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Armorial Gate

Buildings and structures demolished in 1807Demolished buildings and structures in MoscowGates in RussiaMoscow KremlinTowers completed in the 17th century
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The Armorial Gate (Russian: Гербовые ворота, romanized: Gerbovye vorota) was a unique monumental erection of traditional Russian architecture. Situated in the Moscow Kremlin, the structure was symbolic of the centralized Russian state. Its name references polychrome tiles of the second floor, which displayed heraldic (armorial) emblems of formerly independent Russian principalities. When constructing a palace for Ivan III in the late 15th century, the Italian architect Aloisio built an interior brick wall inside the Kremlin to defend the royal palace from south and west. The western wall was pierced by two arches, the smaller for pedestrians and the larger for vehicles. The larger gate was called Kolymazhnye, either from the old Russian word for vehicles or from the Kolymazhny Chamber situated nearby. After the Romanov family ascended the throne in 1613, they rebuilt Ivan's residence into the Terem Palace. At about the same time, in the 1630s, they commissioned a tower to crown the Kolymazhnye Gate leading to the royal court. The tower was square in plan, with the first floor pierced by a wide arch for vehicles. The second floor had twin double-arched windows with decorative elaborations of white stone. The third floor was pierced by a row of machicolations and a row of murder-holes. Above that was a gallery ringed by a perforated parapet. The structure was crowned by a tiled tent, decorated with two levels of dormers and surmounted by a heraldic double-headed eagle. By the 19th century, the wall had lost its defensive purpose and was dismantled. After that, the detached tower appeared redundant and was pulled down at the urging of the Kremlin's castellan in 1807.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Armorial Gate (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Armorial Gate
площадь Васильевский Спуск, Moscow Tverskoy District

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Latitude Longitude
N 55.750277777778 ° E 37.614722222222 °
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Московский Кремль

площадь Васильевский Спуск
109012 Moscow, Tverskoy District
Moscow, Russia
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Terem Palace
Terem Palace

Terem Palace or Teremnoy Palace (Russian: Теремной дворец) is a historical building in the Moscow Kremlin, Russia, which used to be the main residence of the Russian czars in the 17th century. Its name is derived from the Greek word τερεμνον (i.e., "dwelling"). Currently, the structure is not accessible to the public, as it belongs to the official residence of the President of Russia. In the 16th century Aloisio da Milano constructed the first royal palace on the spot. Only the ground floor from that structure survives, as the first Romanov tsar, Mikhail Feodorovich, had the palace completely rebuilt in 1635–36. The new structure was surrounded by numerous annexes and outbuildings, including the Boyar Platform, Golden Staircase, Golden Porch, and several turrets. On Mikhail's behest, the adjoining Golden Tsaritsa's Chamber constructed back in the 1560s for Ivan IV's wife, was surmounted with 11 golden domes of the Upper Saviour Cathedral. The complex of the palace also incorporates several churches of earlier construction, including the Church of the Virgin's Nativity from the 1360s. The palace consists of five stories. The third story was occupied by the czarina and her children; the fourth one contained the private apartments of the czar. The upper story is a tent-like structure where the Boyar Duma convened. The exterior, exuberantly decorated with brick tracery and colored tiles, is brilliantly painted in red, yellow, and orange. The interior used to be painted as well, but the original murals were destroyed by successive fires, particularly the great fire of 1812. In 1837, the interiors were renovated in accordance with old drawings in the Russian Revival style.

Church of the Deposition of the Robe
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The Church of the Deposition of the Robe (Russian: Церковь Ризоположения) is a church which stands on Cathedral Square in the Moscow Kremlin. It was begun in 1484 by masters from Pskov, most likely by the same group of architects who built the adjacent Cathedral of the Annunciation. It serves as a part of Moscow Kremlin Museums. The church was built on the site of a previous church, built by Jonah Metropolitan of Moscow in 1451. The name of the church, variously translated as the Church of the Virgin's Robe, The Church of Laying Our Lady’s Holy Robe, The Church of the Veil or simply Church of the Deposition, is said to refer to a festival dating from the 5th century AD, celebrating when the robe of the Virgin Mary was taken from Palestine to Constantinople, where it protected the city from being conquered. For example, tradition says that during the Rus'-Byzantine War of 860 the patriarch placed the Virgin's Robe into the sea, causing a storm that destroyed the invading Rus' ships. A four-level iconostasis, created by Nazary Istomin Savin in 1627, has been preserved in the church, and has frescoes painted by Ivan Borisov, Sidor Pospeev and Semyon Abramov in 1644. The church itself was built in the traditional Early Russian style, characterized by "a noticeable tendency towards more elevated proportions, the overall structure being extended by being placed on raised foundations, and the drum supporting the single dome also being raised." As with the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the intricate interior detail and ornamentation were characteristic of the Russian architecture of this period.Originally, the church served as the private chapel of the Patriarch of Moscow, but during the mid-17th century it was taken over by the Russian royal family. The church was badly damaged in a fire in 1737 (the same fire that cracked the Tsar Bell). Today, the church also houses a display of wood sculpture from the 14th to 19th century.