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To adequately protect the Kremlin against
foreign invaders Ivan III needed, besides the cannons that Fioraventi made for
him, new walls and fortifications to replace the old dilapidated ones which
Dimitri Donskoy had built over a century before. Muscovites knew something
about bricks before the arrival of Fioraventi. Their bricks were called
"Plinfa;" they were of poor quality and crumbled easily. They were
thin and their size was not suitable for solid constructions. Fioraventi found
a good clay for bricks not far from the Andronikov monastery; the Russians
readily followed his advice about how to mold them and harden them by fire, but
refused to change their dimensions. This came considerably later. Fioraventi
used his new bricks for the vaults of the cathedral of the Assumption, and this
was the first time that real bricks were used in Moscow. Being cheaper and
stronger than the deficient Russian lime-stone, bricks became by the end of the
15th century, the principal construction material for the major edifices, and
the lime-stone was used primarily for decorations. With the exception of the
Kremlin, and a very few houses around it and the churches, Moscow would
continue for a long time to use wood for its construction, including most of
the boyars' mansions. For erecting any privately owned stone building, the
prospective owner needed a special permission from the grand duke to get stones
or bricks, so scarce was this material at that time. By the middle of the
following century, Saint Basil's cathedral was built - the masterpiece of the
Russian brick architecture. We have extensive detailed text and photos of the Kremlin walls and
towers.
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