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Another bell is worth mentioning: The
"Tsar of Bells" (Tsar Kolokol), the largest bell in the world,
weighing over two hundred tons. It remains helplessly on the soil, not far from
the Tower of Ivan the Great, where the people can contemplate its gigantic
dimensions: Twenty six feet high, about two feet thick and sixty-eight feet in
circumference at the mouth. The story goes that a supper party was once given
inside the bell and that twenty guests were comfortably seated. The bell was
cast during the reign of Empress Anna in 1733-1735 by Ivan Fedorov Mtorin and
his son Mikhail. The Tsar of Bells was the third in a series of giants, whose
casting was initiated by Boris Godunov. They all fell or were damaged by the
fires. That so often swept through the Kremlin, but each time they were recast
and more metal was added to increase their size and weight. For the last
recasting, boyars and church dignitaries threw their silver plates and dishes
and in some cases their gold jewels into the molten copper, so that the new
Tsar of Bells would have "Silver muscles and golden veins." Simple
people contributed more copper and tin ware. The first casting attempt in 1734
failed; father Matorin later died, and only at the end of 1735 did his son
Mikhail successfully accomplish the casting. A wooden shed was built to protect
the bell in its original pit. Then in 1737 another fire devastated the Kremlin;
the shed collapsed in flames and the burning wood threatened to melt the bell.
To put the fire out the people rushed to pour cold water over the hot metal.
The bell cracked in several places and a piece over eleven tons broke out of
its side. The bell remained in the pit for a century until Nicholas I
commissioned french architect August Montferrand in 1836 to pull it up and put
it on the soil where it has remained since. Besides the impressiveness of its
dimensions, the bell is fine piece of metal casting, with figures in relief of
Tsar Aleksei and Empress Anna, and a scroll with the Savior, the Virgin and the
evangelists. The Tsar of Bells was never hung and never rung, sharing the
silence of the Tsar Cannon.
The square where the two "Tsars," Cannon and Bell , are located has
been known since olden times as Ivanovskaya (Ivan's). It was on and around this
square that most of the state departments (prikazi) were housed. Usually many
people were around, boyars and officials mixing with ordinary people,
particularly after a mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption. Hardly any
Russian at that time failed to carry out this custom. It was here that
secretaries (Diaki) read loudly to the people the tsar's proclamations and
ukazi, and it was on this square that war prisoners were sold and purchased and
criminals and thieves flogged; the floggings were moved to the Red Square after
1685. For photos of the bell and cannon please go to Moscow
kremlin.
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