Entering by the tower of Philaret, the Church of the Twelve Apostles is on the extreme right, the Cathedral of the Assumption immediately in front, that of the Archangels on the left, opposite it is the Cathedral of the Annunciation communicating with the royal palaces by a terrace from which descends the wide flight of steps which as their name, Krasnoe Kriltso, indicates is the grand or state entrance to the palace. It was on this terrace that the Tsars of old allowed the people to see "the light of their eyes," and there that those of noble race stood to be "beholden of the people." At one time this flight had the usual porch at the foot, and a red roof above, just as the approaches to the old churches and the modern house, Dom Chukina off the Tverskaia. Fires have destroyed the roofs and now an awning only is used upon state occasions. These steps flank the old Granovitaia Palace and on its other side, in an obscure corner, almost behind the Cathedral of the Assumption, is the Holy Spot of the Kremlin, being to the church what the Krasnoe Kriltso was to the state. It is the old entrance to the private apartments of the Patriarchs, and the chapel of the metropolitans, that known as the Pecherski Bogeimateri, raised on the site of the earliest stone edifice built in the Kremlin. Founded by Jonas it suffered the fate of most buildings in Moscow, but was always rebuilt in much the same style, and still conserves many characteristics of the most ancient of Moscow churches. The present building is composed of the fragments left from the fires of 1626, 1637, 1644 and 1682. The roof is vaulted, supported by four columns; the walls have pictures of the virgin and saints, and above the altar is that of the Madonna. The ikonostas has four stages and is adorned with most venerable ikons, notably those of "The Reception of the sacred vestments of the Virgin" of the Virgin of Vladimir (an early copy), and of the Holy Trinity, before which are ancient candelabra with the remains of tapers made like the old rushlights and gaily coloured. The inscription is to the effect that they were placed there by the Patriarch Joseph in 1643 and 1645. The old chandelier in the centre is by Sviechkov, a master craftsman of the Tsarian workshops in 1624. The Virgin of Pechersk, brought from Kiev, is hung upon the wall and surrounded with portraits of Peter, Alexis, Jonas, Philip, and other of the patron saints of Moscow: before this ikon all must bow or suffer eternal punishment. The church is never closed; day and night it is visited by pious pilgrims and the sacred lamp is ever burning before the ikon. It communicates with the corridor of the Terem, and behind it rise the domes of the churches within the palace, notably those of the Saviour behind the Golden Gates and St Catherine's: near them the roof of the Terem and the walls of the Granovitaia Palace complete a picture wholly Muscovite; but, if tradition may be trusted, the work upon the