Address: Moscow Kremlin, between Konstantino-Eleninskaya and Petrovskaya towers
Build date: 1487 year
Tower height: 46.2 m.
Coordinates: 55 ° 44'59.1 "N 37 ° 37'23.9" E
Content:
Short story
The Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) Tower is a part of the Moscow Kremlin, which is a Russian artistic and historical monument. It owes its appearance to the Italian architect Marco Fryazin, or Marco Ruffo.
He coped with the work of its construction quite quickly, and in 1488 Moscow was decorated with a round tower reaching a height of 46 m... Beklemishevskaya, so designated due to the fact that the courtyard of the Moscow boyar Beklemishev Ivan Nikitich was located next to the Kremlin. Possessing the nickname "Bersen" (in other words - gooseberry) for his caustic tongue, Ivan Nikitich was the head of the boyar opposition opposing the grand ducal power.
View of the tower from the Kremlin embankment
However, Vasily III, aiming at ruling the country without boyars, gave a brutal order to cut off the head of "Berseny", and after his death - to turn the tower and Beklemishev's courtyard into the sovereign's prison.
The wall of this prison, adjacent to the Moskvoretskaya tower, was a kind of fence around the place where the torture inquiries were conducted. According to the testimony of historians, the bodies of people who were subjected to torture, in huge numbers, simply lay at the ditch that connected two rivers - the Neglinka and the great Moskva River.
View of the tower from the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky bridge
The structure of the Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) tower and its role in history
The high Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) tower is made in the form of a cylinder, the crown of which is an octagonal spire. But it was built on 200 years after the tower was erected. The structure, represented by four tiers, was an integral part of the strategic facilities defending the crossing over the Moskva River. By virtue of its location, it perceived the attacks of the advancing troops very first.
The architectural solution of the tower is represented by a tall cylinder installed on a beveled white stone plinth, but separated from it by a semicircular roller. The presence of 4 tiers in the Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) tower made it possible to conduct a circular shelling, and on the upper platform of the combat structure there were loopholes for mounted combat. The underground of the Beklemishevskaya Tower, part of the Kremlin in Russia, hid a secret hiding place.
Beklemishevskaya tower from Sofiyskaya embankment
The fact of its presence was confirmed by S.P. Bartenev, who wrote the book "The Moscow Kremlin in the old days and now." From the words of the author, it becomes clear that the engineers who arrived from Italy to build the Moscow Kremlin provided the tower with a cache as a preventive measure against undermining. But not only Bartenev made public information about the cache. The architect Bondarenko in 1918 carefully studied the structure of the Kremlin and also made a conclusion about the presence of a cache. And, according to him, it was arranged in the prevention of the undermining.
During the reign of Peter I, namely in 1707, the Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) tower was re-equipped to defend against the attacks of the Swedes - the loopholes in it were expanded so that the impressive cannons could easily fit in them. After 140 years (in 1849), thanks to the restoration work of the tower, its original appearance was returned.
In principle, the Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) tower is one of the few structures that were not rebuilt for various reasons. Even after the Napoleonic invasion, it survived and needed only light repairs. However, during the storming of the Moscow Kremlin, organized by the Bolsheviks in 1917, the top of the tower was hit by a shell, and in 1920 it was restored under the leadership of the architect I.V. From this we can conclude that the Moskvoretskaya Tower has not undergone major reconstruction.
