Coat of arms

Wheel Gates

In the second half of the 15th century, the ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin developed rapidly, at the invitation of Ivan III foreign architects began to come to the capital. To further protect the Front Sovereign Court, a new ring of brick walls was built under the leadership of Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin . Two entrance apertures were left in the western part: large for riders and carts, small for pedestrians. This entry got its name in honor of the nearby courtyard of the Stable Command . According to court etiquette , representatives of the lower classes were obliged to leave their "huts" (that is, carts and carriages) behind the wall and on foot to pass to the royal court. Kolymyzhnye gates were mainly used for everyday royal trips, and large ceremonial exits and embassies passed from the eastern side ^{[5] [4] [6]} .

Tower Construction

The tower above the Kolymazhnye Gates was erected in 1636. The work was supervised by stone masters Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin and Larion Ushakov, the creators of a number of Kremlin buildings: the Terem Palace , Svetlichnaya and the Chambers. The new tower continued their architectural concept and was decorated in a similar style. For example, the widths of the side blades of the second tier of the tower were decorated with exactly the same sockets that are in the belt of the third floor Teremov ^{[2] [7] [1] [4] [8]} . For the beauty of the decoration, the tower soon received the name Red, and because of its main function it was also called the Golden Sovereign Gate ^[8] .

By the mid-1670s, a trapezoidal square formed in front of the tower, similar in outline to the future Senate . The coat of arms and the entrance to the Kolymazhny Dvor limited the area from the Borovitsky Gate . The plans of the 18th century show that the left porch of the Arms Gate connected them with the rear facade of the Bolshoi Palace of Boris Godunov , and the right one led to the Icon Tower ^{[4] [9]} .

Five hundred archers were engaged in the protection of the imperial court, almost half of them guarded the Stamp Gate ^[10] . The founder of the archaeological direction of Russian historical science, Ivan Zabelin, in his book “The History of the City of Moscow” mentions a decree dated February 26, 1684, prohibiting “putting horses close in other places near the palace”, from the very Borovitsa side at the Red Gate, as the subsequently known Stamp Tower was designated ^[11] .

Demolition

Before the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg, the Stamp Tower was maintained in good condition. As soon as the king ceased to live in the Kremlin, many buildings began to decline. In the inventory of the dilapidated palace from 1713 it was said: "In the Kolymazhnye gates from the bottom, corners spilled out from sputum, and also a brick fell out in the walls." And already in 1722, the inventory indicated that “the pillars, walls, and arches are dilapidated, <...> the gates are large wooden winged ramparts” ^[12] .

Since the beginning of 1801, Moscow authorities have been preparing for the coronation ceremony of Alexander I. The head of the Palace Office Peter Valuev gave the order to “clean and tidy up” the territory of the Kremlin. Obsolete and lost their original functions of the building were demolished, regardless of their historical and artistic value. During this period, Sretensky Cathedral and the ensemble of the palace of Boris Godunov were destroyed ^[5] . According to the Valuev’s report, the Stamp of the Tower should be immediately demolished “owing to its ugliness, uselessness and harm from the brothel of a wandering people of fossilization near it of any impurity” ^{[13] [12]} .

In 1801, the Stamp Tower was dismantled, and with it the last fragments of the wall of the Front Sovereign of the Court of Ivan III, the Epiphany Church and many other buildings ^{[14] [15]} . In their place a wasteland formed, which in the 1840s was used for the construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace ^{[13] [5]} .

Almost a hundred years after the demolition, in 1895, the Kolymazhnye Gates served as a model for the reconstruction of the Dmitrov Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin ^[16] .

The square tower was divided into four floors. On the first were two entrance arches with an iron gate. On the second floor there was a spacious hall without overlapping. The third was distinguished by the complexity of the engineering structure, since it served as the foundation of a stone hipped peak. Outside it was surrounded by two defensive belts: below was a row with mashikulyami , and above - with recessed loopholes . Above them was a gallery fenced with a parapet with a wooden floor ^[12] .

Like almost all Kremlin towers in the 17th century, the composition was completed by a decorative tiled tent with sentinel towers. It was lit by two rows of windows in the style of the Italian Renaissance , the composition was crowned with a copper gilt emblem on an “apple”. The sentries guarding the royal chambers also monitored the city and gave an alarm in the event of a fire ^[8] .

Outside, each floor was individually decorated, the facade was distinguished by splendor and an unusual mixture of styles. The platform of the third level was decorated with Gothic tongs ^[8] . The second tier was decorated with white stone carvings and pairs of curly windows characteristic of oriental architecture . Around them there were coats of arms with symbols of Astrakhan , Veliky Novgorod , Vyatka , Nizhny Novgorod , Kazan , Perm , Pskov , Smolensk , Tver , Chernigov , Ugra and Bulgaria . Thanks to these tiles, by the end of the 18th century, the tower was named the Stamp ^{[1] [9]} .

The following documents report tower parameters:

1. Avvakumov N. M. Kremlenograd // "Territory and planning": an analytical journal. - 2007. - No. 3 (10) . - ISSN 2074-2045 2074-2037, 2074-2045 .
2. Bartenev S.P. Kremlin walls and towers in the 19th century // The Moscow Kremlin in the old days and now. - Moscow: Edition of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, 1912. - T. 1. - P. 81-83. - 259 p.
3. Besedina M. In place of the old sovereign's choir // Walks in pre-Petrine Moscow. - Moscow: Astrel, 2009 .-- 320 p. - ISBN 978-5-271-23963-2 .
4. Gastev M.S. Materials for complete and comparative statistics of Moscow. Part 1 - M .: University Printing Office, 1841. - P. 59.
5. Goncharova A.A. Kremlin fortifications in the 17th century // Walls and towers of the Kremlin. - Moscow: Moscow Worker, 1980 .-- S. 50.
6. Zabelin I.E. Household life of Russian tsars in the 16th and 17th centuries . - Moscow: Stupin, Prospect, 1902. - 368 p. - ISBN 9785392227488 .
7. Zabelin I.E. History of the city of Moscow . - M .: Tipografiya T-va A. I. Mamontova, 1902. - 661 p.
8. Team of authors. History of Moscow. - Moscow: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1954. - T. 3. - P. 25.
9. Romanyuk S. The Kremlin lost. Historical review // Heart of Moscow. From the Kremlin to the White City. - Moscow: Centerpolygraph, 2013. - P. 112. - ISBN 978-5-227-04778-6 .
10. Chernaya L. A. Gosudareva honor // Everyday life of Moscow sovereigns in the 17th century . - Moscow: Young Guard, 2013 .-- 437 p. - 4000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-235-03648-2 .

• Gallery of watercolors with views of pre-fire Moscow , the school of the artist Fyodor Alekseev