The Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin is the heart of the country. It is a great monument of Russian and world architecture. It was built in the shape of a triangle on the left bank of the Moskva River. The Kremlin has 20 towers, of which four have gates. There you can see the wonderful white-stone monuments of the 15th — 16th centuries.
The Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral
The Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral (1475-1479), architect Aristotle Fioravante from Italy.
It was here that the Russian tsars and emperors were crowned. The Cathedral is oblong, with an arched roof supported by four columns and crowned by fine golden
domes. You can see some very fine old frescoes there.
The Archangelsky Cathedral
The Archangelsky Cathedral was built in 1505-1508 by the Italian architect, Aleviso Novy. It is cubical in shape, with fine domes. The tombs of the Moscow Princes and tsars are here.
The Blagoveshchensky (Annunciation) Church
The Blagoveshchensky (Annunciation) Church was built in 1484 by architects from Pskov and enlarged in 1542 during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The cathedral's icons include works by the oldest Russian artists: Theophanes Grek, Andrey Rublev and Prokhor of Gorodets. The murals of 1508 are the work of Feodosy, the son of Dionysius.
The Majestic Campanile of Ivan Veliky was built in 1505-1508 and was completed in 1600 during the reign of Boris Godunov. It was, in ancient times, the Kremlin watch-tower. It is 81 m high.
The Tretyakov Gallery
T
he
building was built from a design by the famous Russian artist V.
Vasnetsov at the beginning of the 20th century. The Gallery was
founded by Pavel Tretyakov in 1856. In 1892, Tretyakov donated his
collection (1,287 paintings, 518 drawings and 9 sculptures) to the
city of Moscow. Now the gallery owns some 100 thousand works of art.
The Tretyakov Gallery is famous for its collection of Russian icons (by the famous Andrey Rublev — 14-15th centuries, by Monysius — 15th century) and the collection of Russian paintings of the 20th century.
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
P
ushkin
Museum of Fine Arts (architect R. L Klein).
It was built in 1898-1912.
This is a museum of the history of world art from ancient times (4th millennium, B.C.) to our day. It is one of the largest collections of paintings, graphic art, sculpture and applied art in Russia, being second only to the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The Museum contains originals or excellent copies of works by outstanding artists of ancient Babylon, Egypt, Rome, Greece and Western Europe.
The exhibits there include Egyptian mummies and statues of Pharaohs; the pillar with the laws of King Hammurabi of Babylon inscribed on it (2000 B. C.); copies of Hellenic statues by Phidias and Praxiteles; Etruscan vases which are over 2000 years old. Also on display are originals by famous German, French painters and European sculptors of the 17th-18th centuries.
The Monument of K. Minin and D. Pozharsky
T
his
is the first civil monument in Moscow. The monument was erected with
money raised by public subscription. It was set up in 1818 by Ivan
Martos. Up until 1930 it stood in the centre of Red Square.
A Bit of History: after the death of the first False Dmitry, the Polish invaders on September 21, 1610 entered Moscow and settled in the Kremlin. The foreign rule was oppressive and led to a broad liberation movement.
In September, 1611, Kuzma Minin, a merchant, appealed to the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, a large trading centre on the Volga, to come to the aid of the Moscow state. He urged them to give all they had in order to save the homeland from foreign enslavement. A lot of people joined him and helped him with the money, and many enrolled in the volunteer army led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who was known for his courage. In August 1612, the main forces of the volunteer army reached Moscow and began an offensive against the foreign invaders. On October 26, the Kremlin, the last stronghold of the Poles, was liberated.