The history of the Moscow Kremlin
The old Kremlin-city (XIXth century)

The beginning of the XIXth  century was a turning point in the Kremlin treasures’ fate. In 1806, Emperor Alexander I signed decree "About rules of management and preservation of antiquities in order and integrity in the Workshop and Armoury Chamber". The same year on the place of the Trinity Court on the project by architect I.V. Egotov there was started construction of a special museum building. By 1810,   construction works had been completed. However, it was not possible to open a museum in the new building. In June, 1812, the Napoleon army invaded Russia. The Russian army had to leave Moscow. So, the imperial treasury was taken out to Nizhni Novgorod.

 Only in 1814 the first museum of the native history named the Moscow Armoury Chamber was open in the Kremlin. On display were ancient state regalia, thrones, coronation dresses, gold and silver utensils, personal imperial things, ancient weapons, trophies of the Poltava battle and monuments of National war of  1812. Burnt and plundered, although not captivated ancient capital caused high patriotic feelings. All leading architects of Russia took part in the revival of Moscow. In the Kremlin,  the blown up walls and towers, the Arsenal, the Assumption Belfry and the Filaret Annex of the Ivan the Great Bell-Tower were restored. The devastated Kremlin churches and monasteries gradually relived.

Under the decree of Emperor Nicholas I, in 1838-1851, a new palace complex in "national Russian" style was erected in the Kremlin on the project by architect K.A. Ton. It included the Grand Kremlin Palace, a building of Apartments and a more convenient and gorgeous building of a museum - the Moscow Armoury Chamber. New buildings formed an ensemble in the style of historicism - the unique square in Moscow. The square was named Palace, or Imperial.

In 1898, to the east of Cathedral Square on the Borovitsky hill, under the project by sculptor A.M. Opekushin and architect N.V. Sultanov,  the monument to Emperor Alexander II was open. The monument represented a scale architectural construction returning to that part of the Kremlin a volumetric accent. At the late XIXth - early XXth century,  the Moscow Kremlin was more and more realized as a monument of history and culture. So, in 1912, the Arsenal building was given over to the Committee on organization of a museum of National war 1812. The plan was not carried out. In 1914,  the First World War began, and the 1917 Revolution  sharply changed destiny of Moscow and the Kremlin.