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KREMLIN PALACE OF CONGRESSES
1960-1
The competition for designs for this building was announced in 1959, and the official opening of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses took place on 17 October 1961.
Kremlin Palace of Congresses
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This monumental building shows a clarity and simplicity of form combined with an overall artistic unity. The architects and engineers who created it, Mikhail Posokhin, Ashot Mndoyants, Yev-geny Stamo, Pavel Shteller, German Lvov, Alexander Kondratiyev and Ivan Kochetov, were awarded a Lenin Prize in 1962.
To ensure that the Palace did not dominate the historic buildings around it and disturb the picturesque silhouette of the Kremlin by its height, the new building was sunk into the ground to a depth of fifteen or sixteen metres. In this way the horizontal line of the Palace roof continues that of the Arsenal and the Kremlin walls, contrasting with the vertical lines of the cathedrals and towers. Triple-faceted pylons of white marble adorn each of its facades.
The design of the palace took account of the traditions of early Moscow architecture (the stepped silhouette, the combination of white and red with gilt and so on). The designers managed to blend this large building well into the Kremlin ensemble. Its proximity to famous specimens of early Russian architecture and the Russian decorative style of the seventeenth century brought out all the more vividly the new building's special architectural features.
In their efforts to make the Palace fit into the architectural background, the designers made extensive use of plate glass, which enabled them to produce a vista of the fine Kremlin monuments from the new building and created an additional artistic effect. The main facade is set slightly back from the street. This device made it possible to open up a view of the Trinity Tower, the high tent roof of which serves as a splendid crown for this perspective. Behind the Palace you can see the domes of the Assumption Cathedral, the Patriarchal Chambers, the Church of the Twelve Apostles and the picturesque cluster of small gilded domes on the Upper Cathedral of the Saviour.
In the architecture of the Palace the designers made use of various devices of the fine arts. The main entrance is crowned by the chased state emblem of the Soviet Union.
The Kremlin Palace of Congresses contains more than 800 different rooms. The largest is the Concert/Conference Hall with an area of 5,000 square metres. Its pride of place is stressed by the planning of the building and the colour scheme of golds and bright reds. The amphitheatre forms a single whole with the stalls. Projecting over the back rows of the stalls, it descends smoothly on either side. The hall's modern equipment and excellent accous-tics, achieved by the architects and engineers, ensure that speakers and instrumental music can be heard perfectly all over it.
The composition of the hall is crowned by a huge decorative panel: in the rays of the rising sun is an unfurled red banner with a bas-relief portrait of Lenin, chased in brass and silver.
The second largest in size is the Banqueting Hall with an area of 4,400 square metres and a seating capacity of 2,500.
The construction of the Palace of Congresses gave new significance to Moscow. Until then the city centre had no modern representative building for large meetings.
The Palace of Congresses is one of the capital's centres of the arts. Top theatre companies perform here, and festival concerts are a regular feature.
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