SS CONSTANTINE AND HELEN TOWER
1490 Architect Pietro Antonio Solario
36.8 metres high. The tower was named after the Church of SS Constantine and Helen which stood nearby. In the second half of the fourteenth century, on the spot where the tower now stands, was the Timothy Gate of the white-stone Kremlin, through which Dmitry of the Don's army set off on its campaign against the Tartar-Mongols that ended with the historic Battle at Kulikovo Field (1380).
Originally the tower had a barbican. There was a second barbican on the other side of the deep moat spanned by an arched stone bridge. In the seventeenth century, by which time the Kremlin had practically ceased to be a fortress, the tower was turned into a prison where the inmates were tortured, and it became to be called the Torture Tower. In 1680 a tent roof was added with a spacious look-out platform. Today the tower seems somewhat squat because the level of the ground has risen and covered much of the base.
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