Address: Moscow Kremlin, between the Annunciation and Borovitskaya towers
Build date: 1488 year
Tower height: with a star of 61.25 m.
There is a ruby star on the tower
Coordinates: 55 ° 44'53.3 "N 37 ° 36'49.4" E
Content:
Short story
The Vodovzvodnaya Tower owes its appearance to the talent of Antonio Geraldi, known in the vastness of the Russian state as Anton Fryazin-novy. Construction work on its construction was carried out in front of the Alexander Garden, and in 1488, as they were completed, the beautiful tower appeared on the display of the townspeople.
View of the tower from the Moskva river
The tower got its name "Vodovzvodnaya" later - after it was equipped with the first water supply system in the capital of Russia. And before that, it was called the Sviblova Tower, since the Sviblov boyars lived in the area of the Alexander Garden. As for the purpose of the Vodovzvodnaya, or Sviblova Tower, it was not only a military one.
Thanks to the water supply, it was also used as an outbuilding, since it had rooms for washing, and the water supply itself fully met the needs of all the royal palaces and gardens for water supply. Such a water-lifting machine appeared in the tower in 1633, and Christopher Galovey was in charge of the work on its manufacture. According to the master's idea, the water supply was built from tanks, which were installed in the upper tiers of the tower. Thus, water was supplied first to the "sovereign's palace" and then to the gardens.
For rinsing linen in the Moskva River, craftsmen built a port wash raft near the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, and on the bank of the great river they built a port wash hut, which was a kind of warehouse for accessories for this raft. In the adjoining wall of the Moscow Kremlin, a small port wash gate was arranged, and this was done so that people could carry linen through them (in the old way - pants).
View of the tower from Bolshoy Kamenny bridge
Architectural solution of the Vodovzvodnaya tower
The design of the Vodovzvodnaya Tower has become the embodiment of the classic style. Its total height is 61.25 m, but until the middle, the masters laid it out so that the masonry belts (protruding and sinking) alternated with each other. A narrow white stone strip, as it were, encircles the Vodovzvodnaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in the middle and is called an arcature belt. The whole structure is completed with interesting teeth, reminiscent of the tails of swallows, and slots for shooting. Such an unusual architectural concept was realized for the first time - until 1488, Russian fortifications were not decorated in this way. A tent over the tower was erected only at the end of the 17th century.
Changes in the architecture of the Vodovzvodnaya Tower
By 1805, the Vodovzvodnaya Tower was dilapidated, so it was dismantled and rebuilt. But in 1812, during the retreat of Napoleon's troops from the capital, the tower suffered a sad fate - it was blown up together with other towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The work on its restoration, carried out under the direction of the architect Bove OI, falls on the years 1817 - 1819. At the direction of Osip Ivanovich, the walls of the tower were treated with rustic stone, and the loopholes were replaced with round and semicircular windows. Dormer windows were decorated with ancient Tuscan porticoes, decorated with columns and pediments.
View of the tower from the Kremlin embankment
As for the top of the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, it was not decorated with a ruby star, like other towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The completion of this design was the eagle. And only in 1937 a star began to flaunt on it, reaching a diameter of three meters. Despite such a solid size, this star is considered the smallest among all the Kremlin stars.
You can find the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, a piece of Russian history, in the south-west of the Kremlin between the Blagoveshchenskaya and Borovitskaya towers, located at the corner of the Kremlin embankment.
