Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 44

My first weekend in Moscow, I made my way over for a free walking tour. I got there a bit early to the square where it started, and there was a little bakery/cafe there. What I have found is that cappuccino is the same in every language. As I as waiting for the start, I was looking around the area. The building styles were a bit like Paris maybe, mostly square. Normally around 5 stories with stores on the first floor. I didn't see alot of balconies, but I did see a bunch of the traditional gold-onion domes from churches.

We started at the All Saints Church, which is at Slavyanskaya Square. The church is one of the oldest churches in Moscow. The first wooden church was build around 1380 but completely rebuilt in stone in 1488 and again in 1687 in a Muscovite Baroque style. It is a very traditional church and so women had to wear scarves on their heads to go inside. Luckily enough, there was a little store that would allow us to borrow a scarf to go in. The interesting notes on this church was that it was closed in 1930 and supposedly used by the KGB for mass executions.

Slavyanskaya Square is in an area called Kitay-Gorad, which the tour guide said sounds like China Town. Gorod is the russian word for town and Kitay is russian for China, hence China Town. The name comes from the city wall made of red bricks. In the middle of the square is a statue of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. Unfortunately, I didn't actually write down anything about them (sorry).

This is a picture of one of the walls, erected between 1536 and 1539, which originally had 13 towers and 6 gates. They were on average 6 meters tall and 6 meters thick. This is one of the few last remaining parts of this wall

Saint Basils Cathedral, which I will also have a full other blog for, is one of the most recognized buildings in Russia. It was built by Ivan the Terrible between 1555 and 1561 to commemorate the capture of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan. You'll get alot more info on the church (and pictures inside) in one of the other week's blogs.

In 1818 the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, was erected in the middle of Red Square to symbolize the rise in patriotic consciousness during the war of 1812 against Napoleon. It was later moved in front of St. Basils.

Turning around from Saint Basils, you can look across Red Square and see a large (very large) 2-story ornate building, which is the GUM department store. It is built in a Neo-Russian style by Catherine II of Russia after the 1812 Fire of Moscow, which burned a majority of the city. It stands for Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin, meaning main universal store, and is the name of the main department store in most cities during the time of the Soviet Union. The one in Moscow is the most famous. By the time of the Russian revolution in 1917, it has over 1,000 stores and remained a department store until 1928, when Stalin converted it to office space. It reopened in 1953 as a department store and is now a shopping mall with designer/luxury brands. The fountain in the middle was a famous meeting place, especially for lovers (supposedly). I also tried my first Kvas, which is typical drink made from rye bread. It tastes a little like beer but since they sell it to kids, it doesn't have much if any alcohol in it.

Then the center-on view of Red Square, with GUM over on the right. It is a very large parade square where they also hold special events. Red Square actually doesn't get its' name from the red bricks of the Kremlin but rather, the Russian word krasnaya, which can mean both red and beautiful. The original meaning was "beautiful square". The red building in the background is the State Historical Museum, and then the red brick walls of the Kremlin can be seen on the left.

More of the Kremlin walls, with the yellow building behind it being the offices of the current President.

The Bell Tower, or Spasskaya Tower, is the main tower on the eastern wall of the Kremlin and was built in 1491.

Lenin's Mosoleum houses the embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin, head of the Soviet Union. It was placed there shortly after his death in 1924 and has stayed there most of the time other than a few rare exceptions in wartime. The shape resembles that of a step pyramid like what you would see in Egypt. Stalin's body was temporarily placed inside after his death in 1953 and his name added in paint. In 1961, during the "de-Stalinization" efforts, his body was removed and buried inside the walls of the Kremlin.

The Kazan Cathedral sits next to the GUM department store. It is also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, and is another Russian Orthodox Church. It is a reconstruction of the original church, which was destroyed by Stalin in 1936. The original church was created in 1625 and was considered one of the most important churches in Moscow.

The dark red building on the left is the State Historical Museum, and then the lovely gates. I'll have more detailed pictures of the icons on the gate in a later blog.

Walking through those gates, you come to Theater Square, with the Bolshoi Theater, home of the famous Bolshoi Ballet company. I had wanted to get tickets but the season didn't start until the week or so after I returned to Shanghai. The current building was built in 1824 with a neoclassical facade, which is a landmark of Russia, even being featured on the 100 ruble banknote.

This the backside of the same gate as before, with a little tiny church with the blue dome roof in the middle.

Then walking towards Alexander Garden, we come across an impressive statue of Marshal Zhukov in Manege Square. It commemorates the victor of Russia, led by Zhukov, over the Germans. This is depicted by the swastika being crushed by the foot of the horse.

Next is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guards ceremony. The remains of the unknown soldiers killed in the Battle of Moscow in 1941 were initially buried in a mass grave at the 41st km of the Leningrad highway at the city of Zelenograd. This was the location of the closest approach of the Nazi armies to Moscow during the war. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the battle, in December 1966 these remains were relocated to the Kremlin Wall. The guards change every hour.

To the right of the tomb, lining the walkway are dark red porphyry blocks with incapsulated soils from hero cities, Leningrad, Kiev, Stalingrad, Odessa, Sevastopol, Minsk, Kerch, Novorossiysk, Tula and Brest, Murmansk and Smolensk.

This is the Kutafya Tower, or the Barbican tower of the Kremlin. It was a defensive gate into the Kremlin and is now the entrance to the Kremlin for tours.

Next, we go inside the Kremlin walls themselves. The world Kremlin means castle. When you come in from the barbican, one of the first buildings that you see is the Kremlin Arsenal, which was constructed originally in 1736. It is now a museum, and you can see cannons and motars displayed outside.

This is the Tsar Cannon, which is 19.5 ft long and made in 1586. It is purely symbolic, since it was never used in a war. There is traces of being fired at least once, but nobody seems to know when or where. It is the largest bombard by caliber in the world. The fun fact is that the cannonballs that are in front of the cannon, which each weighs about 1 ton, were done in 1834 and actually are too large to go into the cannon.

Next it the Tsar Bell or Royal bell, which is just around the corner from the Tsar Cannon. This bell is over 20 feet tall and weighs nearly 450,000 lbs. It was commissioned by Empress Anna Ivanovna, niece of Peter the Great, in 1733. There were a few problems, including a fire that broke out in 1737 in the Kremlin. The fire spread to the temporary wooden structure holding the bell and guards threw cold water on it to keep it from being damaged. Unfortunately, this caused more damage than the fire would have, as a 11.5 ton slab of the bell cracked off.

Assumption Cathedral is on the North side of Cathedral square and the current building was built between 1475 and 1479. From 1547 to 1896 it is where the Coronation of the Russian monarch was held. In addition, it is the burial place for most of the Moscow Metropolitans and Patriarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. The first picture is the Royal Procession door on the Cathedral and the 2nd is the Northern Portal.

Cathedral of the Annunciation was was originally the personal chapel for the Muscovite tsars and was built between 1484 and 1489 as part of Grand Duke Ivan III plans for a large-scale renovation of the Moscow Kremlin.

The Ivan the Great Bell Tower is the tallest tower in the Kremlin complex. It was built in 1508 for the Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Cathedral Square.