Address: Moscow Kremlin, between Taynitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers
Build date: 1480 year
Tower height: 30.7 m.
Coordinates: 55 ° 44'55.4 "N 37 ° 36'55.1" E
Content:
Short story
The exact year of the construction of the Annunciation Tower, an integral part of the Moscow Kremlin, is unknown. According to connoisseurs of history, it was built in 1487-1488 between two other towers - Vodovzvodnaya and Taynitskaya.
View of the tower from the Kremlin embankment
All these structures can be found in the part of the Kremlin wall that runs along the Moskva River. The tower owes its name to the icon "Annunciation", which previously served as its decoration.
In those distant times, when Russia was ruled by Ivan the Terrible, the Annunciation Tower was used as a prison building. And today you can see a deep underground in it, half-buried. It was in it that the prisoners once languished.
Design features of the Annunciation tower
In the 1680s, a four-sided stone tent, equipped with a decorative watchtower, appeared on the main quadrangle of the Annunciation Tower. As for the design of the lower quadrangle of the tower, the craftsmen decided to complete it with mashicules, equipped it with a platform for defense and supplemented it with a parapet. Inside, the lower quadrangle was designed as an irregular quadrangle and covered with a closed vault. Between the upper and lower quadrangles, they built another one - arched with wide windows, and separated it from the tent with a flat ceiling. The craftsmen divided all the tiers inside the tent with similar flat ceilings.
Annunciation tower from the Bolshoi Kamenny bridge
What changes in architecture did the Annunciation Tower undergo?
In the 18th century (1731), the Church of the Annunciation was added to the tower (the project was directed by the architect Schedel). Over time, a bell tower with 7 bells was placed in the watchtower., the ancient narrow loopholes were expanded and turned into windows, and the place of the weather vane was decorated with an Orthodox cross. Now the Annunciation Tower of the Moscow Kremlin has turned into a church chapel, but not for long - only from 1891 to 1892.
Until 1831, next to the Annunciation tower, there was the Portomoyny Gate, through which residents got access to the Portomoyny raft, located on the banks of the Moskva River. And they went there for the purpose of washing clothes - in the old way of ports or trousers, hence the name of the gate. Today the gates do not exist - only their remains can be seen on the inside of the wall of the Moscow Kremlin.
In 1933, the building was restored and by the decision of the architect N.D. Vinogradov. the church was dismantled, and the extended loopholes were narrowed, thereby returning the tower to its original military appearance... A weather vane reappeared in place of the cross. The total height of the Annunciation Tower is 32.45 m, and you can find it from the side of the Kremlin embankment.
