The first building upon entering through the Troitskie Gate, was the Arsenal Building. It currently houses the regiment which guards the Kremlin, who also serve as guards of honor at ceremonial events...
Cannons which were seized from Napoleon line the front of the building (although the cannons are not French, but italian, Turkish, etc., as they had first been seized from other armies by Napoleon)...
The next building was the Senate Building (this is the end of one wing of a triangular shaped building, with the front being under the dome, which you can barely see in the left of the photo)...
...a study and apartment was held by Lenin in this third floor room...
...the above Senate Building was the most important building during the Soviet regime, and was the building in front of which Gorbachev stood when he resigned as the last president of the "Soviet Union." There was a typical Soviet building (I.e., square, gray concrete), which you can see in front of these eleven gold domes....
...this building is now considered an eyesore, and is why the Kremlin is not on the heritage list in its entirety....only Cathedral Square is a listed heritage site. When the Soviets lost power, the star on the top of this building was replaced by the double eagle which used to be the symbol of the Tsarist regime, but now represents the cooperation of church and state....
There is currently a joke about how this symbol represents the two heads of the country, Putin and Medevev, since Putin seems to continue to play a more primary role in the government despite Medevev's election to president. In reading the paper while here, it seemed that Putin is still running the country, and in the spotlight for any important matters, including foreign affairs, while Medevev is in the background, doing things like dedicating sites, etc. and there is speculation that Putin will run for president again in the next election (there were some May Day groups who protested his continued control of the government saying that no one should be in power for that long).
Anyway, enough politics :-)...
This bronze cannon, the largest cannon ever built, was commissioned by Tsar Feodor I during his reign around the 1580's....
...the iron carriage with lion head, however, was not built until about 1835...
...this cannon was never fired, and speculation is that it wouldn't work as it is too big, and it would be difficult to load and fire it.
The bell which sits next to it weighs about 200 tons and is purportedly the largest bell in the world (hmmm, I'm thinking I saw a bell in Myanmar which they claimed was the biggest?)...
....there was a fire in Moscow while it was being built, and in an effort to save the bell, they poured water on it, which caused it to crack and this piece fell off, so just as the cannon was never fired, this bell was never rung.
There was a small tree lined garden, which honors the Russian cosmonauts....a tree has been planted to honor each of them (this will be even more beautiful when the trees and tulips are in bloom!)...
It was now time to enter Cathedral Square, which includes the Cathedral of the Assumption...
...this church was founded in the 1300's and was the main church of the Russian state for 500 years during the reign of the tsars. It was used for weddings, but most importantly for coronations...I.e., it was where the tsars "assumed" power. This frieze marks the entrance...
No photos were allowed in the cathedrals...the frescoes, icons and historical relics within all of them are unbelievable...one item we saw is believed to be the oldest icon, dating back to the 12th century.
Another church within the square is the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael (neither of us had a good picture of that cathedral....my camera was still on an improper setting from the day before and Cynthia's battery gave out on her). Anyway, it was where the tsars before Peter the Great were buried (we discovered here that the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg only has the crypts of all tsars (except two) SINCE Peter the Great...so our prior reporting about "all" of the tsars being there was not quite right). Interestingly, Ivan the Terrible has the most honored spot...the translation of his name to "terrible" is actually incorrect, as his name actually means "feared, yet revered." So he was well respected. Also, towards the end of his life, he repented and became a monk. So he had the highest regarded placement behind the altar.
Another church in the square is the Cathedral of the Annunciation...
...this was the private church of the tsars' families and was used for baptisms and private services. It was built in the 15th and 16th centuries and had nine gilded domes altogether, representing the nine ranks of the angels...
Also in the square is the Ivan the Great bell tower which housed the bell for all churches within the Kremlin. There is a separate assumption bell in the building to the right that was only used for coronations.
Faberge eggs...I didn't realize that these eggs had been specifically commissioned from Faberge by one of the tsars (was it one of the nicholas'?). I think our guide said there were a total of 43 eggs that had been made...I might be wrong on that number. The Kremlin has ten of them. We saw five of them in a special exhibit within the Kremlin, including the outstanding clock egg, and we saw the other five in the Armory Building. Stalin didn't think the eggs were worth anything, so he sold the rest of them for a pittance, all of which are now in private hands. The craftsmanship and small, minute detail of each egg is unbelievable.
Besides the Faberge eggs, the Armory Building....
...had an unbelievable display of over 4,000 tsar-era items including military equipment; imperial crowns; coronation, wedding and other imperial outfits; thrones; imperial tableware; carriages, including an ornate one belonging to Elizabeth, which she rode at breakneck speed from St. Petersburg to Moscow to make sure she received the throne which she so coveted (she's the one who transformed Catherine's Palace into its opulent grandeur--see Day 57); ambassadorial and other gifts; silver and gold items, etc., etc.
Again, a lot to absorb... a good time for mindless shopping...so we headed back to Old Arbat street to finish up our Russian shopping...on this trip, the street had now been decorated for Victory Day...
...and we found the statue of Pushkin and his wife in front of a house where they had once lived, which we had missed the last time we were here...
We had a bite to eat and a nip of vodka at our hotel, marking our last night in Russia.
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