Burial places of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his sons

During his life, the first Russian Tsar prepared a burial place for himself in the altar part of the Archangel’s Cathedral and made it a chapel. Later on there were buried the Tsar himself and two his sons – Ivan Ivanovich and Theodore Ivanovich. The frescoes of the burial place have survived from the original painting of the XVIth century. Here in the lower tier one can see compositions of “Valediction of the Prince with his family”, “Allegory of abrupt death”, “Burial service” and “Funeral rites” which belong to one and the same circle. It was to remind a ruler about the Judgement, the vanity of the human world and death that is always the same to everyone, both the rich and the poor and the masters and the servants.