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

View of the old building of the Armoury Chamber. P.A. Gerasimov. Mid XIXth century

Fire of Moscow. Foreign engraving
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.

In the Armoury Chamber. Artist N.Burdin. 1846

 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.

Panorama of Moscow. 1850. D.Indeitsev. Fragment. Grand Kremlin Palace and Cathedral Square

Small Nicholas palace in the Kremlin. Panorama of Moscow. Artist D.Indeitsev. 1850.  Fragment.

View of the Kremlin and the Stone Bridge in Moscow. Early XIXth century. F.Ya.Alekseev

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.

The Moscow Kremlin as seen from the Stone Bridge. 1852. I.A.Weis
The Borovitsky Gate of the Moscow Kremlin. 1852. I.A.Weis
The Moscow and the Kremlin as seen from the Secret Gate. Lithograph by Benois and Obren. 1850.
Monument to Alexander II. Post card.  1900-s
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.

Moscow. Colour acquatinta from album by Robert Bauer. London, 1815
View from the Kremlin wall. First half of the XIXth century.Liithograph from edition by J. Daziaro "Views of Moscow"
Total view of the Kremlin.  Photograph from the collection of  E.V. Gauthier-Dufayet

 
   Antiquities of the Kremlin hill
 
   Border fortress
 
   First Moscow Princes in the Kremlin
 
   "The candle would not die away…"
 
   Time of grand construction of the Kremlin
 
   The last century of "the Moscow tsardom"
 
   Center of the first-throned Moscow
 
   The old Kremlin-city
 
   The twentieth century

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