In the seventeenth century almost the whole of the Kremlin was occupied with buildings appertaining either to the state or the superior clergy. The churches are still sufficiently in evidence, but such of the old dwellings as remain have to be approached through more recent buildings. The Granovitaia (Facetted) Palace of Ivan III. (1491) presents a façade to the Sobornia Ploshchad, but this in no way reveals its antiquity. The constant renewal of the exterior which is indispensable to preservation in the destructive climate of Moscow, to some extent accounts for this; and the "terem," the outside of which may be viewed from the quadrangle on which stands the old church "Spass na Boru," is equally disappointing in this particular. Even to see the interiors the visitors must pass through the Great Palace, with which these old dwellings are now incorporated. The site occupied by the eastern end of the Great Palace is that upon which, from the founding of Moscow, the residences of its rulers have been again and again erected, but they faced the east, not south. The wooden palaces of the early Romanofs have entirely disappeared; Peter the Great removed from Moscow whatever would serve to enrich his new capital, and allowed the old royal residences to decay. It is during the present century only that they have been restored to their earlier grandeur. The palace built by the Empress Elizabeth, and occupied by Napoleon, was destroyed by the fire of 1812. The visitor will first procure a _billet d'admission_ at the Chamberlain's office in Commandant Street (see plan), turn to the left on leaving the building, and walking towards the south, at the end of the street pass under the Winter Garden which connects the Treasury with the Great Palace. He will then be [Illustration: KREMLIN References A=Cannon »->Entrances -----=Footpaths