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Most recent 100 results returned for keyword: #russia (Search this on MAP)

Russia Tumbler Tags: russia   starbucks   tumblers    From: Russia Date of manufacture: 2011 Size: Grande (16 oz) Recent Updated: 2 days ago - Created by Hung-Jou Chen - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Hung-Jou Chen Russia Tumbler Tags: russia   starbucks   tumblers    From: Russia Date of manufacture: 2011 Size: Grande (16 oz) Recent Updated: 2 days ago - Created by Hung-Jou Chen - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Hung-Jou Chen Russia Tumbler Tags: russia   starbucks   tumblers    From: Russia Date of manufacture: 2011 Size: Grande (16 oz) Recent Updated: 2 days ago - Created by Hung-Jou Chen - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Hung-Jou Chen Russia - Air Force "Flag of Russia" Tags: airplane   russia   moscow   aircraft   aviation   military   aeroplane   airshow   airforce   aviao   russian   avión   aereo   russie   avion   rusland   militaryaviation   avia   rusia   moscou   victoryday   moskva   sukhoi   moscú   russland   aeroplano   rússia   su25   rusko   rusija   ruscia   moskvo   russiaairforce   russja   ruskô   rûsya   ruslaand   rusiye   aëroplanum   sukhoisu25ubm   su25ubm    Russia - Air Force, Sukhoi Su-25UBM ( 33,70,71,72,73,88) Training flight before the Victory Day on the Red Square. Recent Updated: 1 month ago - Created by Osdu - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Osdu Russia Tags: russia   allpixtakenwithanikonfm    In 1981 I went on an architectural tour of Russia. I was hopeless at photographing the bling of the palaces and suchlike, and was attracted rather to more basic charms, or to simple things which celebrated the differences between our countries. I know these pix are ancient, but I was looking through them again today, and thought I would share some of them with you. Recent Updated: 4 months ago - Created by The hills are alive (back for a bit....) - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - The hills are alive (back for a bit....) Russia 5 Tags: russia   nikonflickraward    Life is just waiting for the correct time to come. And people in Russia seems to be accepting the fact that waiting is very necessary in everyday life. The young girl started waiting for the unpunctual train at the a very young age. Recent Updated: 9 months ago - Created by Hunter ZHOU - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Hunter ZHOU Welcome to Russia Tags: russia    Russia Recent Updated: 1 year ago - Created by ❦Sosa☿Alejandro❦ - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - ❦Sosa☿Alejandro❦ RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   moscow   reldbmgf2e78p0rsn01    Retired police lieutenant colonel Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov has his handcuffs removed after entering a guarded cell for a hearing in a court in Moscow August 25, 2011. Pavlyuchenkov was detained on Tuesday in an investigation into the 2006 killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW) Recent Updated: 1 year ago - Created by welshboy30 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - welshboy30 russia Tags: tokyo   russia   onthego   misaki   dotw   nipponmisaki    Misaki visits Russia! Recent Updated: 1 year ago - Created by kingkevin - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - kingkevin Russia 2011 Tags: russia   olympusxa   kodakektar    My analog pictures from a trip to Russia in early March 2011. In two days by train from Vienna, via Prague, Warsaw, Brest, Minks and Smolensk to Moscow. Then on the overnight train to St. Petersburg and back home via plane in just three hours. I can't wait to go even further east! All shot with an Olympus XA on Kodak Ektar 100 (This shot is from a roll that somehow got loose from the spool and then I accidentally opened the back the film still in it.) Recent Updated: 2 years ago - Created by geørg - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - geørg RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   tyvarepublic   reldbmgf2e6au0njl01    Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse as he takes part in an expedition to Ubsunur Hollow Biosphere Preserve to inspect the snow leopard's habitat in Tyva Republic in the Siberian Federal District in this undated photo. REUTERS/Ria Novosti/Pool/Alexei Druzhinin (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS ENVIRONMENT ANIMALS) THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS Recent Updated: 2 years ago - Created by burdujan - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - burdujan Russia. Rybinsk Reservoir Tags: russia   velvia   4x5   largeformat    Autumn sunrise in Russia coast of Rybinsk Reservoir. Rybinsk Reservoir, informally called the Rybinsk Sea, is a vast water reservoir on the Volga River and its tributaries Sheksna and Mologa. Large format camera: Chamonix 45N-1 Lens: Rodenstock Sironar S 150/5.6 Film: Velvia 50 4x5 Recent Updated: 2 years ago - Created by efimch - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - efimch Russia. Rybinsk Reservoir Tags: russia   4x5   largeformat   velviarussialargeformat4x5    Autumn sunrise in Russia coast of Rybinsk Reservoir. Rybinsk Reservoir, informally called the Rybinsk Sea, is a vast water reservoir on the Volga River and its tributaries Sheksna and Mologa. Large format camera: Chamonix 45N-1 Lens: Rodenstock Sironar S 150/5.6 Film: Velvia 50 4x5 Recent Updated: 2 years ago - Created by efimch - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - efimch Really produced ...in the RUSSia? Tags: fish   russia   fake   soviet   eggs   russian   ikura   luxury   luxus   luxe   sturgeon   export   caviar   stör   eier   türkis   kaviar   fisheries   ikra   turqois   fishroe   compositionsphotography    Finally, I got around to shoot the–now empty–jar of Russian Black Caviar, yes, the one we had in the back of our cupboard! Indeed, I had received 113 g of fish eggs as a barter payment for Apple consulting services rendered in Taiwan more than a dozen years ago... Looking at the lid closely, it makes me wonder if this was the real thing, the writing somehow looks funny: "Ministery of fisheries of the RUSSia?" Hmmm! But then again, it has the word "Malossol" on its label indicating that the roe is preserved with a minimum amount of salt, malossol being the Russian for "little salt." The numbers imprinted on the lid read "100895" so it could have been filled in its jar August 1995... Mysteries! Recent Updated: 2 years ago - Created by 2composers - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - 2composers Russia pavilion Tags: china   architecture   shanghai   russia   pavilion   2010   theexpo    Russia pavilion at Shanghai expo 2010 Recent Updated: 2 years ago - Created by limited edition! - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - limited edition! Russia Fires Tags: russia   peredeltsi    in the village of Peredeltsi in Ryazan region, some 180 km (111 miles) southeast of Moscow, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2010. More than 500 separate blazes were burning nationwide Friday mainly across western Russia, amid the country's most intense heat wave in 130 years. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev) Recent Updated: 2 years ago - Created by ponomarevs80 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - ponomarevs80 Russia, Optina Pustin Convent, Easter Tags: russia   optinapustinconvent    Russia, Optina Pustin Convent, Easter Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by lara_korlara - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - lara_korlara RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   moscow   reldbmgf2e6540o5c01    Russian military aircraft fly in formation over St. Bazil's Cathedral in Red Square during practice for the Victory Day parade in Moscow May 4, 2010. REUTERS/Vladimir Nikolsky (RUSSIA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY) Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by f.alexand - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - f.alexand RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   alabino   reldbmgf2e64k0tzz01    Russian soldiers train for the military parade at a military base in Alabino near Moscow, April 20, 2010. Russia will mark the 65th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 with a military parade in Moscow's Red Square on May 9. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA - Tags: MILITARY POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY) Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by The Edge Malaysia - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - The Edge Malaysia National Flag of Russia Tags: russia   flag   national    In Russia the white symbolizes generosity and frankness; blue stands for loyalty, honesty and wisdom; red means courage, magnanimity and love. For more tofocus.info/flag-of-Russia.php Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by sithuseo - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - sithuseo 091104 - Russia Ahoy! Tags: russia    Woooo finished artwork! I went to the office today and got some finished copies of my new russian stuff! More: trickartt.com/notes/2009/11/a-graphical-tribute-to-laika-... Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Trickartt - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Trickartt Russia Tags: russia   peterhof   ssapostlespeterandpaulcathedral    SS Apostles Peter and Paul Cathedral in Peterhof, Russia Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by jasmine8559 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - jasmine8559 Russia :: Kostroma Tags: sunset   church   water   canon   reflections   river   russia   monastery   5d   россия   kostroma   монастырь   supershot   abigfave   кострома   ipatiev   ипатьевский   kostromarussia    Russia :: Kostroma Ipatiev Monastery, Kostroma, Russia Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by -yury- - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - -yury- Somewhere in Russia Tags: sky   field   clouds   rural   canon   landscape   russia   harvest   explore   5d   hay   frontpage   россия   kostroma   supershot   abigfave   ultimateshot   кострома    Somewhere in Russia Near the town of Kostroma, central Russia Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by -yury- - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - -yury- Russia Visa Stamp Tags: russia   moscow   visa    In December 1994, I decided to ring in the New Year in Russia. On December 28, I set off on a 7-day trip with a now defunct group, Russian Travel Bureau, from JFK to Helsinki, Finland, with a connection to Moscow (where we spent a couple of days). On New Year's Eve, we traveled overnight by rail from Moscow to St. Petersburg, ringing in the New Year. On January 2, we left St. Petersburg for JFK, this time with a stopover in Helsinki. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Arlene M. Roberts - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Arlene M. Roberts russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    Russian girls on the Red Square (Moscow, Russia). Moscow's famous Red Square earned its name not from the red walls of the Kremlin, nor from the traditional symbol of Communism, but from the Russian word for "red", which many centuries ago also meant "beautiful". The square's vast cobbled expanse is flanked by some of Moscow's most famous tourist attractions. Along one side stands the eastern wall of the Kremlin, on the next - the brightly-colored spiraling onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral, to the north - the elegant turn of the century arcades of the GUM department store (mall) and Kazan Cathedral and to the west - Russia's imposing National Historical Museum and the 1990s replica of the Resurrection Gate. The square first came into being at the end of the 15th century during the reign of Ivan III. It was initially called Trinity Square after the Trinity Cathedral, which stood on the site of the later St. Basil's Cathedral. The name by which we all know the square today originated much later, possibly as late as the 17th century. Located on the site of the city's old market place, Red Square served as Moscow's equivalent of ancient Rome's Forum - a meeting place for the people. It served as a place for celebrating church festivals, for public gatherings, hearing Government announcements and watching executions, the later becoming particularly commonplace during the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great and during the anarchic Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. Occasionally the Tsar himself would address the people from a platform on the square, named Lobnoye Mesto. In 1712 Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to St. Petersburg and Red Square temporarily lost its political significance only to regain it two centuries later, when the Bolsheviks moved the capital back to Moscow in 1918. The new Communist regime turned the square into a memorial cemetery and parade ground and in 1924 the Lenin Mausoleum was built to house the embalmed body of the founder of the Communist state. Red Square became the ideological focus of the new Soviet state and some of its ancient building weren't seen as appropriate to the new regime. The Kazan Cathedral and the Iverskaya Chapel with the Resurrection Gates were destroyed to make space for the military parades and demonstrations that frequented the square. The Bolsheviks even planned to knock down the GUM Department Store and the Historical Museum, but the onset of WWII diverted attention from the idea and thankfully it was never realized. Red Square served as the site of frequent Soviet military parades and demonstrations on major national holidays, such as May 1st (International Worker's Solidarity Day) and November 7th (the Anniversary of the October Revolution). Perhaps the most dramatic and impressive military parade that the square has witnessed took place on November 7th 1941, when Nazi troops were advancing on Moscow and fought just a few miles away from the capital. On that day thousands of Russian soldiers appeared in parades on Red Square and then marched directly to the front line to defend the Soviet capital. The brief parade boosted the confidence and fighting spirit of the Soviet people at the height of their battle with the Nazi forces. After the war, in June 1945, hundreds of Soviet troops marched in columns across the square to celebrate victory over the Nazis and 200 German banners were thrown at the foot of Lenin's Mausoleum. Today, Red Square is a popular attraction for both Russian and foreign visitors alike. It provides plenty of photographic opportunities, while the area between St. Basil's and the Moscow River is often used for rock and pop concerts. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    Kazan Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The original Kazan Cathedral was built in 1636 in honor of the Kazanskaya Icon and to commemorate Tsar Mikhail Romanov's victory over the Poles and Lithuanians in 1612. The Kazanskaya Icon is one of the city's most precious icons and was discovered by a 9-year-old girl, to whom legend has it the Virgin Mary appeared three times in dreams to tell her of the miracle-working icon's location. During the Time of Troubles Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharin carried the icon from Yaroslavl on a liberation march to Moscow, which was occupied by Polish troops. After a 5-day siege of the Kitai Gorod area of the city, the Poles were defeated and Russia spared, just as it had been promised by Saint Sergei Radonezhsky in a dream to the Greek Archbishop Arseny, who was sheltering in the Kremlin during the battle. In thanks for this help and protection, Pozharsky built a small wooden cathedral in the 1620s dedicated to the Kazanskaya Icon. Although it burnt down almost immediately a second was built at the state's expense between 1635 and 1636. The church played a central role in the mid 17th century schism in the Orthodox Church, between the Nikonians, the followers of Patriarch Nikon, and the pious Old Believers, who refused to accept the Patriarch's church reforms and who included two arch-priests from the Kazan Cathedral. Unfortunately, like most of the churches in Moscow, Kazan Cathedral was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, ironically on the very same day in 1936 that the church was meant to celebrate its 300th anniversary. If it has not been for the courageous efforts of the architect Baranovsky, who was also responsible for saving St. Basil's Cathedral from destruction and who made secret plans of Kazan Cathedral even as the building was being torn down, there would be no replica standing on the site today. Once the church had been demolished, various structures were erected on the site, including a street cafe and a public toilet. The decision was taken in the late 1980s to restore Kazan Cathedral according to the plans of the architect Oleg Zhurin, who had studied under Baranovsky. In November 1990 the Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II laid the cathedral's foundation stone and three years later, re-consecrated the newly built church. Today, Kazan Cathedral boasts a pink and white exterior replete with the ornate window frames and gables characteristic of early Muscovite church architecture, and crowned by a cluster of green and gold domes. The church was re-opened on November 4th 1993 on the celebration day of the Icon of Kazan and has been hosting regular services ever since. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    Mural paintings in the St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - vladimir Tags: travel   russia   vladimir   photogaphy    Golden Gate (Vladimir, Russia). Golden Gate in Vladimir was erected by 1164 and reconstructed in 1795. The Golden Gate of Vladimir, constructed between 1158 and 1164, are the only (albeit partially) preserved instance of the ancient Russian city gates. A museum inside focuses on the history of the Mongol invasion of Russia in the 13th century. The Golden Gates existed in the holiest cities of Eastern Orthodoxy - Jerusalem, Constantinople, and Kiev. On making Vladimir his capital, Andrew the Pious aspired to emulate these structures, commissioning a lofty tower over the city's main gate to be erected in limestone and lined with golden plaques. It is probable that the masons were invited from Byzantium, as they used Greek measures rather than Russian ones. The main arch used to stand 15 meters tall. The structure was topped with a barbican church dedicated to the Deposition of the Virgin's Robe and symbolizing the Theotokos's protection of Andrew's capital. The gates survived the Mongol destruction of Vladimir in 1237. By the late 18th century, however, the structure got so dilapidated that Catherine the Great was afraid to pass through the arch for fear of its tumbling down. In 1779, she ordered the detailed measurements and drawings of the monument to be executed. In 1795, after many discussions, the vaults and barbican church were demolished. They constructed two flanking round towers in order to reinforce the structure and then reconstructed the barbican, following the drawings made in 1779. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - kazan Tags: travel   photography   russia   kazan    The Annunciation Cathedral of Kazan Kremlin (Russia). The history of the Annunciation cathedral as archpriest A.Yablokov wrote about those years dates to time when «in the Kazan Tatar land Russian civilization just began to settle down and for the first time light of Christianity started to shine". Laying of wooden church on place of the future cathedral refer to acts of tsar Ivan IV who on October 4, 1552 "solemnly, accompanied by brilliant retinue of boyars and generals entered half-demolished walls of the Kazan fortress». Having stopped at northern part of the Kremlin, nearby Khan palace and mosque, the tzar «indicated the place for onstruction of cathedral church in honour of The Annunciation of the Most Holy the Virgin, he himself put the foundation, set up a life-giving cross on the place intended for throne». The cathedral church cut down in three days was consecrated on October 6, 1552 also at the presence of tsar. The wooden church in the name of Annunciation has become a temple Sanctifier's chair when on July 28, 1555 here archbishop Gury arrived to head newly founded Kazan diocese. The Annunciation temple in the Kazan Kremlin became the center of religious - educational life and a stronghold of spreading Christianity in territory. By Imperial letter in the same year residents from Pskov city were sent to Kazan. The town master Postnik Yakovlev and mason Ivan Shiryai were tasked to build stone walls of the fortress. They erected a stone cathedral on the place of wooden church, having used thus a favourite by the Pskov builders material - roughed down limestone. Stone cathedral of The Annunciation was consecrated on August 15, 1562. Constructed with support of imperial treasury, it had two side altars: from the right side - in the name of martyrs Boris and Gleb, from the left side - in the name of Murom miracle makers Peter and Fevroniya. In Scrivener's books of Kazan of 16th century it is mentioned about the icons in silver frames with gilding donated to the Cathedral by tzar. The Gifts for Cathedral kept coming from the Kazan archbishops and local generals, princes. The tradition of rich donations for the cathedral proceeded till 1920s therefore the unique treasures repeatedly described in Scrivener's books concentrated in Cathedral vestry. These are precious clerical robes, icons, books, vessels had been stored in the cathedral down to closing the cathedral in 1929. During 16-18th centuries the Cathedral suffered many times from fire. The most devastating fires occurred in 1596, 1672, 1694, 1742, 1749, 1757. Renewals and repairs, expansions and changes of architectural details (extension of side altars, church porches, fraters, replacement of decorative cupolas) made after fires corresponded to likes in church construction of its time and were more or less organic to the forms of initial three apside cross-cupola temple. Archpriests of Kazan not once had to take much trouble for striving to establish anew an appropriate iconostasis, renewal of old mural which fragments are being kept up this day. The most destructive was a fire of 1815 when together with all city the cathedral had burnt out and its former magnificence was being restored for a long time. Exactly during restoration and expansion of the cathedral in 1841 an extensive fraters was built, it extended the initial temple to the West and strongly changed external outlook of the Cathedral. However, the works carried out in 19th century promoted adorn¬ment of the cathedral: high iconostasis resembling ancient famous iconostasis of Sanctifier Gury times» appeared (not preserved) but the main thing - in 1870 interior of the cathedral was painted by sacred and church images located by tiers on walls, vaults and columns. These paintings restored last years are an original ornament of the cathedral. Activity of Sanctifiers is connected to the Annunciation cathedral Kazan, it is also a place of burial of their ashes. In basement floor of the cathedral, under its low heavy vaults, bodies of deceased Kazan arch-priests - archbishop Tikhon I Khvorostinin (1575-1576), metro¬politans Lavrenti II (1657-1673) and Markell (1691-1698) are reposed. Here the church - tomb in the name of All Saints, consecrated in 1896 by archbishop Kazansky Vladimir was built. Here, bodies of the deceased archbishops Kazansky Afanasi (1857-1866), Vladimir II (Petrov, 1892-1897) and Dmitri (Sambikin, 1905-1908) were buried. Some other Kazan arch-priests died in Kazan were reposing in The Annunciation cathedral on northern and southern walls from fraters and also in side-altar. Memory of the first arch-priest Kazan Sanctifier Gury is connected with the Annunciation cathedral. In 1841 the cell of Sanctifier was found located under right Borisoglebsk side-church. The cell was built simultaneously with the temple, the Sanctifier held many hours of prayful solitude in it. On east wall of the cell a fresco with image of the Venicle was found. In 1630 the hallows of Gury were moved in temple having become the main relic of Cathedral. Wonder-working multicurative hallows were put in the middle of Cathedral at northern wall, in 1702 the shrine with hallows was put in the middle of cathedral temple where remained before moving the hallows to church of Yaroslavl miracle-makers in 1918. In the beginning of 20th century The Annunciation Cathedral lost much from its magnificence. The ensemble of the buildings arisen around of old cathedral within several centuries was destroyed in 1920s: the multi-tier stone bell tower with a temple under belfry was demolished, decorative cupolas of drums the western porch and stone fencing disassembled. Little has reached up to now for centuries gathered treasures of a vestry - clerical garments of precious sewing, embroidered covers and banners, icons and on throne crosses with relics, gold and silver church vessels. In 1977 restoration of cathedral started: external walls, floors were under repair, cupolas and crosses were restored. In the cathedral down to 1996 there were storehouses of republican archive, and restoration of interiors started only in 1997. From 1995 the complex of the Annunciation cathedral by the decree of RT President Mintimer Sharipovich Shaimiev was transferred in management of the State history-architectural museum - reserve «The Kazan Kremlin». Scientific restoration of the cathedral conducted last years is directed on restoration of its historical shape. After long years of oblivion the cathedral will accept believers, the church service will begin to sound in it again. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Cathedral of the Assumption (Kremlin, Moscow, Russia). The Cathedral of the Assumption is the Kremlin's oldest and most important church and has been the protector of Russian Orthodoxy since the seat of the Church was transferred here from Vladimir in 1326. Its massive limestone walls and perfectly proportioned five gilt domes endow the cathedral with a certain stern serenity and set the tone for the Kremlin's magnificent Cathedral Square ensemble. Today's cathedral stands on the site of Moscow's first stone church, built in the 14th century by Ivan Kalita on the advice of Metropolitan Peter, to resemble the 12th century Cathedral of the Assumption in the ancient city of Vladimir. Ivan's cathedral replaced still older structures, including a wooden church dating from the 12th century and a stone building from the 13th century. A year after the construction of the cathedral, Moscow became the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality, and later the capital of all Rus. By the end of the 15th century the cathedral had become dilapidated and Ivan III ordered that a magnificent replacement be built to honor Moscow's newfound strength and power. In 1472 the Pskov architects Kryvtsov and Myshkin began work on the new cathedral but two years later, just before its completion, a rare earthquake shook the Rus capital and caused the building to collapse. The celebrated Italian architect Alberti Fioravanti was invited to Moscow in 1475 to design and build a replacement and he immediately set about studying examples of traditional Russian architecture in the ancient Rus cities of Vladimir, Suzdal and Novgorod. The Italian's designs were beautifully in keeping with Russian ecclesiastical traditions and the foundations of the new cathedral were laid in 1475 and finished just four years later, when the building was consecrated by Metropolitan Geronty. The cathedral's subsequent history clearly reflects its role as Russia's central church for more than 400 years. It was the place of the coronation of the first Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, in 1547 and it was here that all the Emperors were crowned from 1721 onwards and the Metropolitans and Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church were inaugurated and buried. The cathedral suffered in times of turmoil just as the population of Moscow did; in 1812 Napoleon's cavalry stabled their horses there, while in 1917 it came under shellfire during fighting between the Bolsheviks and White troops. After the transfer of the Bolshevik Government to Moscow the last Easter service was held in the cathedral in 1918, with the express permission of Lenin, and the cathedral was closed and services banned for the next seven decades. Legend has it that in the winter of 1941, when Nazi troops had already reached the outskirts of an embattled Moscow, Stalin gave the secret order for a service to be held in the Cathedral of the Assumption to pray for the country's salvation. The only other mass permitted to take place in the cathedral was in 1989, to commemorate the tercentenary of the Russian Patriarchate. The church was finally re-opened to the public in 1990 and a museum established to honor its history. Despite the cathedral's lofty status as the home of the Russian Orthodox Church, its exterior is as surprisingly plain as the Vladimir cathedral Fioravanti was ordered to emulate. Its pale limestone facades are ornamented only with brickwork vaulting, portals on three sides and a series of frescoes sheltered by gables, which were added on the east and west sides in the 1660s. The Assumption Cathedral's interior is spacious and light and entirely covered with glowing frescoes, which were originally created by the famous icon painter Dionysius and his team of artists, but later restored in the 1640s and once again in Soviet times. As is the tradition in Orthodox churches, the cathedral's west wall features a depiction of the Apocalypse, showing Christ flanked by the saintly host and sinners being delivered to the satanic depths of Hell below. The upper tiers of the north and south walls illustrate the life of the Virgin and the cathedral's pillars are adorned with paintings portraying the saints and martyrs. The cathedral's five cupolas symbolize Jesus surrounded by the four evangelists and feature images of Christ. The west wall features a portrayal of the Day of Judgment, reminding religious visitors to the church of the trials yet to come. The central part of the cathedral is separated from the chancel by the traditional five-tiered Russian Orthodox iconostasis, which in this case is a lofty 16 meters high. The iconostasis dates mainly from 1652, but with several older icons incorporated into it, including two attributed to the master Dionysius himself and another dating back to the 12th century. This collection of icons, spanning some six centuries, is of enormous historical and artistic value. The Russian Orthodox iconostasis consists of tiers or ranks of icons depicting different saints and feast days relevant to the individual church. The first and lowest rank features local icons, including the icon to which the church is dedicated. In the Assumption Cathedral the local tier was a symbol of the unity of the new Russian state and comprised icons brought from all the principalities that had been united under Moscow. The second tier is called "deisusny", from the Ancient Greek word deisus meaning intercession, and the thirds tier is the festival rank, and contains icons depicting the major festivals of the Orthodox Church. The fourth tier depicts the prophets and the final fifth tier is adorned with images of the Forefathers of the church. Various other icons adorn the walls of the cathedral, including a copy of the much-venerated Our Lady of Vladimir (now held by the Tretyakov Gallery), which is believed to have been painted by St. Luke himself and to have saved Moscow from the army of Timerlane. Also worthy of note is the 14th century Icon of the Savior of the Fiery Eye, considered to be one of the finest examples of the exquisite workmanship of the Vladimir-Suzdal school. The cathedral also features some remarkable works of Russian applied art. These include the ornate metal caskets of the tombs of the Metropolitans and Patriarchs of the Orthodox Church and the 16th century stone Patriarch's Seat, built into one of the cathedral's pillars and the place where the head of the church sat when not officiating during services. Visitors should also note the impressive Throne of Monomakh, crowned with a tent-roofed canopy and meticulously carved out of wood for Ivan the Terrible in 1551. The name Monomakh derives from the legendary campaigns of Grand Prince Vladimir, which are depicted in its carvings. The heroic leader supposedly received the famous Crown of Monomakh from the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX, thus confirming Moscow's claim as the "Third Rome" and the heir to Byzantium. The cathedral is illuminated by twelve gilt bronze chandeliers and several multi-tiered candelabra, dating mostly from the 17th century. Most impressive is the 46-branch Harvest Chandelier, made from the 5,330 kilos of silver that was plundered from the cathedral in 1812 by Napoleon and his French troops, and presented by the Cossacks who recaptured the stolen booty. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - kazan Tags: travel   photography   russia   kazan    The Annunciation Cathedral of Kazan Kremlin (Russia). The history of the Annunciation cathedral as archpriest A.Yablokov wrote about those years dates to time when «in the Kazan Tatar land Russian civilization just began to settle down and for the first time light of Christianity started to shine". Laying of wooden church on place of the future cathedral refer to acts of tsar Ivan IV who on October 4, 1552 "solemnly, accompanied by brilliant retinue of boyars and generals entered half-demolished walls of the Kazan fortress». Having stopped at northern part of the Kremlin, nearby Khan palace and mosque, the tzar «indicated the place for onstruction of cathedral church in honour of The Annunciation of the Most Holy the Virgin, he himself put the foundation, set up a life-giving cross on the place intended for throne». The cathedral church cut down in three days was consecrated on October 6, 1552 also at the presence of tsar. The wooden church in the name of Annunciation has become a temple Sanctifier's chair when on July 28, 1555 here archbishop Gury arrived to head newly founded Kazan diocese. The Annunciation temple in the Kazan Kremlin became the center of religious - educational life and a stronghold of spreading Christianity in territory. By Imperial letter in the same year residents from Pskov city were sent to Kazan. The town master Postnik Yakovlev and mason Ivan Shiryai were tasked to build stone walls of the fortress. They erected a stone cathedral on the place of wooden church, having used thus a favourite by the Pskov builders material - roughed down limestone. Stone cathedral of The Annunciation was consecrated on August 15, 1562. Constructed with support of imperial treasury, it had two side altars: from the right side - in the name of martyrs Boris and Gleb, from the left side - in the name of Murom miracle makers Peter and Fevroniya. In Scrivener's books of Kazan of 16th century it is mentioned about the icons in silver frames with gilding donated to the Cathedral by tzar. The Gifts for Cathedral kept coming from the Kazan archbishops and local generals, princes. The tradition of rich donations for the cathedral proceeded till 1920s therefore the unique treasures repeatedly described in Scrivener's books concentrated in Cathedral vestry. These are precious clerical robes, icons, books, vessels had been stored in the cathedral down to closing the cathedral in 1929. During 16-18th centuries the Cathedral suffered many times from fire. The most devastating fires occurred in 1596, 1672, 1694, 1742, 1749, 1757. Renewals and repairs, expansions and changes of architectural details (extension of side altars, church porches, fraters, replacement of decorative cupolas) made after fires corresponded to likes in church construction of its time and were more or less organic to the forms of initial three apside cross-cupola temple. Archpriests of Kazan not once had to take much trouble for striving to establish anew an appropriate iconostasis, renewal of old mural which fragments are being kept up this day. The most destructive was a fire of 1815 when together with all city the cathedral had burnt out and its former magnificence was being restored for a long time. Exactly during restoration and expansion of the cathedral in 1841 an extensive fraters was built, it extended the initial temple to the West and strongly changed external outlook of the Cathedral. However, the works carried out in 19th century promoted adorn¬ment of the cathedral: high iconostasis resembling ancient famous iconostasis of Sanctifier Gury times» appeared (not preserved) but the main thing - in 1870 interior of the cathedral was painted by sacred and church images located by tiers on walls, vaults and columns. These paintings restored last years are an original ornament of the cathedral. Activity of Sanctifiers is connected to the Annunciation cathedral Kazan, it is also a place of burial of their ashes. In basement floor of the cathedral, under its low heavy vaults, bodies of deceased Kazan arch-priests - archbishop Tikhon I Khvorostinin (1575-1576), metro¬politans Lavrenti II (1657-1673) and Markell (1691-1698) are reposed. Here the church - tomb in the name of All Saints, consecrated in 1896 by archbishop Kazansky Vladimir was built. Here, bodies of the deceased archbishops Kazansky Afanasi (1857-1866), Vladimir II (Petrov, 1892-1897) and Dmitri (Sambikin, 1905-1908) were buried. Some other Kazan arch-priests died in Kazan were reposing in The Annunciation cathedral on northern and southern walls from fraters and also in side-altar. Memory of the first arch-priest Kazan Sanctifier Gury is connected with the Annunciation cathedral. In 1841 the cell of Sanctifier was found located under right Borisoglebsk side-church. The cell was built simultaneously with the temple, the Sanctifier held many hours of prayful solitude in it. On east wall of the cell a fresco with image of the Venicle was found. In 1630 the hallows of Gury were moved in temple having become the main relic of Cathedral. Wonder-working multicurative hallows were put in the middle of Cathedral at northern wall, in 1702 the shrine with hallows was put in the middle of cathedral temple where remained before moving the hallows to church of Yaroslavl miracle-makers in 1918. In the beginning of 20th century The Annunciation Cathedral lost much from its magnificence. The ensemble of the buildings arisen around of old cathedral within several centuries was destroyed in 1920s: the multi-tier stone bell tower with a temple under belfry was demolished, decorative cupolas of drums the western porch and stone fencing disassembled. Little has reached up to now for centuries gathered treasures of a vestry - clerical garments of precious sewing, embroidered covers and banners, icons and on throne crosses with relics, gold and silver church vessels. In 1977 restoration of cathedral started: external walls, floors were under repair, cupolas and crosses were restored. In the cathedral down to 1996 there were storehouses of republican archive, and restoration of interiors started only in 1997. From 1995 the complex of the Annunciation cathedral by the decree of RT President Mintimer Sharipovich Shaimiev was transferred in management of the State history-architectural museum - reserve «The Kazan Kremlin». Scientific restoration of the cathedral conducted last years is directed on restoration of its historical shape. After long years of oblivion the cathedral will accept believers, the church service will begin to sound in it again. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   ngc   photograph    St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: russia   moscow    Red Square (Moscow, Russia). Moscow's famous Red Square earned its name not from the red walls of the Kremlin, nor from the traditional symbol of Communism, but from the Russian word for "red", which many centuries ago also meant "beautiful". The square's vast cobbled expanse is flanked by some of Moscow's most famous tourist attractions. Along one side stands the eastern wall of the Kremlin, on the next - the brightly-colored spiraling onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral, to the north - the elegant turn of the century arcades of the GUM department store (mall) and Kazan Cathedral and to the west - Russia's imposing National Historical Museum and the 1990s replica of the Resurrection Gate. The square first came into being at the end of the 15th century during the reign of Ivan III. It was initially called Trinity Square after the Trinity Cathedral, which stood on the site of the later St. Basil's Cathedral. The name by which we all know the square today originated much later, possibly as late as the 17th century. Located on the site of the city's old market place, Red Square served as Moscow's equivalent of ancient Rome's Forum - a meeting place for the people. It served as a place for celebrating church festivals, for public gatherings, hearing Government announcements and watching executions, the later becoming particularly commonplace during the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great and during the anarchic Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. Occasionally the Tsar himself would address the people from a platform on the square, named Lobnoye Mesto. In 1712 Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to St. Petersburg and Red Square temporarily lost its political significance only to regain it two centuries later, when the Bolsheviks moved the capital back to Moscow in 1918. The new Communist regime turned the square into a memorial cemetery and parade ground and in 1924 the Lenin Mausoleum was built to house the embalmed body of the founder of the Communist state. Red Square became the ideological focus of the new Soviet state and some of its ancient building weren't seen as appropriate to the new regime. The Kazan Cathedral and the Iverskaya Chapel with the Resurrection Gates were destroyed to make space for the military parades and demonstrations that frequented the square. The Bolsheviks even planned to knock down the GUM Department Store and the Historical Museum, but the onset of WWII diverted attention from the idea and thankfully it was never realized. Red Square served as the site of frequent Soviet military parades and demonstrations on major national holidays, such as May 1st (International Worker's Solidarity Day) and November 7th (the Anniversary of the October Revolution). Perhaps the most dramatic and impressive military parade that the square has witnessed took place on November 7th 1941, when Nazi troops were advancing on Moscow and fought just a few miles away from the capital. On that day thousands of Russian soldiers appeared in parades on Red Square and then marched directly to the front line to defend the Soviet capital. The brief parade boosted the confidence and fighting spirit of the Soviet people at the height of their battle with the Nazi forces. After the war, in June 1945, hundreds of Soviet troops marched in columns across the square to celebrate victory over the Nazis and 200 German banners were thrown at the foot of Lenin's Mausoleum. Today, Red Square is a popular attraction for both Russian and foreign visitors alike. It provides plenty of photographic opportunities, while the area between St. Basil's and the Moscow River is often used for rock and pop concerts. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    Red Square (Moscow, Russia). Moscow's famous Red Square earned its name not from the red walls of the Kremlin, nor from the traditional symbol of Communism, but from the Russian word for "red", which many centuries ago also meant "beautiful". The square's vast cobbled expanse is flanked by some of Moscow's most famous tourist attractions. Along one side stands the eastern wall of the Kremlin, on the next - the brightly-colored spiraling onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral, to the north - the elegant turn of the century arcades of the GUM department store (mall) and Kazan Cathedral and to the west - Russia's imposing National Historical Museum and the 1990s replica of the Resurrection Gate. The square first came into being at the end of the 15th century during the reign of Ivan III. It was initially called Trinity Square after the Trinity Cathedral, which stood on the site of the later St. Basil's Cathedral. The name by which we all know the square today originated much later, possibly as late as the 17th century. Located on the site of the city's old market place, Red Square served as Moscow's equivalent of ancient Rome's Forum - a meeting place for the people. It served as a place for celebrating church festivals, for public gatherings, hearing Government announcements and watching executions, the later becoming particularly commonplace during the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great and during the anarchic Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. Occasionally the Tsar himself would address the people from a platform on the square, named Lobnoye Mesto. In 1712 Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to St. Petersburg and Red Square temporarily lost its political significance only to regain it two centuries later, when the Bolsheviks moved the capital back to Moscow in 1918. The new Communist regime turned the square into a memorial cemetery and parade ground and in 1924 the Lenin Mausoleum was built to house the embalmed body of the founder of the Communist state. Red Square became the ideological focus of the new Soviet state and some of its ancient building weren't seen as appropriate to the new regime. The Kazan Cathedral and the Iverskaya Chapel with the Resurrection Gates were destroyed to make space for the military parades and demonstrations that frequented the square. The Bolsheviks even planned to knock down the GUM Department Store and the Historical Museum, but the onset of WWII diverted attention from the idea and thankfully it was never realized. Red Square served as the site of frequent Soviet military parades and demonstrations on major national holidays, such as May 1st (International Worker's Solidarity Day) and November 7th (the Anniversary of the October Revolution). Perhaps the most dramatic and impressive military parade that the square has witnessed took place on November 7th 1941, when Nazi troops were advancing on Moscow and fought just a few miles away from the capital. On that day thousands of Russian soldiers appeared in parades on Red Square and then marched directly to the front line to defend the Soviet capital. The brief parade boosted the confidence and fighting spirit of the Soviet people at the height of their battle with the Nazi forces. After the war, in June 1945, hundreds of Soviet troops marched in columns across the square to celebrate victory over the Nazis and 200 German banners were thrown at the foot of Lenin's Mausoleum. Today, Red Square is a popular attraction for both Russian and foreign visitors alike. It provides plenty of photographic opportunities, while the area between St. Basil's and the Moscow River is often used for rock and pop concerts. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    Mural paintings in the St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    Mural paintings in the St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar. The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail. An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   photography   russia   moscow    Kazan Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The original Kazan Cathedral was built in 1636 in honor of the Kazanskaya Icon and to commemorate Tsar Mikhail Romanov's victory over the Poles and Lithuanians in 1612. The Kazanskaya Icon is one of the city's most precious icons and was discovered by a 9-year-old girl, to whom legend has it the Virgin Mary appeared three times in dreams to tell her of the miracle-working icon's location. During the Time of Troubles Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharin carried the icon from Yaroslavl on a liberation march to Moscow, which was occupied by Polish troops. After a 5-day siege of the Kitai Gorod area of the city, the Poles were defeated and Russia spared, just as it had been promised by Saint Sergei Radonezhsky in a dream to the Greek Archbishop Arseny, who was sheltering in the Kremlin during the battle. In thanks for this help and protection, Pozharsky built a small wooden cathedral in the 1620s dedicated to the Kazanskaya Icon. Although it burnt down almost immediately a second was built at the state's expense between 1635 and 1636. The church played a central role in the mid 17th century schism in the Orthodox Church, between the Nikonians, the followers of Patriarch Nikon, and the pious Old Believers, who refused to accept the Patriarch's church reforms and who included two arch-priests from the Kazan Cathedral. Unfortunately, like most of the churches in Moscow, Kazan Cathedral was destroyed by the Bolsheviks, ironically on the very same day in 1936 that the church was meant to celebrate its 300th anniversary. If it has not been for the courageous efforts of the architect Baranovsky, who was also responsible for saving St. Basil's Cathedral from destruction and who made secret plans of Kazan Cathedral even as the building was being torn down, there would be no replica standing on the site today. Once the church had been demolished, various structures were erected on the site, including a street cafe and a public toilet. The decision was taken in the late 1980s to restore Kazan Cathedral according to the plans of the architect Oleg Zhurin, who had studied under Baranovsky. In November 1990 the Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II laid the cathedral's foundation stone and three years later, re-consecrated the newly built church. Today, Kazan Cathedral boasts a pink and white exterior replete with the ornate window frames and gables characteristic of early Muscovite church architecture, and crowned by a cluster of green and gold domes. The church was re-opened on November 4th 1993 on the celebration day of the Icon of Kazan and has been hosting regular services ever since. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    Red Square (Moscow, Russia). Moscow's famous Red Square earned its name not from the red walls of the Kremlin, nor from the traditional symbol of Communism, but from the Russian word for "red", which many centuries ago also meant "beautiful". The square's vast cobbled expanse is flanked by some of Moscow's most famous tourist attractions. Along one side stands the eastern wall of the Kremlin, on the next - the brightly-colored spiraling onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral, to the north - the elegant turn of the century arcades of the GUM department store (mall) and Kazan Cathedral and to the west - Russia's imposing National Historical Museum and the 1990s replica of the Resurrection Gate. The square first came into being at the end of the 15th century during the reign of Ivan III. It was initially called Trinity Square after the Trinity Cathedral, which stood on the site of the later St. Basil's Cathedral. The name by which we all know the square today originated much later, possibly as late as the 17th century. Located on the site of the city's old market place, Red Square served as Moscow's equivalent of ancient Rome's Forum - a meeting place for the people. It served as a place for celebrating church festivals, for public gatherings, hearing Government announcements and watching executions, the later becoming particularly commonplace during the reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great and during the anarchic Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. Occasionally the Tsar himself would address the people from a platform on the square, named Lobnoye Mesto. In 1712 Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to St. Petersburg and Red Square temporarily lost its political significance only to regain it two centuries later, when the Bolsheviks moved the capital back to Moscow in 1918. The new Communist regime turned the square into a memorial cemetery and parade ground and in 1924 the Lenin Mausoleum was built to house the embalmed body of the founder of the Communist state. Red Square became the ideological focus of the new Soviet state and some of its ancient building weren't seen as appropriate to the new regime. The Kazan Cathedral and the Iverskaya Chapel with the Resurrection Gates were destroyed to make space for the military parades and demonstrations that frequented the square. The Bolsheviks even planned to knock down the GUM Department Store and the Historical Museum, but the onset of WWII diverted attention from the idea and thankfully it was never realized. Red Square served as the site of frequent Soviet military parades and demonstrations on major national holidays, such as May 1st (International Worker's Solidarity Day) and November 7th (the Anniversary of the October Revolution). Perhaps the most dramatic and impressive military parade that the square has witnessed took place on November 7th 1941, when Nazi troops were advancing on Moscow and fought just a few miles away from the capital. On that day thousands of Russian soldiers appeared in parades on Red Square and then marched directly to the front line to defend the Soviet capital. The brief parade boosted the confidence and fighting spirit of the Soviet people at the height of their battle with the Nazi forces. After the war, in June 1945, hundreds of Soviet troops marched in columns across the square to celebrate victory over the Nazis and 200 German banners were thrown at the foot of Lenin's Mausoleum. Today, Red Square is a popular attraction for both Russian and foreign visitors alike. It provides plenty of photographic opportunities, while the area between St. Basil's and the Moscow River is often used for rock and pop concerts. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac russia - moscow Tags: travel   russia   moscow   photograph    The Kremlin (Moscow, Russia). The Kremlin is the historical, spiritual and political heart of Moscow and the city's most famous landmark and tourist attraction. It's an intriguing ensemble of buildings with an architectural variety that reveals a long and fascinating history. The Kremlin stands at the confluence of the Moscow and Neglinaya Rivers on Borovitsky Hill, named after the pine forests (bor in Russian) that used to cover it. Legend has it that while hunting in the forest a group of boyars (Russian nobles) saw an enormous two-headed bird swoop down on a boar, carry it away and deposit it on the top of what was to become Borovitsky Hill. That night the boyars dreamt of a city of tents, spires and golden domes and resolved the next morning to build a settlement on the hill. History sees it a little differently and attributes the founding of the Kremlin to Prince Yury Dolgoruky, who built the first wooden fort on the hill in 1147 AD, although historians believe that the site may have been inhabited as long ago as 500 BC. The word "kremlin" means simply "fortification" or "citadel" in Russian, and is thought to derive from either the Ancient Greek words kremn or kremnos, meaning a steep hill above a ravine, or the Slavonic term kremnik, meaning thick coniferous forest, that being the likely material from which the original fort was constructed. As the fortress was enlarged and developed, the city of Moscow rapidly sprung up around it. During the 14th century, when Moscow became the center of a Grand Principality, the fortress was for the first time perceived as a separate citadel and a principle part of the city and in 1331 was given the title "Kremlin". Between 1339 and 1340 the fortress was rebuilt with new walls and towers of oak, but due to the constant threat of fire damage, in 1366 the Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (later Donskoy) ordered the construction of a large white-stone wall around the fortress to protect it. As Moscow struggled with the Khanate of the Golden Horde, repeated attacks by the Grand Prince Olgerd of Lithuania and political rivalry with the city of Tver, building work within the Kremlin continued and by the end of the 14th century the fortress was filled with churches, monasteries and manors housing the Grand Prince's retainers and the local nobility. The 15th century saw the unification of the Russian feudal principalities under the authority of the Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and to celebrate he ordered the reconstruction of the Kremlin on a grand scale. Architects, builders and craftsmen were drafted in from Pskov, Novgorod and Vladimir and the Italian architects Alberti Fioravante, Marco Bono and Pietro Antonio Solari began work on the Kremlin's ramparts and cathedrals. The new Cathedral of the Assumption was the first to be reconstructed, followed by the Cathedral of the Annunciation and the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in the 1480s and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel in the early 16th century. The Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, built between 1505 and 1508, completed the Cathedral Square ensemble and new Kremlin walls and towers were constructed simultaneously from 1485 onwards. Successive rulers left their mark on the Kremlin and its architectural ensemble grew more and more varied throughout the centuries. The 15th century saw the addition of the Faceted Palace, the oldest secular building in the Kremlin complex. The 16th century ruler Ivan the Terrible further embellished the Kremlin's cathedrals and ramparts and constructed the enormous Tsar Canon and the Old English Embassy, for the purpose of accommodating English merchants and facilitating duty-free trade. At the start of the 17th century Mikhail Romanov assumed power and rebuilt and restored much of the fortress, adding the Terem Palace and the Patriarch's Palace and in 1655 Tsar Alexei's reign saw the casting of the impressive Tsar Bell. Although Peter the Great preferred St. Petersburg as his capital, he commissioned the construction of the Kremlin Arsenal in the 1730s for the storage of weapons and military equipment. Catherine the Great added the Senate building later that century and in the 1840s Nicholas I commissioned the Russo-Byzantine-style Armory and the Great Kremlin Palace. With the Bolshevik storming of the Kremlin during the 1917 Revolution the fortress was closed to the public for the next 50 years and the only architectural additions made by the Soviet regime were the 1934 Presidium and the modernistic State Kremlin Palace (previously the Palace of Congresses) in 1961. Today approximately two-thirds of the Kremlin is off-limits to visitors, including the Arsenal, the Presidium, the Terem, Faceted and Great Kremlin Palaces and most of the buildings in the northern half of the fortress. Tourists do, however, have access to all the cathedrals, the unmissable and priceless collections of the Armory, the Patriarch's Palace and the State Kremlin Palace, which hosts regular concerts and gala performances. Recent Updated: 3 years ago - Created by Retlaw Snellac - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Retlaw Snellac Russia, Kolomna. Portret. Tags: russia   kolomnaportret    Russia, Kolomna. Portret. Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by dternovskiy - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - dternovskiy RUSSIA Moscow Tags: metro   russia   postcard   mocow    Russia, Moscow. Vestibule of the metro station "Komsomolskaya-koltsevaya" (in the circular line) 1952. Postcard. Private swap, thank you Lika. Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by manchot6150 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - manchot6150 Russia Tags: russia   moscow   unesco   redsquare   kremlin    Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, Russia ( UNESCO WHS ) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by jasmine8559 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - jasmine8559 Russia Tags: russia   moscow   unesco   redsquare   kremlin    Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, Russia ( UNESCO WHS ) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by jasmine8559 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - jasmine8559 Russia Tags: russia   moscow   unesco   redsquare   kremlin    Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, Russia ( UNESCO WHS ) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by jasmine8559 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - jasmine8559 .Russia Church Patriarch Tags: russia   orthodox   patriarchkirill    New Orthodox Patriarch Kirill is enthroned as the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia in Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral, February 1, 2009. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by Directions to Orthodoxy - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Directions to Orthodoxy Russia Tags: russia   postcrossing   volcanos   kamchatka   worldnaturalheritage   dvdorca    RU-30969 from V_e_r_a. Volcanos of Kamchatka. World Natural Heritage of Russia. Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by dvdorca - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - dvdorca RUSSIA Novorossiysk Tags: park   statue   garden   russia   postcard   novorossiysk    RUSSIA Novorossiysk. Postcard Cado. Private swap, thank you Oleg. Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by manchot6150 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - manchot6150 Russia Moscow Kremlin Rossiya HDR Tags: russia   moscow   hdr   kremlin   rossiya    Russia Moscow Kremlin Rossiya HDR Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by RSBeerman - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - RSBeerman Russia, Optina Pustin, Easter 2008 Tags: russia   darkroomprint   optinapustin   easter2008blackwhitephotograph    Russia, Optina Pustin, Easter 2008 Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by lara_korlara - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - lara_korlara Russia, Optina Pustin, Easter 2008 Tags: russia   blackandwhitephotograph   easter2008   optinapustin   darkroomworkrussiaoptinapustineaster2008    Russia, Optina Pustin, Easter 2008 Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by lara_korlara - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - lara_korlara RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   moscow    Ksenia Sukhinova, 20, poses after winning the "Miss Russia" beauty contest in Moscow December, 14, 2007. Sukhinova will represent Russia at the "Miss World" contest next year. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by tle_star2003 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - tle_star2003 RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   moscow    Ksenia Sukhinova, 20, adjusts her crown after winning the "Miss Russia" beauty contest in Moscow December 14, 2007. Sukhinova will represent Russia at the "Miss World" contest next year. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by tle_star2003 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - tle_star2003 RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   moscow   reldbmgf2e4cc0ztn01    A participant in the Miss Constitution beauty contest walks on the stage with St.Basil's Cathedral pictured in the background in central Moscow during a rally staged by the pro-Kremlin youth movement 'Nashi', December 12, 2008. Russia marks the Constitution Day on December 12. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by Ganesz - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Ganesz Russia, Optina Pustin 2008, Easter Tags: easter   russia   optinapustin2008    Russia, Optina Pustin 2008, Easter Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by lara_korlara - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - lara_korlara Russia-Romania Joint Issue Tags: russia   stamps    Dimitrovsky Cathedral in Vladimir, Russia and St. George Church in Voronets, Romania Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by katya. - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - katya. RUSSIA Samara Tags: snow   church   russia   postcard   samara    Russia, Samara.Churh of Georgiy. Postcard. Private swap, thank you Yana. Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by manchot6150 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - manchot6150 Russia Tags: california   cosplay   russia   military   sunflowers   convention   pick   2008   sanmateo   yaoicon   crossplay   militaryuniform   hetalia    Russia from "Hetalia Axis Powers" taken at Yaoi-con 2008 ☆ HETALIA PHOTOSET : More Hetalia cosplay from events and conventions ☆ YAOI-CON 2008 : More cosplay from Yaoi-con 2008 Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by masakocha - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - masakocha RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   moscow   reldbmgf2e4990qbz01    Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) and his Austrian counterpart Ursula Plassnik meet for talks in Moscow September 9, 2008. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by bunfadaboy - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - bunfadaboy RUSSIA-MEDVEDEV/ Tags: russia   moscow   dmitry   medvedev    Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev gestures during an interview with Reuters in Moscow June 23, 2008. Medvedev played down differences with his predecessor Vladimir Putin in an interview with Reuters but the contrast in style and tone between the two men was striking. Photo taken June 23, 2008. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 4 years ago - Created by itrumpet - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - itrumpet RUSSIA St Petersburg Tags: river   russia   postcard   iset   ekaterinbourg    Russia , Ekaterinbourg view to Iset river. Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by manchot6150 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - manchot6150 RUSSIA Moscow Tags: russia   moscow   kremlin    Russia , Moskow ; Kremlin the Verkho ( upper ) Saviour Cathedral. Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by manchot6150 - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - manchot6150 RUSSIA EPIPHANY Tags: russia   orthodox   epiphany    A man dips a child in the icy water of a pond during Orthodox Epiphany celebrations in Moscow January 19, 2008.REUTERS/Dima Korotayev (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by Directions to Orthodoxy - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Directions to Orthodoxy RUSSIA EPIPHANY Tags: russia   orthodox   epiphany    A man carries an icon of the Mother of God (Theotokos) holding Jesus during Orthodox Epiphany celebrations in the village of Temnolesskaya, about 30 km (19 miles) from Stavropol, January 19, 2008.REUTERS/Eduard Korniyenko (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by Directions to Orthodoxy - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Directions to Orthodoxy RUSSIA-VOTE/ Tags: russia    Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev smiles during a televised internet conference in Moscow in this March 5, 2007 file photo. Putin on Monday backed the candidacy of Medvedev to become Russia's next president. Putin said he "completely and fully" supported a proposal by four political parties -- including United Russia, which won a Dec. 2 parliamentary election -- to nominate Medvedev. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/Files (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by Darriuss Royce - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Darriuss Royce RUSSIA/ Tags: russia   moscow    RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2007 - CIS - A boy jumps into a fountain to cool down near the Kremlin, in Moscow, August 24, 2007. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by Wilder Wein - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Wilder Wein RUSSIA Tags: russia   moscow    PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2006 Russian President Vladimir Putin stands with a gun at a shooting gallery of the new GRU military intelligence headquarters building as he visits it in Moscow November 8, 2006. EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/ITAR-TASS/PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by richardbakes - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - richardbakes Russia Tags: russia   web2    Russia Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by Byron Sonnier - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Byron Sonnier RUSSIA Tags: russia   stamp    greetings from RUSSIA Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by bazzbeto - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - bazzbeto Russia (jarvis) Tags: russia   jarvis   romanabramovich   blueribbonwinner    Russia is the best. Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by DJ Bass - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - DJ Bass Russia Dima Bilan Tags: russia   eurosong   dimabilan    "Dima Bilan" " Russia Dima Bilan Press release photos from official eurovision site. Recent Updated: 5 years ago - Created by radoya - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - radoya Russia, Siberia, Sheregesh Tags: snow   mountains   russia   siberia   sheregesh    Russia, Siberia. Recent Updated: 6 years ago - Created by m@rtovskiy - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - m@rtovskiy RUSSIA Tags: russia   krasnoyarsk    Two-month-old North American puma cub Baron (top) vies for a plush tiger with coeval puppy dog Basya in a zoo in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk November 24, 2006. Baron was breastfed by Basya's mother, because its own mother refused to feed it. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 6 years ago - Created by Quixotic Dreamer - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Quixotic Dreamer RUSSIA Tags: russia   grozny   pots431    一個車臣居民在首都格羅斯尼內，因戰爭遭到損壞的房屋前貯水。（圖／路透社） A man fills canisters with water at a dilapidated housing estate in the Chechen capital of Grozny October 8, 2006. Most parts of the Chechen capital were destroyed in two Russian campaigns in 1994 and 1999 attempting to crush Chechen separatist forces. Picture taken October 8, 2006. REUTERS/Eduard Korniyenko (RUSSIA) Recent Updated: 6 years ago - Created by pots - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - pots Russia. Siberia. Altaj. Tags: panorama   green   russia   hills   siberia   clowds   altaj    Russia. Siberia. Altaj. Recent Updated: 6 years ago - Created by m@rtovskiy - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - m@rtovskiy Russia Dima Bilan Tags: russia   eurosong   dimabilan    "Dima Bilan" " Russia Dima Bilan Press release photos from official eurovision site. Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by radoya - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - radoya Russia Dima Bilan Tags: russia   eurosong   dimabilan    "Dima Bilan" " Russia Dima Bilan Press release photos from official eurovision site. Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by radoya - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - radoya Russia Tags: russia    This child is not at the Orphan. She has parents and they dress her up in a Russia folklore and plays music on the streets for money to help. She was very good too. Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by twalls1068@sbcglobal.net - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - twalls1068@sbcglobal.net Russia: Happy Victory Day! Tags: russia   moscow   victoryday    Yep so it's Victory day in Russia today. Yesterday I saw loads of military men at Victory Park & lots of decorations being put up etc cause celebrations take place there & at the Red Square. In the morning, my dad was watching the celebrations at the Red Square, Lol & yesterday they had set up lots and lots of security at Victory Park and we had to put our bag on this table, and pass through those barrier thingies while the police guys watched us & one of them wanted to look inside my bag and I didn't know what he was saying so I was like "Ne Znayu" which means don't know lol...that's like my reflex phrase in Russia. If anyone asks me something in Russian my reply will be, "Ne Znayu" =))))) Yep so the policemen had a nice little chuckle at my "Ne Znayu" & then I understood when one of them nodded at my bag that he wanted to see inside so I opened it for him lol & he glanced inside and let me go. =P Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by ♥♡Queen Cleopatra♥♡ - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - ♥♡Queen Cleopatra♥♡ russia! Tags: russia   me   museums   2005   jane    at the guggenheim for the exhibition on russian art (taken by polina) the boots are from russia, the skirt is from '96 the outfit worked for museum & goth club... and then i got called normal. X-D Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by the jane - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - the jane russia 121 Tags: russia   amanda   congdon    Russia folk dancers in St. Petersburg. Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by Rocketstar - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Rocketstar Russia 2 Tags: russia   apatity   car   red   building   redbuilding    Another from Russia. When I was processing this image I notice that just above the car's hood you can see our group in the reflection. If you take an even closer look, (like %100) you can see me. You can also see Andy Sakhrani talking to me. I didn't remember him talking to me while I took this picture until seeing this. Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by Michael J Metts - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Michael J Metts Russia 1 Tags: russia   urban   brick   apatity   abstract    I don't have a camera right now so I'm starting to process some of my photos from Russia. Hopefully I'll pick up a D200 over Christmas. Woot! This one is in Apatity, a large Russian city north of the arctic circle. It was cold when we were there in late June so I can't imagine what it must be like now. Recent Updated: 7 years ago - Created by Michael J Metts - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Michael J Metts Russia map Tags: russia   maprussia   mapasia   moscow   stpetersburg   asia    Enter Russia !  18 Photos   SlideShow Me !   St Petersburg  0 Photos   Moscow  11 Photos   => Back to Asia Recent Updated: 8 years ago - Created by vodkamax - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - vodkamax Russia in Alaska 3 Tags: alaska   russia    Russia Sailplanes AC-5M flying near Mt. McKinley, Alaska Reproduced by permission of photographer, Rob Stapleton, all rights reserved. Recent Updated: 8 years ago - Created by pdbrown_170b - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - pdbrown_170b Russia in Alaska Tags: alaska   russia    Russia Sailplanes AC-5M flying near Mt. McKinley, Alaska Reproduced by permission of photographer, Rob Stapleton, all rights reserved. Recent Updated: 8 years ago - Created by pdbrown_170b - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - pdbrown_170b Border: Russia - Lithuania at Vistytis Tags: 2003   russia   border   lithuania   borderfilms   gbbe   vistytis   cdougmurray   wwwstockphototipscom   wwwroadspillorg    Here's a strange one: the border between Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) and Lithuania is the high water line. So, in this photo, the water is Russia, the beach Lithuania. The dock is in Russian territory, but the people on shore are in Lithuania. Odd. (2003) © Doug Murray Recent Updated: 9 years ago - Created by Doug Murray (borderfilms) - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Doug Murray (borderfilms) St. Petersburg, Russia Tags: art   me   stpetersburg   student   friend   artist   russia   bodylanguage   ethiopia    We met on the metro, when I asked him to translate for myself and the two Russians I had met hours earlier on a bus from the airport to the metro station, possibly Mayakovskaya. Here, we meet, some days later, to tour The Hermitage. It was a most interesting tour of that famous museum since he was an Ethiopian student studying art in Russia. The Winter of 1995, if memory serves, and you can see the frozen River Neva in the background. (This picture was taken by a Moroccon whom I met while waiting for my friend to arrive at the museum. It was fun for all three of us to explore the famous former retreat of the Czarina, Catherine the Great.) Recent Updated: 17 years ago - Created by Barrybar - View Copyright and permission to use should be sought to the author - Barrybar