Tobolsk Kremlin

General view of the Tobolsk Kremlin in the 1990s

Pavlinsky watchtower

The Tobolsk Kremlin ( Russian Тобольский кремль ) is a former citadel in Russia from the late 17th century . It is located in the western Siberian city of Tobolsk and is the only old Russian Kremlin in the Asian part of Russia. The Tobolsk Kremlin was also built later than all other Kremlins.

history

The city of Tobolsk was one of the first Siberian regions to be conquered and populated by Tsarist Russia . For this reason, the city, founded in 1587, had fortifications practically from the beginning, which were supposed to protect the newly developed areas and were initially made of wood. A cathedral was built within the fortress for the first time as early as 1621. In the course of the 17th century, several major fires occurred in Tobolsk, in which the fortification systems were always destroyed and restored shortly afterwards. In the course of the new buildings, the fortress area was enlarged several times; the protective walls reached a length of 550 meters at the end of the 1670s.

Since the stone architecture in the Tobolsk region did not spread until the end of the 17th century, the fortifications remained wooden up to this time. The city's first stone building, the Bishop's Palace, was completed in 1679, and seven years later the first stone church - the St. Sophia Cathedral, built by Moscow builders and preserved to this day - was inaugurated. As a result, construction work began on a stone fortification, and as early as 1699 around 620 meters of wall with a total of nine watchtowers were completed. Some stone buildings on the territory of the Kremlin were built by Swedish prisoners of war, including the Rentereja building , also known as the Swedish Palate . In many ways, the new citadel was based on the Moscow Kremlin and, taking into account the special geographical location and also the considerable wealth of Tobolsk at the time, should be particularly powerful and stable. Intensive development of the Kremlin area with both sacred and secular buildings continued until the beginning of the 18th century, with the well-known Tobolsk cartographer Semyon Remesov also participating in the development plans of that time .

However, as the military importance of the Tobolsk Kremlin waned very quickly after its completion, some of the projects for the ensemble, including one of the entrance gates of the fortress, were not completed. After 1718, when the then Siberian governor Matwei Gagarin was removed from office, construction activities in the Tobolsk Kremlin largely came to a standstill. It was not until the middle to the end of the 18th century that some smaller buildings were built on the Kremlin grounds, some of which were unable to harmonize with the original ensemble.

Existing structures in the Tobolsk Kremlin were also modified in the 18th and 19th centuries, some of which were necessary due to difficult natural conditions: The St. Sophia Cathedral had to be provided with special supporting structures to reduce the risk of collapse due to frequent landslides in the area of the Kremlin. In the 1970s, major renovations were again carried out in the Tobolsk Kremlin; some of the watchtowers were so damaged that they actually had to be rebuilt.

architecture

St. Sophia Cathedral

The ensemble of the Tobolsk Citadel, which has been preserved to this day, consists on the one hand of the fortification wall with seven former watchtowers and on the other hand of historical buildings within the former fortress.

The oldest preserved building of the Kremlin and at the same time the oldest stone sacred building in Siberia is the St. Sophia Cathedral (Russian Софийский собор ). It was built in 1686 and at the beginning of the 19th century a 75 meter high bell tower was added. The cathedral itself is 47 meters high and is closed at the top by a traditional Russian five-domed structure. The domes themselves were redesigned in 1726 and since then have been reminiscent of Ukrainian Orthodox church buildings. Until the October Revolution of 1917, the Tobolsk St. Sophia Cathedral served, among other things, as a burial place for local bishops and other high clergymen. After it was closed in 1920, the building was used as a warehouse for years, in 1961 it was given museum status and services have been held here again since the 1990s.

In addition to the Cathedral of St. Sophia, there are two other sacred buildings in the Tobolsk Kremlin: the Cathedral of Protection and Intercession ( Покровский собор ) and the Church of Sergius of Radonezh ( Храм Сергия Радонежского ). The Protection and Intercession Cathedral was built in the years 1743–1746 and shows stylistic elements of the Baroque style typical of that time . The small church of Sergius of Radonezh was built in 2007 between the two cathedrals; the original church of this name in the Tobolsk Kremlin was demolished in the middle of the 18th century.

The former bishop's house ( Архиерейский дом ) should be mentioned as an important monument of secular architecture in Tobolsk . It was built in 1775 on the site of its predecessor from 1679, the city's first stone building. Today the Tobolsk Museum of Local History is located in the building .

Individual evidence

^ Zoja Sokolova: The land of Jugorien. 1982 p. 49

literature

Галина Вацлавна Длужневская, Владимир Александрович Калинин, Андрей Викторович Сужневская, Кремсандрович Калинин, Андрей Викторович Сукторович Субибовин : XV - XVII. Литера, Санкт-Петербург 2006, ISBN 5-94455-523-8 , pp. 316–319.