The Moscow Kremlin has long been a universally recognized symbol of Russian statehood. This ancient fortress on the banks of the Moskva River is included in the register of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are no uninteresting towers in the Kremlin, each of them deserves a separate story. But let's try to take a closer look at what only one Tainitskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin is. In what century was it built and what are its architectural features?
Moscow white stone
The first stone fortress on the banks of the Moskva River appeared in the second half of the fourteenth century under Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. It was built of white stone, which gave rise to calling Moscow white stone in subsequent centuries. And the Moscow Kremlin gradually began to acquire its current appearance at the end of the fifteenth century, when the Russian sovereign Ivan the Third began a large-scale reconstruction of the previously existing fortress walls.
They managed to pretty dilapidated and did not correspond to the status and tasks of the Russian state, which is gaining power. The Tainitskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin was the first of the twenty towers that tower above today.ancient fortress walls.
Southbound
All 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 came a constant threat from the Mongol-Tatar conquerors and steppe nomads. Just a few decades before the construction of the Tainitskaya tower of the Kremlin began, the capital of the Russian state was attacked by the troops of Khan Tokhtamysh. This descendant of Genghis Khan, who captured and plundered Moscow, came precisely from the southern direction.
Therefore, the Muscovites had no doubts about the need to build defensive lines to repel the threat from the south. And the Tainitskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin, whose century is counted from the era of the reign of Tsar Ivan the Third, was the first in their row. According to the laws of military strategy, she was in the direction of the main attack from the potential enemy.
How the Kremlin was built
The Tainitskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin, the date of construction of which, according to historical chronicles, is 1485, was built as part of a fortress wall facing Zamoskvorechye. Sovereign Ivan the Third appointed a competent Italian fortifier as the head and architect of the construction. In Russian historical sources, he 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 construction plans was the southern wall of the fortress, as the most important for the defense of the city. And the Tainitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin was located strictly in its middle. It fully met all the fortification requirements of its time. Inside it, in a special cache, there was a well - this circumstance gave it its name. In addition, in the basement there was a secret underground exit to the Moscow River. The tower had an entrance gate and a retractable archer with a lifting mechanism.
Architectural features and historical details
The Tainitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin is notable for its austerity and brevity of its architectural forms. It has everything you need to perform fortification functions and there is nothing superfluous. An interesting fact is that this is the first building of the Moscow Kremlin, where the Italian architect used burnt red brick as the main building material. In the second half of the seventeenth century, a tetrahedral tent completion in the Russian style was erected over the upper tier of the tower.
During this period, the tower had a striking clock and a signal bell tower. Observers were on duty on it, they were obliged to ring the alarm bell at the sight of fires in Zamoskvorechye. For wooden Moscow, the general fire alarm was of great importance. The Tainitskaya Tower was badly damaged by explosions in 1812 during the retreat of Napoleon's army from Moscow. But after three years of herrestored.
Subsequent rebuilds
It should be noted that throughout 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 her, there was no need to shoot from the loopholes at the enemies. And since it lost its fortification significance, there have been changes in its appearance. The entrance gates were sealed up, the underground passage to the river was filled up and the secret well was closed. The Tainitskaya Tower has acquired the status of a cultural and historical monument and serves as an ornament to the Sofiyskaya Embankment of the Moscow River.
