January 6, 2018

0671, 3235 RUSSIA (Moscow) - The towers of Moscow Kremlin - part of Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow (UNESCO WHS)

0671 Spasskaya Tower

Posted on 07.06.2013, 06.01.2018
The Spasskaya Tower is the main tower with a through-passage on the eastern wall of the Moscow Kremlin, which overlooks the Red Square. It was built in 1491 under the supervision of the architect Pietro Antonio Solari (Pyotr Fryazin), and was initial named Frolovskaya, later being renamed the Spasskaya (Savior's), in honor of the Icon of the Savoir Not Made by Hands, which crowned the gateway. Originally it had half of its present height (71m with the star mounted in 1935), in 1624-1625 being built a multi-tiered top with a stone tent roof.

3235 Towers Konstantino-Eleninskaya,
Nabatnaya and Spasskaya
 

It was the first one to be crowned with the hipped roof in 1624-1625 by architects Bazhen Ogurtsov and Christopher Galloway (a Scottish architect and clockmaker). The first clock was mounted in 1491, and the present Kremlin chimes were installed in 1851-1852 by the Butenop brothers. The tower gate was once the main entrance into the Kremlin. In tsarist times, anyone passing through the gates had to remove their headgear and dismount their horses. This tradition was broken in the Soviet era. In 1935, the Soviet government installed a red star instead of a two-headed eagle on top of the tower.

The Konstantino-Eleninskaya Tower is on the eastern wall of the Kremlin, overlooking Basil Descent, which begins at the Red Square and ends at the Moscow River. It was built in 1490 by the Italian Pietro Antonio Solari on the spot of gates to the whitestone Kremlin. It was named after the Church of Konstantine and Elena in the Kremlin, which was demolished by the Soviets in 1928. The tower had its own gates and a lift bridge. In the late 18th century - early 19th century the gates were bricked up and the bridge was dismantled. The tower's height is 36.8m.

The Nabatnaya Tower is a tower in the southeastern section of the Kremlin wall, built in 1495. It is 38m in height. Traditionally, there has always been a bell on top of the Nabatnaya Tower, used for notifying citizens of fires and other misfortunes (hence, the name Nabatnaya, which derives from the old Russian word nabat, meaning "alarm" or "tocsin"). In 1680, a bellmaker Feodor Dmitriev cast the Nabatny bell weighing 2.45 metric tons and installed it on the tower. The bell subsequently broke and was re-cast by Ivan Motorin in 1714.

The sound from this bell served as a signal for the spontaneous uprising of the Muscovites during the plague outbreak in 1771, which would later be called the Plague Riot. By the order of Catherine the Great, the tongue of the bell was removed after this incident. The tongueless bell remained on top of the tower for 30 more years. In the early 19th century, it was removed and transferred to the Arsenal. In 1821, the bell was moved to the Armoury, where it remains to this day in the vestibule.

The towers of Moscow Kremlin are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site The Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, about which I wrote here.

About the stamps
On the postcard 0671


The first stamp is part of the series The fauna of Sakha Republik (Jakutia), designed by Moscovets A. after paintings by Zhilichkin P., and issued on August 29, 2006.
Ross's Gull / Rhodostethia rosea (3 RUB)
Siberian Crane / Grus leucogeranus (4 RUB)
Polar bear / Ursus maritimus (5 RUB)
Yakutian horse /  Equus caballus (6 RUB)
Reindeer / Rangifer tarandus (7 RUB) - It's on the postcard 0671


The second stamp was issued on February 2, 2012 to mark The 125th birth anniversary of P.N. Nesterov. P.N. Nesterov (1887-1914), was a legendary Russian military pilot, hero of WWI and founder of aerobatics. The stamp features a portrait of Nesterov and an airplane Moran-K.

On the postcard 3235
Three of the stamps are part of a series dedicated to Russian Kremlins, about which I wrote here.


The last stamp, designed by  Beltyukov V., was issued on October 31, 2016 to mark The 1000 Anniversary of the "Russian Truth". Russkaya Pravda is a set of laws and regulations of Kievan Rus', the first main written source of Russian law. The set of laws was published about 1016-1054 years by the feudal lord Yaroslav the Wise, came to us in the list of the 13th-14th centuries in three versions: short, expanded and condensed, each of version displays specific stages of development of the social relations in the Ancient Russian state.

References
List of Moscow Kremlin towers - Wikipedia
Spasskaya Tower - Wikipedia

Sender 0671: Marina / Laktrissa (direct swap)
Sent from Moscow (Russia), on 07.04.2012 
Sender 3235: Alex / Leroks (postcrossing) RU-6187484
Sent from Moscow (Russia), on 19.12.2017

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