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RUSSIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE
THROUGH THE CENTURIES

 
 

The Kremlin Walls and Towers

 
 

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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