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Already as a young man,
Fedor Ivanovch showed considerable interest
in church architecture and the arts in general. He contributed money for the
erection of several churches. The Bell-Tower of Ivan Velikii (Ivan the Great),
the dominant edifice of the Kremlin was begun during his reign and the Palace
of Facets (Granovitaya Palata) was redecorated with new frescoes. Many of them
are of a secular nature, including one which shows Tsar Fedor himself sitting
on his throne, his crown on his head and dressed in regal robes. But the name
of the melancholy tsar is more closely associated with the Tsar Cannon, (Tsar
Pushka) which was formerly known also as the "Fowling Piece,"
(Drobovik), a monstrous canon cast by Andrei Chokhov in 1586. The bore of this
enormous cannon is almost three feet, and it weighs forty tons. It was cast in
the Moscow Cannon Foundry, known in the 15th century as the "Cannon
Izba." There is a base relief on the canon showing Tsar Fedor and an
inscription telling that Chokhov cast it. He was a very capable master of
metal-casting who cast many cannon which earned for Russia a reputation for
excellence in artillery production, a tradition that they preserved and
reinforced in the second World War. The Tsar cannon was intended to serve as an
ornament and eventually used as a mortar on special occasions and celebrations.
Only in 1967 was an experiment made to explore the ballistic qualities of the
cannon. A cast iron ball weighing almost 4000 pounds was projected only about
800 feet. But there were other long cannon - culverins cast by Chokhov during
Fedor's time that distinguished themselves in battle. Among them the best known
are the "Troilus," weighing about seven tons, and "Aspis,"
about six tons. Photos of the cannon and bell tower and Palace of Facets are in
the section on Moscow.
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