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THE KREMLIN WALLS AND TOWERS
It is impossible to imagine the famous Kremlin ensemble without its red-brick walls and towers. Encircling many cathedrals and palaces over which the huge Ivan the Great Bell-Tower rises, the Kremlin walls are a constant and essential element of the city's panorama.
Tocsin Tower
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The present walls and towers of the Kremlin were built between 1485 and 1495 by the Italian architects Marco Fryazin (Marco Ruffo), Anton Fryazin (Antonio Gilardi), Pyotr Fryazin (Pietro Antonio So-lario), and Alevis Fryazin the Elder (Aloisio da Carcano). Do not be surprised that so many architects have the surname Fryazin. In Old Russia Italians were called fryag or fryazin. Military engineering and science were highly developed in Italy during the Renaissance, which explains why Ivan III invited masters from that country. Unlike the cathedrals, in the building of which architects were bound by strict canons, fortifications were regarded by the commissioner mainly as utilitarian buildings and consequently the architects were given greater freedom. The fryazins working in Moscow not only sought to use and respect the national traditions and forms of Russian architecture, but also paid considerable attention to the aesthetic appearance of their fortifications.
Specialists believe that the main builder of the Moscow Kremlin was the eminent architect, engineer and mechanic Aristotele Fioravanti. He came to Moscow in 1475 at the invitation of Ivan III. By then the sixty-year-old architect had considerable experience of fortifications works: he had repaired and built a section of the fortified wall in his native Bologna, erected a castle for the Duke of Milan, and at the invitation of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary designed some fortresses and built a bridge across the Danube.
It was probably Aristotele Fioravanti who planned the overall architectural treatment of the Kremlin walls and towers. The rationalism of Italian architecture of that period can be felt in the straightening of the north-east wall and the erection of round towers at the base and top of the Kremlin triangle, which gave the whole ensemble a balanced spatial composition. At the same time the new brick walls included fragments of the earlier white-stone Kremlin of 1367-8, which shows clearly the influence of Russian architecture. The triangle of the new Kremlin walls repeated the triangle of the earlier fortifications.
The rebuilding of the fortress began with the towers. The Kremlin has twenty of them. Three of these, placed on the corners of the Kremlin triangle, are round (the Corner Arsenal, Water and Beklemishev towers). They were particularly strong and made it possible to fire from all angles. At the points where important strategic roads converged on the Kremlin strong carriage-way towers were erected. There are six of them in all: the Saviour, St. Nicholas, Trinity, Pine-Grove, Secret and SS Constantine and Helen towers.
The towers erected between these corner and carriage-way towers were usually smaller and without windows. Each of them was a kind of little fortress enabling the defenders to go on fighting even if the enemy captured part of the wall or the next tower. Originally the towers were crenellated and topped by wooden tent roofs, not very high, with turrets.
The towers were multi-tiered and connected by passages, enabling the defenders to keep in contact with one another. Some of these passages have survived. Some towers had bells at the sound of which the fortress prepared to defend itself.
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