Address: Moscow Kremlin, between the Arsenalnaya Corner and the Senate Towers
Build date: 1491 year
Tower height: with a star of 70.4 m.
There is a ruby star on the tower
Coordinates: 55 ° 45'16.0 "N 37 ° 37'04.3" E
Content:
Short story
The appearance of the Nikolskaya Tower as a part of the Moscow Kremlin ensemble dates back to 1491. All work on its construction was supervised by Pietro Antonio Solari, a talented architect from Italy, who arrived in Moscow at the invitation of the ambassadors of Prince Ivan III, who was interested in strengthening the defense of the Kremlin.
As for the name of the tower, historians suggest that it was named Nikolskaya because of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which hung on the eastern facade of the building.... It cannot be ruled out that the tower could have been named after the nearby monastery of St. Nicholas the Old.
View of the tower from the side of the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin
Nikolskaya tower - architecture
If we measure the height of the Nikolskaya Tower, taking into account the star, it is 70.4 m.But if the crown of the tower is not taken into account, then the structure reaches a height of 67.1 m.
Initially, the construction of the Nikolskaya Tower was represented by an uncomplicated but massive quadrangle. Later, it was supplemented with a tent and decorated with a clock that hung on its facade until the 17th century (after 1614, there are no mentions of them in the historical annals). But the beginning of the 18th century was marked for the tower by significant changes in its appearance. According to the architect Rusk A.I. in 1806, Gothic motifs appeared in the design of this building in ancient Russia. Now the Nikolskaya Tower had a high tent made of stone, and two pairs of turrets on the parapet, and its facade became a real decoration of the entire tower, since it was lace-laced.
Later, the white stone tent was replaced with a metal one, which was fixed on a powerful frame. Since the Gothic style made the Nikolskaya tower stand out from the rest of the Moscow Kremlin towers, in 1918 it was repainted in brick color.
Ruby star on top of the tower
You can admire the beauty of the ancient 70-meter Nikolskaya tower if you come from the Red Square to the Senate and Corner Arsenal towers - it is located between them.
Participation of the Nikolskaya Tower in historical events. Their influence on the design of the tower
1612 became a memorable date for Russians - then an agreement was signed to end the armed struggle by Poland. The people's militia led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky (the exact date is November 1, 1612) passed through the gates of the Nikolskaya and Spasskaya towers to the Moscow Kremlin.
125 years later in 1737, a fire broke out in the Nikolskaya tower and thanks to the efforts of the architect I.F. Michurin, the tower was completely restored... As a result, it, like the Arsenal building, received a baroque decor. Further, another architect, K.I. Blank, worked on the structure of the tower. The result of his skill was the addition of a round top and a low tent.
In 1812, when hordes of French retreating from Moscow tried to destroy everything in their path, the structure of the Nikolskaya Tower suffered significantly - its tent fell, and part of the passage gate was significantly affected by the explosion.
Tower view at night
But, what is most interesting, the part of the quadrangle on which the miraculous icon of Nikola Mozhaisky hung has completely survived. In the book entitled "The Image of Nicholas the Wonderworker", written by Alexei Remizov, there is a paragraph indicating that from the strongest explosion all the houses surrounding the tower were left without doors and windows. The Arsenal building fell into ruins, and most of the Nikolskaya tower collapsed. But the icon depicting Nikola was not damaged. Not touched by the explosion and the lantern with the candle.
The news of such a miracle immediately flew around Russia and reached Alexander I himself, who at that time was the emperor of the state. To personally verify the safety of the icon, he went to Moscow, after which he issued a decree on the restoration of the Nikolskaya Tower. In addition, under the shrine itself, he ordered to hang a marble plaque with his own dictum about what this tower with the icon had to endure. And the words of the emperor ended with praise to God.
To the left and to the right of the Nikolsky Gate stood one-domed chapels - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and Alexander Nevsky. Initially, they were erected from wood, but later they were rebuilt many times until the chapels finally became stone (the last changes affected them in 1883). Caring for the lamp, illuminating the face of Nikola Mozhaisky, was the daily duty of the rectors of both chapels (both shrines belonged to the Kazan Cathedral). In addition, the entrance to them was guarded by the Kazan Mother of God, depicted on the icons.
View of the Nikolsky Gate
In the fall of 1917, the Nikolskaya Tower and its gates were noticeably damaged when they came under heavy artillery fire. In the course of work on the restoration of the tower, carried out in 1918 under the leadership of the architect Markovnikov, the outer walls of the building were repainted in a brick color, in harmony with the entire wall of the Moscow Kremlin, and the marble plaque conveying the words of Emperor Alexander was dismantled. The same fate befell the two-headed eagle, which was the crown of the Nikolskaya tower. By the end of 1935, a semi-precious star took its place, but after 2 years it was replaced by a ruby one. The new crown of the tower differs from similar ones in the number of faces per each ray - the star of the Nikolskaya tower has twelve of them.
How the storming of the Kremlin affected the construction of the Nikolskaya tower and the icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker
The October battles of 1917 did not pass without leaving a trace for the Nikolskaya Tower - it itself and the lower part of its gate were significantly damaged by shells. The miraculous icon also suffered from bullets and shrapnel, but so that the face remained unaffected. And again believers in Moscow rejoiced, taking the fact of the integrity of the face as another miracle. As soon as the shelling of the Kremlin stopped, Patriarch Tikhon took a color photocopy of the damaged icon and gave it to Admiral Kolchak. So the icon painting was replenished with a new image - it was Nikola the Wounded, reminiscent of the shelling of the icon on the Nikolskaya tower.
In 1919, during the restoration work of the tower, the gateway image was also corrected, the result of which was its bringing to the ancient drawing and cleansing of traces of bullets and fragments. After 3 years, the Restoration Department insisted on the elimination of the paintings of angels on the sides of the main image. The fresco of Nicholas the Wonderworker himself was only partially preserved, as mentioned in the chronicle of 1925. In Soviet times, the icon was lost and until 2010 was considered lost.
but from the end of June 2010, the first work on the restoration of the ancient icon began... The government of modern Russia has decided to recreate the historical image of the Kremlin. From the words of Yakunin, it becomes clear that the purpose of the restoration work is to help the samples of spiritual heritage take their places again.
Icon of Nikola Mozhaisky over the Nikolsky gate
The experts had to work hard on the restoration of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. But within a few months they still managed to restore it thanks to the preserved ancient documents. Thus, the icon was returned to its original appearance without adding modern motives. And on November 4, 2010, both the grand opening and the procedure for the consecration of the renewed icon, which is the adornment and protector of the Nikolskaya Tower to this day, took place.
