Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/924

 whilst the suburbs and the villages which have sprung up on the highways extend some miles beyond.

The Kremlin is an old fort of pentagonal (nearly triangular) shape, about 100 acres in extent, occupying a hill 130 ft. above the level of the Moskva. It is enclosed by a high stone battlemented wall 2430 yds. in length, restored during the 19th century, and having nineteen towers. Its five gates are surmounted by towers and are all noteworthy. The Spaskiya (Saviour’s) Gate was erected in 1491 by a Milanese architect; the Gothic tower (203 ft.) that surmounts it was added in 1626 by the English architect, Holloway. A sacred picture of the Saviour (the “palladium of Moscow”) was placed upon it in 1647, and all who pass through the gate uncover. The towers surmounting the other four gates were erected by order of Ivan III. Of the sacred buildings of the Kremlin the most venerated is the Uspenskiy cathedral. The former church of this name was erected in 1326 by the tsar, Ivan Kalita, but, on its falling into disrepair, a new one was built on the same place in 1475–1479, by the Bolognese architect, Fioraventi, in the Lombardo-Byzantine style, with Indian cupolas. It was restored each time after being pillaged or burnt in 1493, 1547, 1682 and 1812. It contains the oldest and most venerated holy pictures in Russia, one of which is attributed to the metropolitan Peter, another to St Luke. The cathedral possesses also the throne of Vladimir I., and numerous relics of saints, some of which date from the 14th century. The Russian metropolitans and patriarchs were consecrated in this cathedral, as well as the tsars after Ivan IV. The Arkhangel cathedral, on the opposite side of the square, was originally built in 1333, and a new one was erected in its place in 1505–1508. It contains the tombs of the tsars from Ivan Kalita (1340) to Ivan Alexeivich (1696), and possesses vast wealth. The Blagovyeshchensk cathedral, recalling the churches of Mount Athos (in Turkey), was first built in 1397, rebuilt in 1484–1489, and restored in 1883–1896; the remarkable pictures of Rublev (1405) are still preserved. It was the private chapel of the tsars, and in it they are baptized and married. Vestiges of a very old church, that of the Saviour in the Wood, contemporaneous with the foundation of Moscow, still exist in the yard of the palace. A stone church took the place of the old wooden structure in 1330, and was rebuilt in 1527. The Voznesensky convent, erected in 1389–1393, and restored in the end of the 19th century, is the burial-place of wives and sisters of the tsars. The Chudov monastery, erected in 1358–1365 and rebuilt in 1771, was the residence of the metropolitans of Moscow and a state prison. Close by, the great campanile of Ivan Veliky, erected in the Lombardo-Byzantine style by Boris Godunov, in 1600, rises to the height of 271 ft. (318 ft. including the cross), and contains many bells, one of which weighs 64 tons. Close by is the well-known Tsar-Kolokol (king of the bells), 65 ft. in circumference round the rim, 19 ft. high, and weighing 198 tons. It was cast in 1735, and broken during the fire of 1737 before being hung. The treasury of the patriarchs in the campanile of Ivan Veliky contains not only such articles of value as the sakkos (episcopal robes) of the metropolitans with 70,000 pearls, but also very remarkable monuments of Russian archaeology. The library has 500 Greek and 1000 very rare Russian MSS., including a Gospel of the 8th century.

The great palace of the tsars, erected in 1838–1849, is a fine building in white stone with a gilded cupola. It contains the terems, or rooms erected by Tsar Michael Feodorovich for the young princes his sons in 1636 (restored in 1836–1849, their former character being maintained), a remarkable memorial of the domestic life of the tsars in the 17th century. In the treasury of the tsars, in the Orujeynaya Palata, now public museums, the richest stores connected with old Russian archaeology are preserved—crowns, thrones, dresses, various articles of household furniture belonging to the tsars, Russian and Mongolian arms, carriages, &c. The Granovitaya Palata, another wing of the great palace, consists of a single-vaulted apartment built in 1473–1490, and is used as a state banqueting hall.

The four sides of the Senate Square are occupied by buildings of various dates, from the 15th century onwards. Among them is the imposing senate, now the law courts, erected by Catherine II. (1771–1785). Facing it is the arsenal (1701–1736). The temple of the Saviour, begun in 1817 in commemoration of the events of the French campaign of 1812, was abandoned in 1827, and a new one was built during 1838–1883 on a hill on the bank of the Moskva, at a short distance from the Kremlin. Its style is Lombardo-Byzantine, with modifications suggested by the military taste of Nicholas I.

The Kitay-Gorod, which covers 121 acres, is the chief commercial quarter of Moscow. It contains the new bazaars, a triple block of buildings erected in 1888–1893 in sandstone, at a cost of over £1,630,800, and the Gostinoy Dvor, consisting of several stone buildings divided into 1200 shops. The Red Square, 900 yds. long, with a stone tribunal in the middle, which was formerly the forum, market cross and place of execution separates the bazaar from the Kremlin. At its lower end stands the fantastic Pokrovsky Cathedral (usually known as Vasili Blazhennyi), one of the wonders of Moscow, on account of its towers, all differing from each other and representing, in their variety of colours, pine-apples, melons and the like. It was begun by Ivan the Terrible in 1554 to commemorate the conquest of Kazan, but not completed until 1679. It was plundered and desecrated by the French in 1812, but restored in 1839–1845. The exchange, built in 1838 and restored in 1873, is very lively, and its “exchange artels” (associations of nearly 2000 brokers) are worthy of remark. Banks, houses of great commercial firms, streets full of old book-shops carrying on a very large trade, and finally the Tolkuchy rynok, the market of the poorest dealers in old clothes, occupy the Kitay-Gorod, side by side with restaurants of the highest class. In this quarter are also situated the house of the Romanovs, the reigning dynasty of Russia, rebuilt and refurnished in 1859 in exact conformity with its former shape; and the printing-office of the synod of the Orthodox Greek Church, founded in 1563 and containing about 600 MSS. and 10,000 very old printed books, together with a typographical museum. At the entrance to the Kitay-Gorod stands the chapel of the highly venerated Virgin of Iberia, a copy made in 1648, of a holy picture placed on the chief gate of the monastery of Mt Athos.

The northern parts of the Byelyi-Gorod are also the centre of a lively trade. Here are situated the Okhotnyi Ryad (poultry and game market) and the streets Tverskaya, Petrovka and Kuznetsky-Most the rendezvous of the world of fashion. Here also are the theatres, the industrial art museum, imperial bank (1894), and Rozhdestvensky convent (founded in 1386). In the south-west of the Byelyi-Gorod, opposite the Alexander Garden on the west side of the Kremlin, stand the university (see below), museum of domestic industries, Rumyantsev Museum and church of the Redeemer. This last, built in the form of a Greek cross in 1837–1883 at a cost of nearly £1,600,000, is dominated by five gilded domes and faced externally with marble. The interior is harmoniously decorated with gold and marble, and adorned with pictures by Verestctagin and other Russian artists. In the east of the city are three monasteries all dating from the 14th century.

The Zemlyanoy-Gorod, which has arisen from villages that surrounded Moscow, exhibits varied characteristics. In the neighbourhood of the railway stations it has busy centres of traffic; other parts are manufacturing quarters, whilst others—for instance, the small quiet streets on the west of the boulevard Prechistenka, called the old Konushennaya, with their wooden houses and spacious courtyards—are the true abodes of the families of the old, for the most part decayed, but still proud, nobility. The Zamoskvoryechie, on the right bank of the Moskva, is the abode of the patriarchal merchant families.

The climate of Moscow is cold and continental, but healthy. The average annual temperature is 40·1° F. (Jan., 14°; July, 66·5°). The summer is warm (64·2°), and the winter cold and dry (15·8°), great masses of snow lying in the streets. The spring, as is usually the case in cold continental climates, is beautiful. The prevailing winds are south-west and south.