The Great Kremlin Palace Teremnoy. Terem Palace in the Kremlin - in what century was it built? What to see in the Terem Palace
Let's admire the interiors of the Terem Palace at the end of the 19th century. Nowadays it is the residence of the President of Russia.
Interior of the Faceted Chamber with tables prepared for the meal (dignitaries, high clergy, military and civilians), which took place after the end of the coronation ceremony of Nicholas II
Interior of the Golden Tsarina Chamber (built in the 16th century, paintings from the 1580s) in the Kremlin
View of the Romanov Gallery in the [Terem Palace] of the Kremlin (built in 1635-1636 by Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trofim Sharutin, Larion Ushakov)
View of the bedchamber in the Terem Palace of the Kremlin. Moscow
View of the chapel in the Teremny Palace of the Kremlin.
View of the front porch of the Duma Chamber in the Terem Palace of the Kremlin.
View of the front corridor in the Terem Palace of the Kremlin.
Interior of the Cross Chamber in the Romanov Palace.
View of the bedchamber of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in the Romanov Palace.
Interior of the Golden Patriarchal Chamber in the Kremlin.
Interior of the Golden Patriarchal Chamber
View of part of the living room in the Teremny Palace of the Kremlin
View of the office in the Teremny Palace of the Kremlin.
Interior of the Chamber of Facets (built in 1487-1491 by Italian architects Mark Fryazin and Pietro Antonio Solari)
Interior of the Chamber of Facets
Interior of the Throne Chamber in the Terem Palace of the Kremlin (former Tsar's office or Golden Chamber")
View of carved gilded icon cases in the royal chapel of the Terem Palace
Interior of the [Dumna Chamber] in the Upper Teremok in the Kremlin
Interior of the Romanov Gallery in the [Terem Palace] of the Kremlin (in the ceiling painting there are portraits of Russian emperors)
The original interiors of the palace have been lost. In the thirties of the 19th century, the walls of the palace rooms were painted in the “Old Russian style”. The windows were decorated with stained glass and tiled stoves were installed. In 1992, restoration of the facades of the Terem Palace of the Moscow Kremlin was carried out.
Churches and icons of the Terem Palace
The architectural ensemble of the Terem Palace also included other buildings, making it rightfully one of the most important historical monuments of Russian architecture of the 17th century. For example, in the western part of the Terem Palace there is the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God “on Senya”. The temple was rebuilt several times. Among the notable features is the almost completely preserved white stone four-pillar church. The construction of this church was carried out at the end of the 14th century by order of Princess Evdokia, the widow of the notorious Prince Dmitry Donskoy. This church is one of the most ancient buildings included in the Moscow Kremlin and is well preserved to this day.
On the territory of the Terem Palace there are a number of churches: the Church of Catherine (built by J. Thaler in 1627), the Church of the Resurrection of the Word built above it and the so-called Crucifixion Church. The roof with majolica and painted crosses, under which 3 churches are united - the Crucifixion, the Savior and the Resurrection of the Word, were made by the monastic elder Hippolytus, a famous carver of that time. By the way, the ancient wooden crucifix installed in the chapel of the Church of the Crucifixion is also the work of Hippolytus.
The house church on the men's half of the Terem Palace was built in 1636, when the construction of the entire complex was almost completed. The church was illuminated in honor of the “Savior Not Made by Hands” (it is believed that the image of the Savior appeared on its own, without human participation), and a little later the church began to be called in a new way - Verkhospassky Cathedral. The same 4 architects who built the entire complex of the Terem Palace worked on the temple. The murals that can be seen in the cathedral were created 30 years later, starting in 1660. Sometimes the cathedral is called “The Savior behind the Golden Lattice” and here’s why. The fact is that they decided to separate the Verkhospassky Cathedral and the Terem Palace with a lattice - not gold, of course, but made of iron. However, the gilding that covers the grille is applied so carefully and carefully that many people think that it is really made of gold! In the Church of the Crucifixion of the Terem Palace there is a very beautiful and monumental iconostasis. His icons are made on silk fabric using the appliqué technique. The author of the icons is the famous master of the Armory Chamber Vasily Poznansky. The Verkhospassky Cathedral also has an iconostasis made in the 18th century in baroque forms. However, in the lower row of the iconostasis of the Verkhospassky Cathedral there are even more ancient icons, works by masters of the 17th century: these are “The Centurion Longinus”, “Fedor Stratelates” and “The Savior Not Made by Hands” with 20 stamps on the theme of the lives of saints. The iconostasis of the Church of the Resurrection of the Glorious is made of wood and decorated with carvings and gilding. And the clock that adorns the temple is a gift from the Swedish King Charles 9.
The first stone living quarters in the royal palace, later called the Terem Palace, were built in 1635 - 1636. for Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.
The stone workers were Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin and Larion Ushakov.
The basis for the newly erected three-story chambers was:
- the lower tier of the northern part of the palace, built by Aleviz Fryazin in 1499-1508. And
- Workshop Chambers built over it in the second half of the 16th century.
The Terem Palace was designed according to the type of Russian wooden houses:
- features of which are manifested both in the exterior and in the layout of the building.
- The palace is a multi-tiered building.
- New floors were erected at some distance from the old walls and rose up in stepped tiers.
Each tier seems to grow from the previous one like a pyramid:
- the talent of the palace creators was fully demonstrated
- limited by space and proximity of neighboring buildings
- they managed to create a masterpiece of architectural art, pleasing the eye with its festive splendor.
The features of Russian wooden architecture can be traced
- not only in the tiered structure, but also
- in the nature of the roof, the solution of the porch with a gable roof and the layout of the rooms,
- reminiscent of the interior of a Russian hut, which is based on a cage (a log frame usually with 3 windows along the facade)
- White stone window frames and portals are decorated with floral patterns depicting birds and animals 
Window of the royal chamber:
- decorated with a high pediment, but which depicts a coat of arms supported by small columns;
- the bases of the columns are presented in the form of stone sculpted lions
Watchtower with decorative kokoshniks and 8-sided roof
- was attached to the Terem Palace on the western side
- Even before the start of construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace
- From the height of this tower there was a beautiful panorama of the city
- Portals with triangular pediments framing the tower windows with colored glass:
--- oriented to the cardinal points,
---reminiscent of the carved frames of the windows of the Terem Palace
Steep hipped roof
- with a patterned design of gilded metal and small flags successfully complements the palace ensemble
For its time, the Terem Palace was a fairly tall building
- the “golden top” is located on the 4th floor of a modern house,
- but the Grand Kremlin Palace, in the courtyard of which the TD is located, almost completely hides it from view.
Coats of arms in the Cross Chamber
Facades of the Terem Palace
- can only be seen through the windows of the Great Kremlin or State Kremlin Palaces
- Only the façade of the Queen’s Golden Chamber and the dome of the house church are visible from Cathedral Square
- From the Armory, however, you can see the gilded dome of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. 
Each floor had its own purpose and its own lifestyle
- The ground floor premises were used for domestic purposes
- It contained rooms for household purposes, as well as
- supplies of water and candles, preparations of vegetables and pickles 
The queen's workshops were located on the 1st floor
- All types of clothing, linen and other fabrics for the household of the royal family were prepared here
- Here, court embroiderers decorated clothes with silk, gold embroidery and pearls. 
3rd room on the 3rd floor of the palace - Throne room, or royal office
- In the “red” corner of the room there is a royal chair covered with velvet
- In the 17th century, this was the most beautiful and most inaccessible room in the entire palace
- Only in the mornings did the boyars closest to the Tsar, “waiting for the time,” enter it to hit it with their foreheads 
The middle window of the room, decorated from the facade with a carved white stone casing, was called Petition
- A box was lowered from it, where everyone could submit a Petition letter to the Tsar
- The common people called this box Long, since petitions lay here for a long time, unread by anyone
- This is where the saying comes from: “Don’t put things off for too long.” 
The royal family's chambers were also located here during their stay in the Terem Palace.
- the rest of the time the family lived in a wooden palace,
- which, according to contemporaries, was considered more beneficial for health 
The royal chambers occupied the 2nd floor of the palace
- These were 4 chambers of relatively small sizes,
- covered with closed vaults with strippings
- Passage vestibule, Cross Chamber, Altar Room and Bedchamber.
- In the layout of the rooms, as well as in the general composition of architectural volumes,
- the influence of wooden architecture, in particular, still makes itself felt
- wooden mansions, built on the principle of connecting individual cages
- The walls and vaults of the chambers were painted with floral patterns upon completion of construction
- Then, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the painting was resumed by S. Ushakov.
Existing painting
- completed in 1836 according to drawings by F.G. Solntsev and T.A. Kiseleva
The king’s personal bath was also located on the 2nd floor.
- Water was supplied here using a pump from a water tower
- A spiral staircase led from the bathhouse to the royal bedroom
- The rooms located on this floor were often rebuilt and their purpose changed accordingly
- In the 19th century. an archive was located here, in which the most important state papers were kept 
On the 3rd floor were the king's personal chambers:
- large “rooms with three windows” overlooking the Moscow River
- The suite of rooms on this floor ended with the Bedroom and Chapel. 
In the bedroom
- there was a gilded carved bed with a luxurious canopy,
- embroidered in gold on a red background with numerous inscriptions
In the chapel
- 2 carved iconostases were installed,
- covered with spun gold,
- with icons of the 17th-18th centuries. 
The northern wing housed utility rooms and a narrow corridor.
- According to legend, the most beautiful girls were shown here,
- among whom the king had to choose his bride.
- He had to walk down the corridor three times and
- present a towel to the happy chosen one 
The 4th floor, or mezzanine, was sometimes called the golden top
- because the roof was covered with gold and silver sheets and painted in different colors
- In the spacious, well-lit room of the golden top, the wall painting attracts attention,
- made in the middle of the last century in the so-called “Russian” style. 
3 galleries surrounded the palace in tiers:
- lower Boyarskaya platform, or Bed porch
- located at the level of the ceiling of the Alevizovsky basement,
- where the Vladimir Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace now stands. 
From this level an open staircase led to the Front Stone Courtyard
- built on top of the aligned vaults of the Workshop Chambers,
- on which 3 floors of the Terem Palace were actually built. 
The exit to the middle walkway was later closed by the Golden Grille
- representing a unique example of blacksmithing skill.
On the eastern side of the Terems there was the Front Golden Porch
- along which they climbed to the 2nd floor to the king’s living quarters
The last tier of the built chambers is the golden-domed Teremok
- located in the center of the building,
- surrounds the 3rd site - the Upper stone courtyard. 
The extraordinary picturesqueness and elegance of the new palace is created not only due to the complex space-planning design of the building, but also due to the rich decorative design of its facades.
Profiled pilasters between the windows, carved and majolica cornices, complex white stone frames of openings with hanging weights and triangular pediments, covered with carved ornaments, tiles and carvings in the flaps of the parapets of the walkways, gilded roofing - all this is harmoniously combined with the polychrome coloring of the walls and white stone details, restored during restoration of Terems in 1966-1969. Overall, the palace gives the impression of a precious piece of jewelry.
The Upper Golden Porch, topped with a tent and serving as the main entrance to the royal chambers, led from the Verkhnespasskaya platform to the second floor of the palace. With T.D. located in front of the arched basement. From the Boyarskaya platform to the Verkhnespasskaya platform, an open staircase (Lower Golden Porch) ascended, which at the Verkhnepassskaya platform was locked with a gilded copper lattice (this is why the church is sometimes called the Church of the Savior behind the Golden Lattice).
Boyar's Square and the Church of the Savior behind the Golden Lattice in the Moscow Kremlin. 1838. E. Gilbertzon.
In the western part of T.D. The Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God “on Senya” is located, notable for the fact that in its basement a four-pillar white stone church from the end of the 14th century has been preserved. - the most ancient of the Kremlin buildings that have come down to us.
Simultaneously with the traditional techniques of decorative decoration - flies, ornamental wickerwork, polychrome, tiles, a carved gilded ridge on the roof ridge, the architects of T. D. used classical order forms. At this time, the Order of Stone Affairs paid great attention to familiarizing Russian architects with Western European construction experience.
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From the multi-colored glass, tiled stoves and painted walls, Teremov breathes a distant, fabulous antiquity. Furniture is in the style of the 17th century. Benches and chairs are upholstered in Venetian velvet. Once upon a time, the cabinets and shelves were filled with gold and silver dishes, which are now preserved in the Armory. Songbirds sat in golden and silver cages.
No gold was spared when painting the Terem Palace. According to the chronicles, even the roofs and gutters were painted and gilded, and the doorways were decorated with painted and gilded carvings.
Interior decoration of the chambers of T.D. it was very picturesque: bright ornamental painting with heraldic signs woven into it covered the surfaces of walls, vaults, formwork and even window sills; Biblical stories in symbolic form illustrated the monarchical idea. In the painting by T.D. (during its resumption during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich) Simon Ushakov took part. The painting has not survived.
The architectural ensemble of the Terem Palace also includes the Golden Tsarina Chamber of the 16th century and house churches (Resurrection of the Word, Savior, Crucifixion chapel, etc.), which in 1682 were brought under one roof and 11 domes were placed on it on necks decorated with tiles. The construction work was led by the architect Osip Startsev, the drawings for the majolicas and crosses were made by the carver, Elder Ippolit.
All restoration work was carried out based on the architectural support of N.G. Mukhin (Mosproekt-2, workshop No. 13) and on the recommendations of TsNRPM technologist M.P. Ievleva.
The original interior decoration of the chambers, with the exception of some fragments, has not been preserved and was made again under the direction of the artist F.G. Solntsev in the style of the 17th century. These works were carried out in 1836-1837. during the restoration of an ancient monument, which was subsequently included during the construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace in a new complex of palace buildings.
Alekseev F.Ya. View in the Kremlin of the Terem Palace and the Church of the Savior on Bor. 1800s
Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev. Boyar platform in the Moscow Kremlin (1801)
Boyarskaya site in the Moscow Kremlin. (until 1838)
Terem Palace in the Moscow Kremlin. 1635 - 1636. South facade. Engraving from the 1870s.
Located on a high Kremlin hill, the TD building
- the main façade was facing south, towards the Moscow River
- Topped with a gilded attic roof
- surrounded by open walkways with hipped porches
- TD dominated the Kremlin chambers and mansion building and
- formed an integral part of the entire Kremlin palace ensemble
Currently TD
- as part of the Grand Kremlin Palace
- is the Residence of the President of the Russian Federation
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Some photos.
Through the works of architects of the 17th century, Moscow and Rus' were transformed... mamlas wrote in May 19th, 2016
More about
The rise of Russian architecture
Architects and craftsmen of pre-Petrine Rus' / Creators / Article 2007
To this day, in Moscow and some other ancient Russian cities and monasteries, outlandish buildings of the 17th century have been preserved, in which Russian art was not yet too susceptible to foreign influence. In that distant pre-Petrine age, the rise of Russian architecture became especially noticeable. Also in "Creators"
The new Izmailovo Kremlin, built in the style of “pre-Petrine” Moscow
Under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and his son Alexei, wonderful “stone and wooden craftsmen” worked - Bazhen Ogurtsov, Trefil Sharutin, Semyon Petrov, Averky Mokeev, Ivan Belozer, Pavel Potekhin, Osi Startsev, Yakov Bukhvostov and many others. Through their labors, the wooden and stone architecture of pre-Petrine Rus' reached its peak. Terem Palace in the Kremlin
At first, after the destructive Time of Troubles, it was only about recreating the destroyed and dilapidated buildings of the Kremlin. Some of them were repaired already in 1613, on the day of the crowning of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov. Then new large works began - in 1625, to install a clock over the Frolovskaya (now Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin), a three-tiered top was built under the “supervision” of the stone workers of the apprentice Bazhen Ogurtsov and his comrades Stepan Osipovich Karaulov and Grigory Zagryazhsky. The “English land watch and water platoon master” Christopher Galovey took part in the design and construction of the tent and clock.
Terem Palace in the Kremlin
Soon a new, even larger-scale construction began in the Kremlin. Frequent fires in the first half of the 17th century continued to destroy the wooden buildings of Moscow, not sparing the splendor of the Kremlin towers. It was then that it was decided to build a new stone royal palace. It has become an undoubted masterpiece - the Terem Palace in the Kremlin, which has survived to this day, although in a greatly altered form. It was built in 1635-1636 by Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin and Larion Ushakov. The palace was a three-story building. The foundation of the palace was the basements with open galleries, erected in 1499-1508 by the architect Aleviz Fryazin, and the Workshop Chambers of the 16th century, the time of Ivan the Terrible, standing on these basements.
Three floors of the Terem Palace were erected on the leveled vaults of the middle part of the Workshop Chambers.
It was crowned by a high “teremok”, the famous “top” with an open terrace located around it – the “gulbische”. The gilded gable roof and two belts of azure tiled cornices, stone carvings, and the richly decorated front Golden Porch gave the palace an elegant, fairy-tale look typical of that time. The palace is distinguished by an abundance of carved stone patterns, floral patterns, images of birds and animals on the white stone frames of windows and portals. The ceilings of the palace are relatively low. The very thick walls are also densely painted with floral and floral patterns. In the chambers there are tiled stoves, which also decorate the premises. The layout of the rooms clearly resembles the interior of a Russian hut, which is based on a cage (a log frame, usually with three windows along the facade). Here, in the “Golden-Domed Teremka,” located above the tsar’s personal chambers, there was a hall where the princes played and the Boyar Duma met. The unique Golden Tsarina's Chamber, rooms for the king with a bedchamber, antechamber, throne room and antechamber, have been preserved. Through a system of covered passages, galleries and other extensions, the palace was connected to other buildings - cathedrals, the patriarch's chambers, and service premises.
Simultaneously with the construction of the Terem Palace in 1635, above the Small Golden Chamber, at the level of the Front Stone Courtyard, the same craftsmen erected the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands (later Verkhospassky Cathedral), with the chapel of John of Belgorod (now John the Baptist). Soon after this, Antip Konstantinov built a unique temple of Hodegetria of Smolensk in the Vyazemsky St. John the Baptist Monastery, which had three stone tent-tops located in one row.
"The eighth wonder of the world"
An exemplary building of the 17th century, made of traditional wooden structures, was the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow. It was built in 1667-1678 by an artel under the leadership of the headman Semyon Petrov and the archer Ivan Mikhailov, who worked as a carpenter, in the form of several towers connected by bizarre passages. Unfortunately, the palace itself has not survived - after standing for about 100 years, it became very dilapidated and was dismantled in 1768, but its images in engravings and enthusiastic descriptions of contemporaries have been preserved.
Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow
The palace consisted of 270 rooms with 3,000 windows and small windows. From the outside it looked like a whole town with turrets, scaly roofs, “gulbishchi”, kokoshniks, porches with twisted columns. Different parts of the palace were built in an individual manner; they did not resemble each other. The volumes, shapes of coverings, and decorative techniques were varied. All this gave a wonderful picturesqueness to the building. Master carvers Klim Mikhailov, David Pavlov, Andrey Ivanov and Gerasim Akulov worked on this unprecedented architectural decoration with its openwork carvings under the guidance of Elder Arseny. Kolomna Palace was called "the eighth wonder of the world." Simeon of Polotsk praised the beauty of this palace, comparing it with the Temple of Solomon. Jacob Reitenfels in his book “Tales of the Most Serene Duke of Tuscany Cosmas the Third about Muscovy,” published in Padua in 1680, called the palace of Alexei Mikhailovich “a toy just taken out of a box.” In 1681 it was partially rebuilt by Savva Dementiev.
In addition to the Kremlin one, another famous Moscow tower has reached us, built in 1693–1694 by Osip Dmitrievich Startsev and Larion Kovalev. The Teremok is located in the Krutitsky courtyard and is a real pearl of architecture. The Krutitsa courtyard has been known since the end of the 13th century; it was located on the high bank of the Moscow River, on Krutitsy. The buildings that have survived to this day appeared at the beginning of the 17th century.
The most well preserved are the main Holy Gates with the famous Gate Tower. Its front side was entirely covered with tiles. The gate, decorated with Teremko, led to the metropolitan’s garden, which was called paradise.
Special mention should be made about the main builder of the Krutitsky Teremok.
Osip Startsev developed special techniques for stone decoration. “Cock combs”, which he placed on the fence of the yard of boyar I.M. Yazykov on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, were subsequently widely used by many Russian architects.
Another innovation that also became part of the construction practice of that era was the circular open walkway designed by Startsev in the Church of the Resurrection on Presnya. In 1684, Startsev remodeled the originally Gothic windows of the Faceted Chamber, decorating them with white stone frames with elegant columns entwined with vines, a technique he repeated in his work on the Krutitsky Tower.
One big thing was followed by another - in 1685 Osip Startsev completed the construction of the Refectory Chamber in the Simonov Monastery, which had begun in 1677 by apprentice Parfen Potapov.
Startsev's other works are also known: in 1676, he supervised the tiling of the State Yard. Since 1681, he was engaged in the reconstruction of the tower churches and the construction of the Verkhospassky Cathedral, the dismantling of the kitchens of the Kormovy, Khlebny, Sytny courtyards, and the restructuring of the Prikaz of the Grand Palace. In the 1690s, he rebuilt the chambers of the Ambassadorial and Little Russian orders.
Another famous architect Averky Mokeev built the Patriarchal Chambers in the Moscow Kremlin (1643-1655), a number of buildings of the Valdai Monastery (1650s) and, finally, the Resurrection Cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery (1656-1685) on the Istra River near Moscow - the largest building in church architecture of that era. Another Moscow master, Ivan Belozer, helped him bring the grandiose plan of Patriarch Nikon to life. The architects were given the difficult task of creating a monastery on Russian soil, the main cathedral of which would reproduce in plan the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Jerusalem. In the course of their work, Mokeev and Belozer used an exact model and drawings of the main Christian shrine and successfully completed an honorable and complex patriarchal order.
The churches erected by Pavel Sidorovich Potekhin are very interesting: the Trinity Church in the village of Ostankino near Moscow (1678-1693), the Church of St. Nicholas in Khamovniki (1679), the Church of St. Cosma and Damian in Sadovniki (1657-1662). ). In the Makaryev-Zheltovodsky monastery, Potekhin builds the Holy Gate and the gate church of the Archangel Michael. His famous artel employed 93 craftsmen, among whom were not only masons, but also stone and wood carvers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and even icon painters and gilders. All of them were professionals of the highest class, but each of them could, if necessary, replace each other.
Moscow Baroque
At the end of the 17th century, noticeable changes took place in Russian architecture, as a result of which a new direction was established in architecture, known as the “Moscow (or “Naryshkin”) baroque.” A classic example of construction of this style is the Church of the Intercession in Fili (1693-1694), created by order of the uncle of Tsar Peter I Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin, presumably by Yakov Grigorievich Bukhvostov. Not inferior to it in beauty is the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands (1693-1697) in Ubory near Moscow, the builder of which was undoubtedly the same Yakov Bukhvostov. The temple was built by him “like bells,” that is, the upper tier of the high temple also served as a belfry.
Church of the Intercession in Fili
Yakov Bukhvostov, an outstanding architect, came from serfs and was a native of the village of Nikolskoye-Sverchkovo, Dmitrovsky district, now located in the Klinsky district of the Moscow region. His first major work was the construction of stone walls and towers of the New Jerusalem Resurrection Monastery (1690-1694), which replaced the original wooden fortifications of this monastery. The length of the walls reaches 930 meters, their height currently ranges from 9 to 11 meters. On the inside of the walls, a semi-circular open arcade was built, above which a covered military passage, fenced with a parapet, ran along the entire perimeter of the walls. The Gate Church of the Entrance to Jerusalem was built above the main entrance to the monastery. At its base there is a central passage covered with an arch and two side passages. In appearance, it resembled the famous temple in Fili in Moscow. An interesting and rare feature of the gate church was the colored tiled floor. Large square floor slabs formed an unusual geometric color pattern, adding elegance and color to the interior of the temple.
The church was tall and slender. However, during its existence it was rebuilt, and its original decorative decoration, characteristic of the Russian Baroque of the late 17th century, was not preserved.
Bukhvostov also built the Assumption Cathedral in Ryazan (1693-1699). When designing it, the architect retained the scheme dating back to Aristotle Fioravanti, but placed the temple building on a basement gallery and decorated it with three tiers of elegant windows. Thus, Bukhvostov was the first in cathedral architecture to use the division of facades into tiers using rows of windows. Thanks to this, the Assumption Cathedral turned out to be very bright. During his stay in Ryazan, Bukhvostov erected stone barns and other outbuildings for the local metropolitan, as well as several parish churches that have not survived to this day. The last of Bukhvostov’s famous buildings was the Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street in Moscow (1701-1708). Here the architect does not use the typical Baroque tiered form of “octagon on a quadrangle”; he erects a church in the form of a simple quadrangle, the prototype of which was the wooden “cage” churches of Ancient Rus'. There is an assumption that the Trinity Church in Troitsky-Lykovo and the Church of the Intercession in Fili were also built by Yakov Bukhvostov.
It has long been noted that Bukhvostov’s churches were not rebuilt - their form was so perfect.
Through the works of architects of the 17th century, Moscow was transformed. Let us refer to the opinion of Paul of Aleppo, secretary of the Antiochian Patriarch Macarius, who visited the Russian capital at that time. About the buildings of Moscow, Pavel Aleppo wrote: “... we marveled at their beauty, decoration, strength, architecture, grace, many icons and carved columns on the sides of the windows, at the height of the floors, as if they were fortresses, at their huge towers, at abundant painting with multi-colored paints outside and inside...”
Some of this beauty has survived to this day. Will it be preserved, will it not be lost behind the strange-looking new high-rise buildings scraping the sky?..
From time immemorial, the palaces of Russian autocrats were distinguished by their luxury and splendor of decoration, and the abundance of gold in the interior design.
The Great Kremlin Palace of the architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton, built in 1849 as the Moscow residence of Emperor Nicholas I, worthily continued this tradition. The ancient palace chambers included in its composition - Faceted from the 15th century, Golden Tsaritsyna from the 16th century, Terema from the 17th century - with their figurative structure seemed to predetermine the appeal to gold in the architectural and decorative solutions of the new palace.
Faceted Chamber. red porchFaceted Chamber.Faceted Chamber.
The Faceted Chamber (1487-1491) was formerly called the Great Golden Chamber, since the wall paintings covering the walls and vaults were made on a golden background. Sunny yellow gold leaf glows on the carved white stone portals of the chamber and the Holy Entrance, adjacent to it. The Faceted Chamber - the throne room of Russian sovereigns - was intended for official and ceremonial ceremonies. The ceremonial reception hall of the Russian queens also shone with gold. It is no coincidence that from the end of the 16th century. the name of the Golden Queen's Chamber was established behind it.
The decoration of the “very wonderful chambers” - the Terem Palace, built for Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov is luxurious. The craftsmen used almost all known materials, graphic motifs and, of course, gold.
The golden lattice on the Verkhospasskaya platform, the Golden porch on the front stone courtyard, the golden “grass” patterns and heraldic coat of arms on the walls of the royal office in the towers, the gold of carved wooden iconostases in the tower churches and the radiant shine of 11 golden domes with beautiful openwork crosses.
Ancient royal palaces always represented a complex of various multifaceted buildings. Following tradition, K. Thon created a new architectural ensemble as well as a group of buildings - compact and convenient. The key link in connecting the surviving old chambers with the new palace was the Vladimir Hall, erected on the site of the open Boyarsky site.
The Grand Kremlin Palace fully lives up to its name. It has about 700 different rooms. The length of the main, southern facade, facing the Moscow River, is 125 m, the height of the building is 40 m. On the second floor of the palace there are the main ceremonial halls, dedicated to the most important order awards of Russia and given their names in their honor - Andreevsky, Alexandrovsky, Georgievsky, Vladimirsky, Ekaterininsky. The decor of each room uses images of the order’s sign, its star with its motto, and takes into account the colors of the order’s ribbons.
St. Andrew's Hall is the main throne room of the palace. Before the eyes of those entering, it appeared dazzlingly luxurious, replete with sophisticated stucco molding and gold, in the shimmer of polished white artificial marble, in the azure backgrounds (blue is the color of the order ribbon), in the solemn elegance of the decor of coats of arms and order emblems. The fate of the hall is dramatic. In 1932-1934. it, together with the neighboring Alexander Hall, dedicated to the Order of Alexander Nevsky, was completely rebuilt and transformed into a single meeting room of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. As a result, the halls lost their architectural and decorative decoration.
In 1999, the St. Andrew's and Alexander Halls were recreated according to drawings, measurements, sketches and watercolors of the 19th century. and regained their original appearance. Now you can fully follow the description of these magnificent halls from the book by Sergei Petrovich Bartenev “The Grand Kremlin Palace. Index to its review” 1911: “The Alexander Hall with pink marble walls, all sparkling with gold, was built in honor of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky ... In the golden bas-reliefs of the dome and arches there are signs of the order; in the corners of the dome and above the doors there are state eagles with the imperial crown. Between the twisted gilded columns there are the coats of arms of the provinces and regions of Russia. On the sides of the doors and between the windows there are gilded fittings consisting of ancient weapons of the Slavs... the shimmer of gilding in the ornaments and everywhere create “an almost barbaric abundance of brilliance.”
The antechamber of the Grand Kremlin Palace, to which the main staircase leads, precedes the entrance to the largest hall, “Georgievsky.” It is dedicated to the highest military award of pre-revolutionary Russia, the Order of St. George, established by Catherine II in 1769. The architectural appearance and decorative design of the hall reflect the idea of glorifying military heroism and feat. The enormous dimensions (17.5x61x20.5 m), the noble whiteness of the walls and vault, and the gold of the lamps create an atmosphere of solemn grandeur. The memorial character of the hall is emphasized by the repeated repetition of images of the St. George Cross and a star with the motto “For Service and Bravery”, the names of distinguished military units and the names of St. George cavaliers carved in gold.
The unique originality of the front hall is given by marble sculptures placed above the twisted columns along the long walls. These statues allegorically depict the lands and kingdoms that became part of Russia from the 15th to the 19th centuries. They were created by the famous Russian sculptor Ivan Petrovich Vitali.
The abundance of molded, carved and sculptural decorations, the wealth of gilded bronze in amazing chandeliers and large mantel clocks, the multicolored precious inlaid parquet flooring, made according to the design of academician Fyodor Grigorievich Solntsev from more than 20 rare types of wood, enhance the impression of solemnity and grandeur.
Next to Georgievsky there is a relatively small Vladimirsky Hall. Square (16x16 m), with cut corners, it is covered with a 16-sided dome, densely decorated with gilded ornamental stucco, floral patterns, and order insignia (a cross and a star with the motto “Benefit. Honor. Glory”). The dome of the Vladimir Hall is also interesting as an example of a successful design solution. To lighten the weight and improve acoustic properties, it is made of hollow ceramic pots. This technique was known to Russian architects back in the 12th century.
The Catherine Hall of the palace is named after the Order of St. Catherine, established by Peter I in 1714. The only women's order in the statute of Russian awards was in the form of a cross with an oval gold medallion and an enamel image of St. Catherine. The walls of the hall are covered with light silver moire and decorated with large decorative medallions of the order. The rich carved ornament of the richly gilded doors also includes order insignia. The Catherine Hall was the throne room of the empresses. Behind it are the rooms of the Front half of the palace.
The formal living room is a luxuriously furnished room with a high vaulted ceiling painted with floral designs. The walls are covered with green and gold patterned brocade. Upholstered gilded furniture is covered with the same brocade. A porcelain flower bed floor lamp (for 66 arms) with vases for fresh flowers and two candelabra in Japanese and Chinese styles play an important role in the decoration of the living room. They were made at the famous Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg. The undoubted attraction of the Main Living Room are the tall mirrored doors made of rosewood, skillfully inlaid with bronze, tortoiseshell, and mother-of-pearl.
The front half is closed by the front bedroom. It is designed as a classic palace bedroom with the obligatory alcove, highlighted by two monolithic columns of gray-green marble with gilded Corinthian capitals. The walls of the room are divided by pilasters, trimmed with the same marble. The simple-shaped fireplace is lined with jasper of a deep dark green color with a rare smoky blue tint. Like all palace fireplaces, it is decorated with elegant gilded bronze candelabra and a clock.
Terem Palace. Tsar's reception room
The first stone residential chambers in the royal palace, later called the Terem Palace, were built in 1635-1636. for Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich of stone craftsmen Bazhen Ogurtsov, Antip Konstantinov, Trefil Sharutin and Larion Ushakov. The basis for the newly erected three-story chambers was the lower tier of the northern part of the palace, built by Aleviz in 1499-1508, and those built above it in the second half of the 16th century. Workshop chambers.
The tiered construction of the volume of the new building with open walkways, platforms, porches and stairs reflected the traditional features of Russian wooden architecture. Nevertheless, this was a new type of multi-storey stone residential building for its time, in which the enfilade construction of interior spaces, which became characteristic of later palaces, was already emerging.
Three galleries surrounded the palace in tiers: the lower Boyarskaya platform, or Bed porch, was located at the level of the ceiling of the Aleviz basement, where the Vladimir Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace now stands. From this level, an open staircase led to the Front Stone Courtyard, built on top of the leveled vaults of the Workshop Chambers, on which the three floors of the Terem Palace were actually built. The exit to the middle walkway was later closed by a Golden Grille, representing a unique example of blacksmithing. On the eastern side of the Terems there was the Front Golden Porch, along which one ascended to the second floor into the king’s living quarters. The last tier of the built chambers - the golden-domed Teremok, located in the center of the building, is surrounded by a third platform - the Upper Stone Courtyard.
The extraordinary picturesqueness and elegance of the new palace is created not only due to the complex space-planning design of the building, but also due to the rich decorative design of its facades. Profiled pilasters between the windows, carved and majolica cornices, complex white stone frames of openings with hanging weights and triangular pediments, covered with carved ornaments, tiles and carvings in the flaps of the parapets of the walkways, gilded roofing - all this is harmoniously combined with the polychrome coloring of the walls and white stone details, restored during restoration of Terems in 1966-1969. Overall, the palace gives the impression of a precious piece of jewelry.
The original interior decoration of the chambers, with the exception of individual fragments, has not been preserved and was made again under the direction of the artist F.G. Solntsev in the style of the 17th century. These works were carried out in 1836-1837. Subsequently, during the construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace, the ancient monument was included in a new complex of palace buildings.
Currently, the Terem Palace as part of the Grand Kremlin Palace is the Residence of the President of the Russian Federation.