Walks along
Red Square.
Moscow.
Only a lazy guy does not know that the word "Red" in
Russian meant not only color, but also it meant "beautiful". And who will argue, that it is the most beautiful square in Moscow? But when did it get this name?
In the
15th century a big place around the Kremlin walls has totally burned out. This territory remained undeveloped and was named "
Fire". In fact was the future Red square. And opposite the Kremlin on the other side of the square was the busy
Market.
To prevent the growing of the market it was decided to build one floor stone stalls at the border of the square.
This look of stone stalls - cells connected in arcade - in time became the characteristic feature of the trade buildings in
Russia. For a long time it was used in building the trade centers, stores, merchant houses and estates.
Even today we can see the prototype of these stone stalls in the most famous russian trade centre
GUM. The size of it is not surprising anymore, but the architecture and history is unique.
Only in the
17th century after the
Spasskaya tower was built, the small part of the Fire between the St Basils cathedral and the
Place of Skulls was named Red or
Beautiful square.
And what is the Place of Skulls?
Is it the place where they cut the heads off?
In fact they really did. But not often.
The most well known fact of the execution here was the suppression of the Streletc rebellion by
Peter the first. The wooden scaffold was built here for the executions.
There is a famous painting by Suricov "
The morning of Streletc execution". But usually on the
Place of Sculls only the judgemens were read.
And the place got this name after this hill which was named The Scull hill.
On this hill this beautiful St Basils
Cathedral was built. It 1812
Napoleon tried to blow it up, the soviets tried to demolish it, but as you can see that the cathedral is still here.
The famous french architect Le Carbusier has called it "the fantasy of the mad pastry cook".
But who built it and the meaning of the colors of the domes is still a mystery.
The Red square have seen a lot during the centures.The menagerie in the dried moat by the
Kremlin wall, the wooden theatre in the Peter times, the tram line was here for 20 years, football matches, concerts, the tanks on the parades.
But once it was also an airfield!
In
1987 an incredible thing has happened. A german pilot Matias
Rust landed here, on the Vasilievskiy descent!
Without any permission, right from
Finland, to the heart of the Russian capital. The landing itself happened on the bridge of the
Moscva river, and after that the plane went almost up to the st Basils cathedral. After that this place was named Sheremetiavo 3.
Now its time to return to the square and listen to the
Kremlin chimes. They beat every quarter of an hour.
The first clock on the Spasskaya tower was made by an english master Christofer Halloway. But the fires were the main Moscow problem, and since that time a lot of chimes have changed. And the melodies were of different genres! These chimes that you see now are
100 years old.
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- published: 25 Feb 2016
- views: 420