Moscow (Russia) -- Description and travel; Moscow (Russia) -- History
"On the 17th March 1817, the Archbishop Augustine went into the
cavity in which the metal was to be run, and sprinkled the place
with holy water, as also the metals to be used in founding the
bell; gave his benediction to the masters of the foundry, and
called the workmen to receive his blessing and kiss the cross. The
molten metal ran by a gutter into the mould; and, the casting
finished, the Archbishop again gave thanks to God. The leading
inhabitants were present at the casting, and freely threw in gold
and silver trinkets. On the 23rd February 1819 this bell was
removed from the foundry. It was placed on an oak sledge, and after
the Te Deum had been sung, a willing crowd seized the many ropes
attached and drew the sledge down the Srietenka and Lubianka to the
Kusnetski Most, Mokhovaya, and the whole length of the Kremlin wall
to the Borovitski Gate by which it made its entrance, and reached
the Belfry of Ivan Veliki, where the Te Deum was sung again. It was
hung in the summer of 1819."
Closely allied to the art of the bell-maker was that of cannon-founder,
and the Kremlin contains some curious and excellent specimens of old
weapons. The most striking is the huge gun known as the Tsar Pushka,
"King of Guns," familiarly as the "drobovnik" (fowling piece), which was
cast in the reign of Theodore Ivanovich (1586), by one Chokof. It weighs
36 tons, and is of too large calibre and too weak metal ever to have
been used as a weapon. When Peter I. after the battle of Narva, ordered
old cannon and church bells to be cast into new ordnance, this was
spared. So was the mortar by its side, for it was cast by the false
Dmitri, who not only took a great interest in the manufacture of fire
arms, but tested them himself. Among the cannon arranged along the
barrack terrace is "The Unicorn" cast in 1670; the carriage of this, of
the Tsar Pushka, and of others are new, made by Baird, of St Petersburg.
Along the front of the arsenal are arranged the 875 cannon, 365 French,
taken from "the twenty nations" who invaded Russia with Napoleon.
It has already been stated that the Kremlin was at one time a complete
city; to a certain extent it is so still. Again and again buildings have
been destroyed and restored; streets made, and swept away. In sinking
the foundations for the Alexander memorial the debris of three distinct
ruins superimposed showed how one town has succeeded another, and as at
that point, so at many others. The exercising ground was long covered
with dwellings; there were the hostelries of the Krutitski monastery,
the houses of the priests, seminaries, private dwellings--at one time as
many as twenty streets were to be found within the Kremlin walls. Under
the barracks and the Chudov monastery are immense vaults of ancient
brick; below the Synod are known to be two large chambers which have
not
[Illustration: CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR BEHIND THE GOLDEN GATES]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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