Cathedral Square was one of the semiotically most charged spaces within the Kremlin (see Figure 17.1). It was bounded on the north by the cathedral
| Figure 17.1. Cathedral Square, Moscow Kremlin KEY: 1. Cathedral of the Dormition |
| 2. Cathedral of Archangel Michael |
| 3. Cathedral of Annunciation |
| 4. Faceted Hall |
| 5. Golden Hall |
| 6. Beautiful (Red) Porch |
| 7. Palace |
| 8. Bell Tower 'Ivan the Great' |
| 9. Tainik Tower |
of the Dormition (primary cathedral church), on the east by the bell tower 'Ivan the Great', on the south by the cathedral of the Archangel Michael (royal necropolis), and on the west by the cathedral of the Annunciation (palace church), the Golden Hall (throne room), the adjacent Beautiful (Red) Porch and Staircase, and the Faceted Hall (reception hall).
The cathedral of the Dormition (1475-9) was designed by Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti after the Muscovite effort to rebuild resulted in a disastrous collapse in 1474.[292] Fioravanti reshaped the older Vladimir Dormition plan in a Renaissance compositional key, maintaining modified medieval Vladimir-Suzdal' features on the exterior. He created a dramatic southern portal facing Cathedral Square, harmonised the dimensions of the bays, flattened the apses, and produced a characteristically north-eastern limestone facade that prompted contemporaries to describe the building as though carved 'from a single stone'.[293] He opened up the internal space to the highest vaults, eliminating the gallery that would traditionally have ensconced the royal family. The place of the grand prince was relocated to the ground floor near the southern portal, which became an effective alternative point of egress for the ruler during processions.
The Metropolitan's Pew, mentioned in many of the Dormition's rituals, was apparently installed between 1479 and the mid-1480s in a space adjacent to the south-east pillar of the nave facing the iconostasis.[294] More than seven decades passed before the self-standing Tsar's Pew was installed on 1 September 1551, four years after Ivan IV was officially crowned as the first tsar. Better known as the Monomakh Throne, the Pew boasted twelve carved wooden panels based on excerpts from the Monomakh legend taken from The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir. Apart from military forays against the Byzantines, the panels depicted Monomakh in consultation with a boyar council, the arrival of the royal Byzantine regalia in Kiev, and their use in the crowning of Vladimir Monomakh as grand prince, all messages immediately relevant to Muscovite ideology. The theme of Jerusalem was represented in the inscription around the cornice, which reproduced God's injunction about dynastic continuity and wise rulership to King David and King Solomon. Furthermore, the composition of the Pew bore a clear affinity to the Dormition's Small Zion, a silver liturgical vessel representingJerusalem's Holy Sepulchre and carried in solemn processions.16
The cathedral of Archangel Michael (1505-8) was designed by another Italian architect, Alevisio the Younger. He retained the asymmetrical bays from the earlier medieval plan, but added striking Renaissance ornament, including limestone articulation against a red-brick facade and distinctive, large scallop- shell gables signifying rebirth. This was fitting symbolism for a site devoted to the memory of the royal dynasty, whose sarcophagi occupied the southern and later northern part of the nave and a side chapel near the sanctuary
The cathedral of the Annunciation (1484-9) had been rebuilt by native Psko- vian architects, who skilfully combined the basic Suzdalian articulated cube with its blind arcade frieze and ogival gables together with brickwork and design redolent of Pskov and Novgorod, a stylistic marriage signalling Muscovite success in 'the gathering of the Rus'ian lands'.
The Faceted Hall (1487-91) was designed by Italians Marco Ruffo and Pietro Antonio Solario in the style of a northern Italian Renaissance palazzo, but with an obvious allusion to its namesake in Novgorod. Named after the carved facets on the eastern facade facing the Square, it was notable for its internal design with a huge central pier supporting groined vaults. The pier served as a staging area for official receptions and banquets hosted by the grand prince. The Faceted Hall is often mentioned in foreign accounts as the site of numerous rituals of status and conciliation as regards foreign audiences, seating protocol, the tasting and distribution of food and the proposing of toasts.17
The Golden Hall was planned by Ivan III but completed by his son, Vasilii III, in 1508. Reached off a great landing, the Beautiful (Red) Porch overlooking Cathedral Square, the Golden Hall consisted of a vestibule, where dignitaries gathered, and the throne room. The name was apparently inspired by the Chrysotriklinos, the Golden Hall throne room of the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople. Severely damaged in the Moscow fire of 1547, the Golden Hall was completely rebuilt by order of the newly crowned tsar, Ivan IV and decorated with elaborate and controversial murals that referred to allegories and historical events important to Muscovite ideology.18
16 I. A. Sterligova, 'Ierusalimy kak liturgicheskie sosudy v Drevnei Rusi', in Ierusalim v russkoi kul'ture, ed. Andrei Batalov and Aleksei Lidov (Moscow: Nauka, 1994), p. 50; Michael S. Flier, 'The Throne of Monomakh: Ivan the Terrible and the Architectonics of Destiny', in James Cracraft and Daniel Rowland (eds.), Architectures of Russian Identity 1500 to the Present (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003), pp. 30-2.
17 Herberstein, Notes, vol. ii, pp. 127-32; Richard Chancellor, 'The First Voyage to Russia', in Berry and Crummey (eds.), Rude and Barbarous Kingdom, pp. 25-7.
18 O. I. Podobedova, Moskovskaia shkola zhivopisi pri Ivane IV:Raboty v Moskovskom Kremle 40-kh-j0-kh godov XVI v. (Moscow: Nauka, 1972), pp. 59-68; David B. Miller, 'The
The major architectural innovation beyond the Kremlin itselfwas the church of the Intercession on the Moat, later known as St Basil's cathedral. Built in Beautiful (Red) Square in celebration of Ivan IV's victory over the Kazan' khanate in 1552, the church underwent a slow progression in 1555 from individual shrines to a composite set of correlated chapels, which, taken together, resemble Jerusalem in microcosm.19 Completed in 1561 on a site adjacent to the central marketplace and the world of the non-elite, the Intercession stood as an antipode to the core structures of Cathedral Square behind the Kremlin walls.
In 1598 / 9, just to the north of the Intercession, a raised round dais was built in stone, possibly replacing an earlier wooden structure.20 Called Golgotha (Lobnoe mesto 'place of the skull'), it was a site for major royal proclamations, including declarations of war, announcements of royal births and deaths and the naming of heirs apparent, perhaps replacing the original city tribune. It was also used as a station for major cross processions led by the chief prelate and the tsar, rituals featuring the palladium of Moscow, the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, in honour of her benevolent protection. Golgotha, by its very name and placement near the Intercession 'Jerusalem', made manifest Moscow's self-perception as the New Jerusalem.
292
See historical survey with source references in V P. Vygolov,
294
T. V Tolstaia,