Moscow (Russia) -- Description and travel; Moscow (Russia) -- History
Vasili disregarded the decision of the Church and married a most able
and enlightened woman, who had the foresight to surround the Kitai Gorod
with a wall of good masonry, and it is said, named that part of the town
after a similarly designated enclosure in her native place. She bore
Vasili two sons, Ivan, the Tsarevich, who was later the "terrible" Tsar,
succeeding to the throne in 1533, when but three years of age. The
younger son, Yuri, fared badly at the hands of his cruel brother.
[Illustration: KITAI GOROD, ILYINKA GATE]
The Moscow of the Princes was of wood, and the vestiges remaining are
unimportant. Some of the later buildings, as the palace of the Terem and
towers of the Kremlin wall, have been built in the style of the wooden
erections they replaced; but it is not easy to picture Moscow as it was
before Ivan's Italian workmen raised their walls of brick and stone.
The town was of great size; in 1520 it contained 41,500 dwellings and
100,000 inhabitants. Its circumference was nearly twelve miles. The
Grand Prince and his relations lived in the Kremlin; so did a few of the
richest and most powerful nobles. In the Kitai Gorod lived the traders,
the wealthy boyards and foreigners. The Bielo Gorod, "White" or Free
Town, was occupied by boyards, merchants and privileged citizens; in the
outer ring lived the artisans and labourers. The churches and chapels
were numerous. Ivan Kalita built ten when there were already eighteen in
the town, in 1337; in the reign of Vasili III. there were as many
monasteries and nunneries, and upwards of three score churches and
chapels.
The first dwelling in the Kremlin was the Prince's habitation,
originally called the Prince's apartment, which served only as a _pied à
terre_ for the Prince when passing through. When Moscow became a place
of residence then a house was put up near where the Great Palace now is.
Then followed the usual dependences; including a prison or dungeon. Even
at that early date the Russian carpenters were able craftsmen; how
expert they afterwards became the wonderful wooden palaces and churches
of Russia accurately demonstrate.
The Princes of Moscow were not extravagant, their palaces consisting of
four chambers, _en suite_--the one most distant from the entrance was
the sleeping-room; then, adjoining it, the oratory or private chapel;
the room for living or affairs of the town, the anti-chamber; the
vestibule; add kitchens and domestic rooms on a lower floor, and the
early palaces of the Russian princes is complete.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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