The Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin: the year of construction and photo

The Moscow Kremlin has long become a universally recognized symbol of Russian statehood. This ancient fortress on the bank of the Moskva River is included in the register of World Cultural Heritage sites of UNESCO. In the Kremlin there are no uninteresting towers, each of them deserves a separate story. But let's try to look at what is only one Tainitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin. In what century was it erected and what are its architectural features?

Moscow white-stone

The first stone fortress on the bank of the Moskva River appeared in the second half of the fourteenth century under Grand Duke Dmitri Donskoi. It was erected from white stone, which gave rise to the following centuries to call Moscow white-stone. And its present appearance the Moscow Kremlin gradually began to acquire at the end of the fifteenth century, when the Russian Tsar Ivan the Third began a large-scale reconstruction of the fortress walls that existed before. They managed to decay fairly and did not correspond to the status and tasks of the growing Russian state. The Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin was the first of those twenty that rise today over the ancient fortress walls.

South direction

All the defensive fortifications in the world are oriented towards the direction from which the threat comes. In this context, the Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin is no exception. From the southern borders of the Russian state there was a constant threat from the Mongol-Tatar invaders and steppe nomads. Only a few decades before the Tainitskaya Tower of the Kremlin began to be built, the capital of the Russian state was attacked by the troops of Khan Tokhtamish. This descendant of Genghis Khan, who captured and plundered Moscow, came from the south. Therefore, Muscovites had no doubts about the need to build defensive lines to repel the threat from the south. And the Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, whose century is reckoned from the epoch of the reign of Tsar Ivan III, was the first in their line. According to the laws of military strategy, it was in the direction of the main attack from the side of the probable enemy.

How the Kremlin was built

The Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, the date of its erection, according to historical chronicles, was designated in 1485, was built as part of a fortress wall facing Zamoskvorechye. The head and architect of the construction of the sovereign, Ivan the Third, appointed a competent Italian fortifier. In Russian historical sources it is designated as Anton Fryazin. The new Kremlin was built in stages, the old fortifications of the fourteenth century were replaced by new ones. The first in the building plans was the southern wall of the fortress, as the most important for the defense of the city. And the Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin was located strictly in its middle. It fully corresponded to all the fortification requirements of its time. Inside it there was a well in a special cache - this circumstance gave it the name. In addition, in the basement was a secret underground exit to the Moscow River. The tower had an entrance gate and a detachable strelnitsey with a lifting mechanism.

Architectural features and historical details

The Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin is distinguished by the strictness and laconism of its architectural forms. It has everything necessary for the performance of fortification functions and there is nothing superfluous. It is also interesting that this is the first building of the Moscow Kremlin, where the Italian architect used the burnt red brick as the main building material. In the second half of the seventeenth century, a quadrangular tent completion in the Russian style was erected over the upper tier of the tower. During this period, the tower had a clock with a battle and an alarm bell tower. Observers were on duty on it, they had to ring the alarm bell at the sight of fires in Zamoskvorechye. For the wooden Moscow, the general fire alarm was of great importance. The Taynitskaya tower was badly damaged by the explosions in 1812 when Napoleon's army retreated from Moscow. But three years later it was restored.

Subsequent restructuring

It should be noted that in its more than five hundred years of history, the Taynitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin has never been used for its intended purpose. No one besieged it, there was no need to shoot out loopholes for enemies. And since she lost her fortification significance, her appearance has changed. The entrance gates were closed, an underground passage to the river was filled and a secret well was closed. The Taynitskaya Tower acquired the status of a cultural and historical monument and serves as an ornament to the Sofia embankment of the Moscow River.