Armory of the Moscow Kremlin

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The Armory Building; on the left the Borovitsky Tower of the Kremlin
The armory on the map of the Moscow Kremlin

The Armory of the Moscow Kremlin ( Russian Оружейная палата Московского Кремля ) is one of the most famous museums of applied arts in Russia . It is located in the capital, Moscow , on the territory of the Kremlin, the oldest part of the city. The building in which the exposition is today dates from 1851. On two floors are historical weapons, jewelery, monarch insignia (including the famous Monomachian cap ) and unique gold and silversmiths from the 13th century. exhibited until the 19th century. In the same building there is also the permanent exhibition of the State Diamond Fund with particularly valuable jewelery products, tsar regalia and rare gemstones.

The armory building is located in the southwestern part of the Kremlin in the immediate vicinity of its entrance via the Borowitsky tower . Today it can be viewed both as part of a guided tour and individually. In total, not counting the diamond fund, over 4,000 exhibits are on display in the armory.

History of the armory

Originally, the armory was a large collection of workshops in the Moscow Kremlin, in which particularly representative examples of blades and firearms as well as ancillary equipment such as shields, helmets, mail shirts and chain armor were manufactured for the court of the Russian tsar located there. The Kremlin Armory was founded around the 15th or early 16th century and was first mentioned in a written document from 1547 when a conflagration destroyed large parts of its holdings.

In the 17th century, under the rule of the first tsars from the Romanov dynasty, the cadre of the Kremlin armory numbered considerably more masters than a century earlier. Selected artists of the iron, silver and goldsmith's trade worked here, as well as jewelers and icon painters from various regions of the Russian Tsar and also from other European countries. Even back then, not only weapons and accessories were manufactured in the armory, but also representative everyday objects. All of the products made in the armory had in common their artful design - often using precious metals and precious stones - which to this day shows every viewer the former splendor and luxury of the Tsar's court.

Old armory building at the Dreifaltigkeitsturm. 1852

The transformation of the original court workshop with its masterpieces of applied art accumulated over centuries into a museum began at the beginning of the 18th century when the Tsar's court under Peter I was relocated from the Moscow Kremlin to the new capital Saint Petersburg . Since then, everyday objects and shelves for the Tsar's court have also been made in Petersburg. However, the historic products made in Moscow were not originally intended for public viewing. Only under Alexander I was a separate building built for the first time - also on the site of the Moscow Kremlin - to store and expose the holdings of the armory. This building, an early Classicist palace with a row of columns at the entrance portal and a dome above it, was built between 1806 and 1812 by the architect Ivan Jegotov (who was also involved in the design of the Moscow Tsaritsyno Palace Park ). It stood near the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin, exactly where the State Kremlin Palace is today.

However, this museum building soon proved to be too small for the growing holdings of the armory. Therefore, three decades later, under Tsar Nicholas I , it was decided to build a new building for the exhibition. The well-known Moscow architect Konstantin Thon was entrusted with the conception and execution . Around the same time, Thon was also commissioned to build a new Moscow residence for the tsar in the Kremlin. A generous piece of land near the Borovitsky Gate, above the slope of the Kremlin Hill on the banks of the Moskva River , was made available for both . The Tsar's Palace, which has since been part of the complex of the Great Kremlin Palace , was built by Thon in the years 1838–1849, and the new two-story armory was built right next door in 1844–1851.

Both buildings were stylistically similar by Thon, namely in a strict classical style of a representative administrative building with even rows of ornamented window frames and decorative details (such as carved rows of columns) on the facades. The interior was decorated in a very splendid way, like a palace; the parade halls on the second floor, in which the greater part of the exposition is located today, are characterized by high vaults supported by columns with color schemes that vary from room to room, as well as by wall ornaments with marble medallions depicting Russian princes and tsars (originally in the 1770s Years by the sculptor Fedot Schubin ).

The old museum building from 1812 was rebuilt after the opening of the new armory in 1851 and was used by the military for several decades. At the end of the 1950s, it was finally demolished to make way for the construction of the State Kremlin Palace (then: the Kremlin Congress Palace).

After the October Revolution of 1917, the holdings of the armory, like other Kremlin treasures, came under the control of the new Bolshevik state power. The museum remained closed for a few years, but reopened its doors in 1924 as the “Museum of Applied Arts”. In addition to the historical products of master jewelers and blacksmiths, there were also a large number of exhibits that were transferred here from churches and palaces of the Kremlin that have now been de-dedicated. During the Second World War , the museum closed because most of the holdings were evacuated to the Urals in the event that Moscow was taken by the Wehrmacht . The museum reopened in the mid-1950s and has been bearing its historical name since then - the State Armory.

Exposure

The main entrance to the armory leads to the lower basement, where there are cloakrooms, souvenir shops and ticket counters. A staircase leads to the exposition over the upper basement, which is situated higher up and is now occupied by the diamond fund; there is also its entrance. One stair further, visitors first come to the vestibule on the first floor. As a rule, however, tours start with the exhibition halls on the second floor. A wide parade staircase with marble railings leads from the vestibule on the first floor.

Second floor

Book fittings

The exhibition space on the second floor of the armory takes up a total of five halls. The focus is on historical weapons as well as artfully crafted everyday objects and church utensils, which formerly belonged to the Tsar's court or the palaces, churches and monasteries of the Kremlin. Directly from the stairwell one arrives at the first hall, which houses an extensive collection of church treasures and forged products from the 11th to 17th centuries. One of the oldest exhibits in the entire inventory of the armory is, for example, an icon of St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki made in the 11th century in the Byzantine Empire , which belonged to the Moscow Grand Duke Dmitri Donskoy in the 14th century . Another cup from the Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky dates from the 11th century . Large parts of the exposition in the first hall take up holdings from Kremlin churches: For example, a handwritten copy of the Gospel from 1499 comes from the former sacristy of the Cathedral of the Assumption in silver, originally the property of Grand Duke Ivan III. , or a golden icon frame decorated with precious stones from the 16th century. The Archangel Michael Cathedral includes a collection of golden utensils donated to the church by the widow of Tsar Fyodor I at the end of the 16th century , as well as an ornamented silver lid of the reliquary of Tsarevich Dmitri from 1630.

Faberge egg with a Kremlin model

In the second hall, a large number of church treasures from later periods (17th century to the beginning of the 20th century) are exhibited, as well as products from gold and silversmiths from all over Russia from the 17th century onwards. Examples include a collection of church utensils from the sacristy of the Trinity Monastery of Sergijew Posad , a unique Gospel specimen in a gold setting adorned with precious stones from the Chudov monastery of the Kremlin that was destroyed in 1929 , a variety of utensils from churches in other Russian cities (including Yaroslavl and Kostroma ) or collections of unique crockery items from the 18th and 19th centuries (including enamel products from the 17th century from the city of Solvychegodsk ). Also in the second hall are products of well-known master jewelers of Tsarist Russia, including several unique Easter eggs from the Fabergé house , made from the 18th to the early 20th century.

The thematic focus of halls three and four, which are at the same height, is on historical weapons and military equipment that were once produced as parade specimens and belonged to the tsars or other monarchs. A life-size model of a knight on horseback and in parade armor can be seen in the third hall . Looted rifles, bladed weapons and armaments take up a large part of the exposition, both from European countries (including personal items of the Swedish King Charles XII stolen in the Battle of Poltava ) and from the Orient. In the fourth hall, parade armor, helmets, shields and mail shirts from the 13th to 17th centuries are exhibited from Russian principalities .

The fifth and last exhibition hall on the second floor is entirely dedicated to objects of applied art that the Russian tsarist court received as gifts from foreign rulers over the centuries. Here, crockery and cutlery products made of precious metals take an important place in terms of quantity: Among them are silver goblets from Nuremberg made in the 16th and 17th centuries , a porcelain service called Olympia from Sèvres (from Napoléon Bonaparte to Tsar Alexander I on the occasion of the Signing of the Tilsit Peace in 1807), luxurious everyday objects and jewelery from France , England , Denmark , Sweden and other European countries, as well as a collection of silversmiths from the 17th and 18th centuries from Augsburg .

First floor

Monomak's cap

The exhibition area on the first floor is divided into four halls. The first of them can be reached via a staircase from the vestibule. Masterpieces of Russian embroidery are exhibited here, including particularly representative parade robes of Russian princes, tsars, emperors and church leaders. On display are, for example, mitres and patriarchal robes that were originally kept in the sacristy of the Kremlin Patriarch's Palace - Nikon alone , under whom the palace was built, owned around 100 such robes during his time in office. The large showcase in the middle of the room shows the parade clothing of Russian emperors from the beginning of the 18th century: Below are the parade robes of the empresses Anna Ioannovna , Elisabeth and Catherine II (the great) , which they wore at their respective coronation ceremonies .

Historic carriage

One of the most famous parts of the armory exposition includes the second hall on the first floor: State regalia of the Russian Tsar's court are exhibited here, some of which were also used at coronation celebrations. One of these objects is the so-called cap of Monomakh , a crown made around the 14th century from gold , precious stones and sable fur of all Moscow grand princes and Russian tsars up to Peter the Great. In addition, several original thrones of Russian monarchs can be seen in this room , including a throne Ivan the Terrible made in the 14th century and clad with ivory panels as well as a double throne from the 17th century, extensively ornamented with silver, for the two tsareviches Ivan and Peter was intended.

This is followed by a small hall, the exhibition of which contains products that were once made in the workshop for horse and rider equipment belonging to the Tsar's court, and finally the equipage hall with over a dozen original carriages from the 17th and 18th centuries that were formerly owned by the Tsars . In addition to several Russian parade carriages of the empresses Anna, Elisabeth and Catherine II (including a sleigh carriage for the winter), a parade wagon made in England, which Tsar Boris Godunov had received from King James I in 1603, can be seen .

Diamond fund

The permanent exhibition from the collection of the so-called Diamond Fund (Russian Алмазный фонд ) has been installed in the building of the armory since 1967 . The latter is a department of the so-called Gochran established in 1922 , an authority that was established in the early Soviet period for the confiscation and storage of particularly valuable gemstones, precious metal bars , jewels and similar treasures from the former possessions of the tsar's court and the nobility . Treasures confiscated from the Tsar's Treasury were transferred specifically to the holdings of the Diamond Fund. Today the diamond fund belongs to the Russian Ministry of Finance . The exposition set up in the armory is in the upper basement of the building. An additional ticket must be purchased to visit this exhibition. It is forbidden to bring photo or video cameras and similar devices into the exhibition hall, which is controlled by the additional security gate at the entrance.

Orlov diamond

As the name suggests, many of the exhibits are cut diamonds or products made from them. The tsar's regalia, which were officially used until the end of the Russian Empire, are exhibited here, including the crown from 1762, which is strewn with numerous diamonds . A scepter from the 1770s with the 189.6-carat Orlov diamond built into it should also be emphasized . Another unique stone with a weight of 88.7 carats is the so-called Shah diamond : It was in the possession of the Persian Shah from the 18th century until he gave it to Tsar Nicholas I as a gift in 1829 . The Shah wanted to make amends for the murder of the Russian ambassador and famous poet Alexander Griboyedov in Tehran. Particularly large specimens - some weigh well over 300 carats - can be found in the collection of diamonds found in the East Siberian republic of Yakutia , which is also on display in the Diamond Fund.

Among the other distinctive exhibits of the Diamond Fund are jewels that once belonged to the Tsar's court, many of which are also adorned with larger diamonds and other rare gemstones, as well as a collection of nuggets found in Russia  - including a nugget of gold found in the Urals in 1842, weighing in a good 36 kg, several gold nuggets from Siberia and an extremely rare platinum nugget from the Urals weighing 8 kg.

Individual evidence

  1. Moskva. Vse kulturnye i istoričeskie pamjatniki . Ėnciklopedija. Algoritm, Moscow 2009, p. 311.
  2. Royal Carriages. kreml.ru

literature

  • AJKiselëv (Ed.): Moskva. Kremlin i Krasnaya Ploščadʹ . AST / Astrel, Moscow 2006, ISBN 5-17034-875-4 , pp. 169-179.
  • Evgenia I. Smirnowa and Bernhard Heitmann: Gold and silver from the Moscow Kremlin. Masterpieces of Hamburg goldsmithing. Published by: Museum for Art and Industry Hamburg 1986.

Web links

Commons : Armory of the Moscow Kremlin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 55 ° 44 ′ 58.4 "  N , 37 ° 36 ′ 48.3"  E