding); it was the official entrance to the
Kremlin for Communist Party Congresses, thus the icon of the Holy Trinity
over the gate was completely removed and not just plastered over (KSS)

Just to the R upon entering the Kremlin, Потешный
дворец/Poteshny Palace (1652) was once used as a
residence by Stalin, and includes the
Church of Our Lady's Glorification

Государственный Кремлёвский дворец/State Kremlin Palace
(1959-1961, by Mikhail Posokhin) was built for the Communist Party
Congresses and is sunk 15 m/49' into the ground to not dwarf the
surrounding buildings; now a theater and home to the Kremlin Ballet

The State Kremlin Palace is topped by the coat of arms
of Russia, a golden double-headed eagle with a shield
showing a mounted rider with a spear standing
over a dragon (secularly the figure is not called
St George, one of the patron saints of Russia)

Патриарший дворец с церковью Двенадцати апостолов/
Patriarchal Palace with the Church of the Twelve Apostles
(1652-1656 by Ivan Semenev and Aleksey Korolkov)

Благовещенский собор/Assumption or Dormition
Cathedral (1475-1479, by Italian Aristotle Fioravanti
based on Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir)
was used as the coronation church of the tsars

Assumption Cathedral portal

Golden domes of the Верхоспасский собор/
Upper Savior Cathedral (1635-1636), part of the
unseen Теремной дворец/Terem Palace

Грановитая палата/Palace of Facets (1487-1491, by Marco Ruffo and Pietro
Solario, rebuilt 1994) is known for the Italian Renaissance stone façade

During the Streltsy Uprising of 1682, several feuding members of the family of Peter the Great were said to be thrown down the steps of the Palace of Facets, onto the pikes of the Streltsy Guard. Known as the Red Staircase because of the blood, Stalin had the stairs demolished in the 1930s.

Благовещенский собор/Annunciation Cathedral
(1484-1489, on orders of Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible
added six domes to replace three burned in a fire) was used
as the personal church of the tsars for weddings and baptisms

Russian Orthodox church architecture is based on the Byzantine style in Constantinople, with the floorplan of a cross in a square or nine squares in a square. In Russia the domes were raised on drums that became taller and narrower to resemble lighted candles. The Russians also developed the kokoshnik, a pointed gable leading to the drums, which sometimes were arranged in tiers.

большой кремлевский дворец/Grand Kremlin Palace (1837-1839,
by Konstantin Thon, as the residence of the tsars) was later used for
meetings and conferences of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR,
and is now the official residence of the President of Russia,
although rarely used for this purpose (KSS)

Connection between the Armory and the Grand Kremlin Palace

Оружейная палата/Armory (1844-1851 by Konstantin Thon, for the
first public museum in Moscow founded in 1806) (KSS)

After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Armory collections were enriched with treasures taken from the Kremlin cathedrals and other churches, monasteries and private collections. No photos are allowed inside the Armory Museum, where we saw items such as Catherine the Great's wedding dress, jewel-encrusted thrones, sable fur-lined crowns of the tsars, imperial carriages and sledges/sleighs, gold and silver items, armor and weapons, state gifts, and a collection of Fabergé jeweled eggs.

Архангельский собор/Cathedral of the Archangel
(1505-1508, by Italian Aloisio the New) is the
necropolis/place of burial of the tsars and grand princes,
their wives and children, up to Peter the Great

Peter the Great moved the capital to St Petersburg and built the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul as the new necropolis of tsars. The exceptions are Boris Godunov who was removed from the Cathedral of the Archangel and buried at the Trinity Sergius Lavra Monastery, and Tsar Peter II, who happened to be in Moscow when he died and was buried here instead of in St Petersburg.

Успенская звонница/Assumption Belfry (1523-1543,
by Italian Petrok Maly) and Колокольня Ивана
Великого/Ivan the Great Bell Tower (1501-1508,
by Marco Bono Friazin)

It is difficult to learn how many bells there really are in this complex. Let's go with 24 bells: 18 smaller bells in the lower and middle levels of the Ivan the Great Tower, plus four large bells. In the Assumption Belfry is the largest bell at 70 tonnes and finally one bell is in the Filaret Annex.

Oops, one more bell: the Tsar Bell, the world's
biggest bell at 202 tonnes was meant for the
Assumption Belfry, but when it was cast and
cooling in a pit, a fire broke out that threatened
the structure holding the bell; guards threw cold
water over the bell, which then cracked and
an 11-tonne piece fell off

The 11-tonnes chunk of broken bell
(a tonne is a metric ton at 2204.6 pounds) (KSS)

Underneath the bell is its clapper

And now we have the Tsar Cannon (1586, by Andrey Chokhov),
the largest bombard cannon by caliber (barrel diameter of 890 mm/35"
and length of 5.3m/210" for a caliber of 6) in the world (KSS)

The Tsar cannon was never fired, but it was meant to fire grapeshot, not those one-ton cannonballs in the photo!

A view of Savior Tower and over the Kremlin wall at the domes
of St Basil's Cathedral in Red Square (KSS)

Сенатский дворец/Senate Building (1776-1787, by Matvei Kazakov,
for the Governing Senate instituted by Peter the Great) became the seat of
the Soviet government and Lenin had a private apartment on the third floor;
now it houses the Russian presidential administration (KSS)

Perhaps a display of Russian cannon used in various campaigns (KSS)

Beyond the Senate is the Никольская Башня/
Nicholas Tower (1806, by Luigi Rusca,
in Neo-Gothic style)

School children visiting the Kremlin (KSS)

Арсенал Московского Кремля/Arsenal (1736 with restorations)
was dedicated as a museum after the War of 1812 and displays
Russian carriage mounted cannon, and 875 cannon captured
from Napoleon's retreating army (KSS)

Outside the Kremlin walls is the Manege (1817, by
General Augustin de Bethencourt as military mounted-on-horseback
parade ground); now an exhibition hall

Seen from the motor coach on the way back to the Viking Truvor:

Памятник В Маяковскому/Monument(1958, by
Alexander Kibalnikov) to the Bolshevik/Soviet
poet Vladimir Mayakovsky

Iskra Park contemporary building

Back on the Viking Truvor for lunch, and we finally launched to begin our sail away from Moscow.

Heading north on the Moscow Canal

Autumn foliage of mostly birch trees

Kent & Tamiko

Construction of apartments on the outskirts of Moscow (KSS)

Ferry dock

Train crossing the October Railway Bridge; it is this bridge
that limits the clearance for river vessels at 13.6 m/45'

Московский Международный Яхтенный порт/Moscow
International Yacht Port where river cruise boats are already
settling in for the winter

Barge on the Moscow Canal

Zombieland? "It's a mixture of a quest and an action/laser tag game,
where you're caught in a zombie apocalypse scenario on a ship
and have to fight and shoot your way out of it."