Cathedral Tours

The order of my posts are a little out of sequence, sorry about that. After touring Red Square on Sunday we proceeded to tour the Kremlin. We saw several of the famous cathedrals that are within the Kremlin. Now the word Kremlin means fort in Russian. So anywhere you have a fort in Russia, you have a kremlin. The Kremlin in Moscow is the grand-daddy of them all.

As I said, there are several cathedrals within the Kremlin walls. Each one served a different purpose. Some were for the exclusive use of the tsars, others were where the czars were corinated, etc.

Photography inside the cathedrals was not allowed -- we were told -- but I saw lots of people taking pictures inside. I listened to the rules and didn't take any inside.

Our tour followed the exact route of my guidebook. Imagine that. We entered the Kremlin through the Trinity Tower. When you see a picture of a structure like this you know it is from Russia.

Next we walked by a building built in the 1960's called the State Kremlin Palace. They used it to house big Communist Party meetings. Now it is used for cultural events. Unfortunately, it is an ugly building from the outside and I am sure some buildings of antiquity were destroyed to make room for it. Oh well. I didn't take a picture of it.

Next up was the Tsar Cannon. It's a monster 40 ton cannon. I don't think it was ever fired, but it sure was impressive looking. In the background is the Cathedral of the Archangel.

If that wasn't enough, right around the corner from the Tsar Cannon was the Tsar Bell. At a whopping 200 tons it makes our Liberty Bell look like the Tinker Bell -- booo!!! I know, bad joke, but I couldn't resist.

Like the United States, Russia's famous bell has a little issue with cracking. Apparently the Kremlin caught fire in 1737. The bell was sitting in its casting pit. Cold water was poured onto the bell and a large piece broke off. Bummer. It never got to ring. Can you imagine trying to haul a 200 ton bell up a building?

Behind the Tsar Bell is the Ivan the Great Bell tower. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of that cathedral. Ooopps...Picture two bell towers with golden domes on the top. If you see the other pictures you'll get the idea.

We then proceeded to enter Cathedral Square and toured several of the cathedrals. Each one had it's own features. Some housed the tombs of the tsars. The icons inside were beautiful I must admit. Inside one, a group of about 5 or 6 people sang some hymns in Russian. The acoustics inside the cathedral was awesome. It was really impressive singing.



















After finishing up at the Kremlin, we moved on to another cathedral a little bit away from the Red Square/Kremlin area. The Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer was originally built in the 1800's. At the time, it was the largest building in Moscow. Stalin, as always, seemed to have other plans for the land the cathedral stood upon. Stalin ordered the original cathedral blown up in the 1930's. Uncle Joe planned to build a truly monstrous building named the Palace of the Soviets on the property -- a 1000+ foot tall building topped with a 300 foot tall statue of Lenin. Unfortunately for Uncle Joe's plans, the location of the site was too close to the river and the soil wouldn't support such a structure. The Palace of the Soviets was never built. Instead of the great cathedral, a heated swimming pool was put in!

Some of the buildings Stalin had destroyed were rebuilt in the 1990's. A truly massive five year effort rebuilt the cathedral between 1995 and 2000. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but it was rebuilt. We got to go inside and it was shockingly beautiful. Our guide told us she would have to be quiet inside since it was a "working" cathedral, but she didn't stop talking until we were all "shushed" to be quiet. It was embarassing, but I'm glad someone did it. We felt a little out of place being given the "tour" while other people were using the cathedral for more spiritual things. Honestly, we had enough of cathedrals by the end of this day.