The Trinity Tower - the gateway to the Kremlin

"Moscow is the heart of Russia, the Kremlin is the heart of Moscow," says the saying. Well, indeed, Moscow started with the Kremlin, Russia - with Moscow, more precisely, with the unification of the lands around the small Moscow estate, which Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, who died in 1263, singled out to his two-year-old son Daniil.

Fortress on Borovitsky Hill

Still vyatichi arranged for themselves a village (detinets) on a high hill, surrounded on three sides by rivers, and in the subsequent time surrounded it with earthen ramparts and in addition dug ravines. Such was the first primitive protective structure. When Ivan Danilovich Kalita was built a Kremlin of oak unreachable logs. Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy built the Kremlin from white stone, from quarries, which were relatively close to Moscow. And only Ivan III, who threw off the Tartar yoke, built the Kremlin, which we now know.

Construction of the Kremlin

The second wife of the Grand Prince of Moscow was a Byzantine princess who grew up in Italy. She knew what great masters were the Italian builders and architects, and therefore to strengthen Moscow's power, in order to show everyone its greatness, the construction of a new Kremlin by the Italians, which the people called "fry", began. By 1515, both brick walls and twenty towers of the Kremlin, including the Troitskaya tower, had grown.

Towers

Almost every tower is unique and has its name. Almost everyone can find interesting facts. The Konstantin-Yelenin Tower is in the place where Prince Dmitry Ivanovich went to the Kulikovo field. The Tsar's Tower is not even a tower, but rather an elegant little house. From it, as legends tell us, Ivan IV watched what was being done on Red Square. The gate of the Spasskaya Tower was considered holy, as above them hung the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands. Through them it was impossible to ride on horseback, it was necessary to dismount and be sure to remove the cap from the head. There is a legend about Napoleon. When in the captured Moscow he drove through the Spassky Gate, the wind blew, and a cocked hat trickled off his head. There is, at last, the Troitskaya tower, which will be covered by a separate story. To her adjoins the Kutafya tower. They are joined by a bridge, renovated in 1901. The Commandant's and the Armory Tower remained almost unchanged medieval. They both have a hip top and are decorated with a weather vane. But let's move on to the heroine of the story - it's the Trinity Tower.

High Beauty

Many generations of people are already almost half a thousand years pleased with the Milanese architect Aloisius, built in 1495, whom Muscovites called Aleviz Novy or Aleviz Fryazin, eighty-meter (with a star), the highest tower of the Kremlin - Troitskaya. Actually, its height is uneven. From the Kremlin, its height without a star is slightly more than 65 m, and with a star - almost 70 m, and if you look from the Alexander Garden, the height of the Trinity Tower is slightly more than 76 m. The tower is six-storied, it has cellars that once served as a prison. It is located in the north-west wall, under which the Neglinka River once served , serving as an additional defensive fortification. Now it is taken in pipes and covered with earth. It is the Alexander Garden, but the river still flows into the Moskva River near the Great Stone Bridge. They say that there is such warm water, that in it all year round are found unpretentious aquarium fish guppies.

The Trinity Tower is connected by a bridge that was located above the river, with the Kutafia Tower. The gates of the Trinity Tower are the second most important after the Spassky. Once through them there was a road to the palaces of the patriarch, queens and princes. Now this is the main gateway for visitors to the Kremlin. Opposite - the metro station "Alexander Garden" and Manezh. And inside the Kremlin, the sightseer immediately sees the Kremlin Palace, built in 1961. The tower changed the name five times. And only since 1658 this tower is Troitskaya. Above its gate was an icon. But after the 17th year, it was lost. Now there is a clock on this place. But from the Kremlin's side the empty place of the kyot remained.

At the top of the tower

The State Coat of Arms of Russia, a copper-plated two-headed eagle, crowned the tower until 1935. These eagles were changed about once in a hundred years. But the Trinity Tower was the oldest, replacement was not made since 1870. His dismantling was carried out right on top of the tower. The eagle was replaced by a gilded, semi-precious star. But in 1937 the tarnished Kremlin stars are changed to stars made of ruby glass. The Star on the Trinity Tower is a complex technical structure that weighs about a ton. Inside the frame of polyhedral pyramids and internal glazing of milk glass, which makes the light soft. Outside, there is a golden ruby glass of six millimeters thick. On the Trinity Tower, the star has eight faces. It is mounted on bearings and gently rotates when the wind moves. Inside there are lamps arranged in such a way that when one of the filaments is burnt out, the star continues to shine. In addition to lamps, there are fans to cool the glass from overheating. The star is illuminated around the clock. In any weather and at any time of the year, it is clearly visible for 10 km. During the war, almost all the stars were damaged and completely restored by 1946. Each star on the tower is cleaned with special compounds once every five years. The process of cleaning takes about a week. The star is cleaned both outside and inside.

The second in solemnity Troitskaya tower, through which tourists go to the Kremlin, is still as elegant and attractive as in the first years of construction.