Ivan the Great Bell Tower
The bell tower Ivan the Great ( Russian Колокольня Ивана Великого ) in Moscow is the tallest building in the Moscow Kremlin with its height of 81 meters . It was built between 1505 and 1508, the standing nearby Cathedral of the Archangel , Dormition Cathedral and the Annunciation Cathedral built that do not own belfries have. In addition to the actual tower, the Ivan the Great's ensemble includes a former church that was added later and has also been used as a bell tower since the 17th century.
history
The bell tower owes its name to a former church that originally stood roughly on its site. This was dedicated to Saint John Klimakos , who was called Ioann or Iwan in Russia ; the addition to the name “the great” (meaning “the high”) for the structure was only created after the construction of today's bell tower. The establishment of a small St. John's Church in the summer of 1329 under Grand Duke Iwan Kalita has been handed down . This church - one of the first in Moscow to be built of stone instead of wood - had Ivan III built almost two centuries later . in the course of the large-scale expansion of the Kremlin initiated by him, which essentially resulted in today's fortress, replaced by the new bell tower. As for a number of other Kremlin buildings erected at the time, Ivan also employed an architect from Italy for the construction of the bell tower : in this case it was the otherwise almost unknown Bon- Fryazin ( Бон-Фрязин ), whose real name has not been passed down.
Construction began in 1505 and was completed three years later, after the death of Ivan III. Originally the bell tower was about 60 meters high. The original Johannes Klimakos Church was consecrated in its octagonal base part, which was equipped with around five meters thick foundation walls. Thus, Ivan the Great initially served both the three Kremlin cathedrals and this small church as a bell tower. Due to its height, the tower was also used as an observation point in order to be able to detect dangers such as fires or attackers in good time.
The first expansion of the ensemble took place in the years 1531–43. At that time, another Italian architect called Petrok Maly Frjasin (his real name has also remained unknown) built the Church of the Resurrection ( Церковь Воскресения ) right next to the existing bell tower . This served as a place of worship until the end of the 17th century; then it was rebuilt as a bell stalls, which has since been used as a supplement to the bells hung in Ivan the Great. At particularly important Orthodox festivals, all the bells from the tower and the former Church of the Resurrection rang simultaneously.
The bell tower Ivan the Great reached its current height of 81 meters in the years 1599–1600, when the then tsar Boris Godunov had an additional tier with today's onion dome added to the tower . The gold-plated lettering directly below the dome reminds of this to this day. (This lettering was painted a few years later, in the time of the so-called Smuta , at the behest of the " false Dimitri " and was only released again under Peter the Great .) Until the construction of the Christ the Savior Cathedral in 1883, the bell tower, which was raised under Godunow, was that tallest structure in Moscow (with the exception of the period between 1707 and 1723, when the Menshikov Tower, two kilometers to the northeast, was the same height) and it was forbidden to build taller buildings than it.
In 1624, the so-called Philaret annex ( Филаретова пристройка ) was added to the Church of the Resurrection from the north. This building, created by the English (according to other information: German) architect Jan Thaler and the Russian master builder Baschen Ogurzow, can be recognized today by its tent roof construction with Gothic details, which is striking in the ensemble .
The ensemble Ivan the Great suffered considerable damage during the war against Napoléon in 1812. After French troops marched into Moscow after the Battle of Borodino , Napoléon wanted to have the gilded cross that closed the bell tower, which he considered pure gold, shipped to Paris . to put it on the top of the invalids' dome . However, when attempting to dismantle it, the cross fell and broke. When the French withdrew, Napoléon finally ordered the bell tower to be blown up. The detonation completely destroyed the attached former Church of the Resurrection, but the tower itself proved to be extremely stable and only suffered a few cracks in the foundation walls. The restoration of the buildings under the direction of the architects Iwan Jegotow and Luigi Rusca was carried out in the course of the great reconstruction of the entire city in the years 1816-23.
During the Soviet era , the tower, like the entire Kremlin initially, was closed to visitors. The upper viewing platform remains inaccessible to this day, as the reconstruction of the interior of the tower has not yet been completed. Since spring 2009, however, tours of the interior of the tower and the lower platform have been offered.
architecture
The three components of the ensemble were built of brick and are clad in white, in keeping with the neighboring structures of the Kremlin's Cathedral Square. The 81 m high bell tower has a relatively simple structure: It consists of three octagonal parts - the base part, the slightly narrower middle part and the even narrower upper part with the end from 1600 - the top of a gold-plated combination of the dome and the seven-meter-high cross be completed. The base part ends at the top with arched bell recesses between the edges and with an open gallery. This is followed by a similarly constructed middle section, also with bell recesses and an open platform above, which is the highest of the two viewing platforms of the tower. On the upper third of the tower, a conspicuous row of Kokoschnik ornaments marks the transition between the original tower, built in 1508, and the addition from 1600. This is followed by a row of very narrow, arched, window-looking niches, and finally, immediately below the dome, one in three Rows of gold-plated lettering that perpetuated the construction of the extension “at the behest of the great Tsar and Grand Duke Boris Fyodorovich of all Russia”.
Inside the tower, a 329-step spiral staircase leads to the highest viewing platform. The space on the ground floor of the base part once housed the Johannes Klimakos Church, which was re-consecrated with the construction of the bell tower and is very cramped due to the up to five meters thick foundation walls - its area is only 25 m².
The former Church of the Resurrection, which has only been used to house bells since the late 17th century, is known as the Dormition or Uspensky bell stalls ( Успенская звонница ). The four-storey rectangular base is followed by the actual bell stalls, recognizable through large arched recesses, on which a drum decorated at the bottom with a dome and cross is attached. On the ground floor of the Uspensky bell stalls there is now an exhibition hall in which various thematic exhibitions from the Kremlin museums and other domestic and foreign collections take place alternately. From the side of the Cathedral Square , an external staircase leads to the third floor of the building, where the small church of St. Nicholas of Gostun ( Церковь Св. Николая Гостунского ) was located in the 19th century . This staircase, which was destroyed in 1812 along with the rest of the building, was restored in 1852 under the direction of the famous architect Konstantin Thon .
The newest part of the complex is the Philaret annex, built in 1624 and completely rebuilt after 1812, which stands out visually from the rest of the Uspenski bell stalls primarily through its pyramid-shaped tent roof, also closed with a cross. All around you can see Gothic decorations in the form of four pointed turrets. The extension owes its name to the Patriarch Philaret , during whose time in office as head of the church the construction took place.
Bells
The bell tower and its annexes now contain a total of 22 bells that were cast between the 16th and 19th centuries. Of these, 18 smaller bells hang in the base and middle part of the bell tower, three on the Uspenski bell stalls and one in the Philaret annex. These four are also the largest and most important bells in the Ivan the Great ensemble.
One of the three bells in the Uspensky Tower is the Uspensky Bell of the same name ( Успенский колокол ). Originally made in the early 16th century by an unknown master, it was later melted down and re-cast twice - the first time in 1760 and the second time in 1819 after the bell broke in the detonation of 1812. When it was restored in 1819, the bell was richly decorated with depictions of Jesus Christ , the Mother of God and several tsars. Since then, the bell has weighed 65.5 tons. It traditionally only rings at the largest church festivals such as Easter . In the past, the Tsar's death was announced by ringing the Uspensky bell three times.
The other two bells of the Uspensky pews are the 19.6 tonne Reut ( Реут , literally "the roaring" due to the characteristic low-pitched sound) and the 16.6 tonne everyday bell ( Вседневный ). The latter was first created in 1652 and was remelted in 1782. The Reut was cast in 1622 by the well-known master Andrei Tschochow, whose most famous masterpiece - the Tsar Cannon - is on display in the Kremlin to this day. In contrast to the Uspenski bell, it did not break completely in the explosion of 1812, only two pieces split off, which were welded back a little later without affecting the original sound of the bell.
The Sunday bell ( Воскресный ) hanging on the belfry of the Philaret annex weighs 13 tons. It was made in 1704 by bell founder Iwan Motorin, the creator of the tsar's bell, which is exhibited in front of the bell tower to this day and which has never been used .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Genrogge.ru: Немецкие архитекторы в России (checked on March 13, 2009)
Web links
- Ivan the Great Bell Tower. In: Structurae
- Ivan The Great Bell Tower In: Kreml.ru (Russian)
Coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 3 " N , 37 ° 37 ′ 5.4" E