Tula’s Kremlin

The critical time in Tula’s fate was the middle of XVII century. By that time the border of the Moscow state moved far to the south and other fortresses began to play the role of advanced outposts. The enemy’s raids did not threaten the city any more. In 1630 the Tsar issued a decree for residents of Tula to be gunnery makers. In 1636 the population of the city was 2 thousand people.

In 1641 Nikitskaya and Troitskaya settlements in the southern part of the city were shielded by an earthwork which was 1483 meters long and was a continuation of another earthwork called Zavitay. It adjoined Tula from the southwest from the Raspberry gates of the Abatis Line.

In 1673-1674 the old palisade-type town was partially replaced by wooden fortifications.

Town’s wooden fortifications of Tula got constantly renewed and changed their appearance. They existed until 1741 when they were dissembled because of dilapidation while earthworks were torn down.

In 1784 by an order of Empress Catherine II a full repair was done in Tula’s Kremlin. Unfortunately, there was no goal to preserve the original appearance of the Kremlin, that’s why today’s Kremlin is very different from the original one.

In 1821-1828 another remodeling was done in the Kremlin, and wooden domes were added to the towers. Unfortunately, the domes lasted less than one hundred years, and by 1940s the Kremlin was on the brink of almost complete devastation because it hadn’t been remodeled for almost a hundred years.

Tula’s Kremlin was a dump place because its inward space wasn’t cleaned. On the Kremlin’s territory there were facilities of a stadium called “Zenith,” facilities of a weapons factory with a high fence while the south-western part was used for a green-house farm of the same factory.

In 1948 the Council of Ministers of the USSR made a decision that Tula’s Kremlin should be restored, and by the end of 1957 remodeling and restoration of the battlements was finished. Beginning from 1975 restoration of the Cathedral of the Assumption on the territory of the Kremlin began.

In the lay-out the fortress that later became the Kremlin has the shape of a regular triangle with the perimeter of the walls of 1066,5 meters and the area of around 6 ha. Similar regular lay-out was applied in Russian fortresses before; in Tula’s Kremlin, however, the principles of symmetry and geometrical preciseness were brought to perfection.

The walls are standing on a white stone, widening downwards pedestal; absolutely straight without any curves, the walls together with battlements (as listed in a catalog) are 10,26 meters high, 2,8 meters wide on the southern and western sides and 3,2 meters wide on the northern and eastern sides. On the inner side of the fortress the wall is divided into parts by wide arch niches which are 60-70 centimeters deep.

The thickness of the walls of Tula’s Kremlin, according to the catalog of 1685, in some parts is up to 4 meters while the height is 10,7 meters. In the present time the walls have gone 1,5-2 meters down into the occupation layer. The walls are based on solid foundation 8,5 meters deep, which in its turn lies upon oak ground sills. Such solidity of the structure is understood since Tula’s Kremlin is built on a swamp.

The entire Kremlin is girdled by a white stone semi-earthwork – in this way the walls of fortresses were worked up in Russia no later that in the end of XV century. The bottom of the Kremlin is built of local white stone while the top is built of oversize red brick. The walls end with a swallow’s tail shaped battlements.

The combat passage, which is 2 and a half meters long, is protected by a solid parapet with swallow’ tail shaped two-horned battlements. One in two or three battlements have loop-holes in them. Altogether there are about 300 of them. From above the combat passage was covered from bad weather by a double-pitch roof; at the foot of the walls gun-slots for foot combat were built – they were vaulted and tapering in the western walls and square-angled in the eastern walls.

Tula’s Kremlin has 9 towers. On the corners there are dead-end round Spasskaya, Naugolnaya, Ivanovskaya and Nikitskaya towers.

In the center of the western, southern and eastern walls there are square-angled passable towers – the Tower of the Water Gates and the Tower on the cellar. The towers significantly come out of the line of the walls which enabled the defenders to launch both frontal and flanking fire. Each tower had 3 or 4 floors. Apart from regular loop-holes in the battlements there are loop-holes for high-angle or slanting fire (machicolation). The passable towers were closed by thick oak gates. With the purpose of firing at the enemy there were special loop-holes to shoot inside.

One of the most important towers was Nikitskaya passable tower (in the middle of XVII century it was called Nikitskaya, later the name changed to Ivanovskaya). Its height up to the tent roof exceeded 13 meters. In the end of XVII century a wooden platform for guns was made on the tower. A fortified outpost was also built outside its gate.

The passable tower of Odoevsky Gates differs from the other towers by a buildup resembling the dome of the church, which was built later – in 1781-1784. In ancient times the arch entrance into the tower (just like in the case of Pyatnetskie gates) was located against logic in such a way that the enemy’s right side protected by a shield was turned towards the wall. It was done this way because even at the time of the construction of the Kremlin firearms nullified the need in carrying a shield which also fundamentally influenced the organization of the defense of the fortress.

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