The Kolomna Kremlin

Construction was carried out in this way: first foundation of limestone slabs was laid, then, walls were built. Inside they were made of quarry stone and were faceted with 9 kilogram oversize brick 13 cm long. Lime mortar was used as binding material. As a legend has it, old masters added eggs’ white to the mortar to make it particularly solid.

The Moscow Archeology Society Committee involved in restoration of the Kolomna Kremlin on its meeting on December 23 of 1884 acknowledged that the faceting of the Kolomna Kremlin “was bound with the inner rubblework by stone anchors” and it required “for dissembling three times more labor than usual walls.”
The towers of the Kolomna Kremlin are multifarious in their form: rectangular, many-faceted and round. Most of them are square: Pogorelaya, Spasskaya, Semenovskaya, Yamskaya ones remained to this day. They are 24 meters high; the square is 12.75×8.2 meters; the thickness is 2.9 meters below and 1.85 meters above. The towers have five floors: one is on the ground with the battle windows facing the moat surrounding the Kremlin from the field side. The towers concluded with a sixth level – a gallery, the battlements of which were swallow-tail shaped just like those of the walls. They were 2.5 meters high, 1.4 meters wide and one meter deep.

Unfortunately, restoration of 1886-1889 conducted by architect A. M. Pavlinov distorted the shape of the battlements of the front Piatnitskaya Tower, which to this day decorates the city. At the present time the towers consist of the inner-tower space and stone mass faced towards the city with a passway on the level of the gallery.

Multifaceted towers – Kolomenskaya and Granovitaya, and round Sviblovo tower stood, as a distinctive feature of Russian fortress architecture, on the Kremlin’s sharp corners. Kolomenskaya (Marinkina) was the western watchtower of the city. It is a wonderful pattern of fortress constructions of XVI century. It is 20-faceted, 31 meters high, 11 meters in diameter. It has 8 floors. Its walls were 4.55 meters thick at the bottom and 3 meters thick at the top; by this the weight of the upper section of the wall was made less than the lower ones supporting them. The tower is named this way because in 1614 Marina Mniszech was confined and died in it. The tower has eight levels, the first six of which have battlements; the seventh level has machicolations; the eight one has two-horn battlements. Each level has 4-5 battlements.

The first three floors have battlements with ray-like flooring, while in the next three – from fourth to sixth – they are blocked by vaults. Vertical projections of the battlements also vary; that, probably, has to do with their designation to have different shooting ranges.

The Granovitaya Tower in its layout has a combination of a hexagon and a square. It has four floors; the fifth floor is a gallery with battlements. At the present time, in the Granovitaya tower the Svyatogor Center of Russian Military culture holds its meetings.

The round Moskvoretskaya or Sviblovo tower was located on the bank of the Moskva River near Ploshkautny Bridge. It guarded approaches to water arteries of the city. M. A. Pavlinov after N. D. Ivanchev-Pisarev stated that it was ruined and thrown down into the waters of the Moskva River by Kolomna dwellers on a decision of the local authorities. The Sviblovo tower was even mightier than the Kolomenskaya one and was crowned by overhanging battle loops, or machicolations, protected on all sides and from above.

Apart from the regular towers, the Kolomna Kremlin had four tower gates: the Pyatnitskie, Ivanovskie, Kosye and Vodyanye. The Piatnitskie gates were located on the eastern part of the Kremlin leading to the Vladimir-Kashira road; the Ivanovskie gates stood on the southern side of the Kremlin at the crossroad of Vladimir-Kashira and Moscow-Ryazan routes; the Kosye and Vodyanye ones faced the Moskva River, that is, were located on the northern side of the Kremlin.

The Pyatnitskie gates were the main entry into the city. They played in the Kolomna Kremlin the same role as the Golden Gates of Kiev and Vladimir. The gates consisted of a two-level tower and a barbican that concluded with battlements. The size of the main volume of the tower is 14×22 meters. The pass way arch of the gates has a hoof-shaped form. The tower ends with an arch, upon which once an alarm bell hung. Beneath the tower there was a vaulted sap connecting the fortress to the city, in case of necessity. Under the passway arches of the gates there were bass-relief icons, carved in whitestone. In the Pyatnitskaya tower the outlines of the Spasskaya tower of the Moscow Kremlin can be recognized.

The Pyatnitskie gates, most likely, received their name after a wooden church, which stood near and was called the Church of Praskevy Pyatnitsy – who was believed to be a patron of commerce. But by XVIII century, the church was destroyed and the gates were called Spasskie in the documents; according to one of the versions, it is after the Spassky monastery that stood three hundred meters south-east of the Kremlin wall; according to another version, after an icon of the Savior that hung above the passway.

Pages: 1 2 3