The Moscow Kremlin and Red Square: Kremin Guide

Senate Tower

      34.3 metres high. Standing between the Saviour and Nicholas towers in the centre of the northeast section of the Kremlin wall, it played an important part in the defence of the Kremlin. Its proportions and silhouette remind one of other intermediary towers, such as the Commandant, Armoury and Tocsin towers. In 1680 a stone tent roof was added.
      The tower got its name from the neighbouring Senate built at the end of the eighteenth century by the famous Russian architect Matvei Kazakov.
      In 1918 a memorial plaque was unveiled on the facade of the Senate Tower to commemorate the first anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution (sculptor Sergei Konenkov). Today this plaque is in the Museum of the Revolution of the USSR.
      Before the October Revolution the four main Kremlin towers, the Saviour, St. Nicholas, Trinity and Pine-Grove towers, were topped by two-headed eagles, the emblem of Russian autocracy. In 1935 these were replaced by stars of stainless steel and red copper with a hammer and sickle made of rock crystal, topazes, amethysts, aquamarines and alexandrites. They were floodlit at night.
      These stars did not last long, however. Atmospheric precipitation caused the semiprecious stones to lose their lustre, and their size was not right for the towers. On 7 November, 1937 some new Kremlin stars blazed forth in the Moscow sky. There were now five instead of four, since the Water Tower had also acquired one.
      The Kremlin stars shine all round the clock. Their mechanism is most ingenious. The three-layered ruby glass is attached to a frame of gilded stainless steel. Inside are powerful bulbs ranging from 3,700 to 5,000 watts with ventilators to keep them cool.

Ruby star on the Water Tower

      The stars revolve on ball-bearings, which helps them to withstand the strongest hurricanes. The star beams are from 3 to 3.75 metres long and weigh from one to one-and-a-half tons.
      The size and shape of the stars depend on the height and architecture of the respective towers on which they are fixed. The beams have between eight and twelve facets. It took from seven to eleven kilos of gold to gild each star.
      Forming an integral part of the Kremlin's architectural and artistic image, the stars have become a kind of symbol of Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union.
      Now that you have been introduced to the walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin, we invite you to enter this ancient fortress and look round its palaces, cathedrals and museums. Entrance into the Kremlin is through the Trinity and Pine-Grove gates from which we shall begin our excursion.