Architecture. Зайцева И.В. - 53 стр.

      5.4 You are a guide of foreign tourists who arrived in Moscow. Tell them
about the best illustration of the Russian architecture in Moscow using necessary
information from the text

                                         Text 5 B

                                   Moscow Attractions

       On of the jewels of Russian architecture is the Moscow Kremlin with its
cathedrals, its many towers and red-brick walls. The Kremlin is the heart of Moscow. It
is the oldest historical and architectural center of the city.
       First Kremlin was a wooden fortress. Under Dmitry Donskoi the Kremlin was
built of white stone. In 1474 Ivan III sent a mission to Italy to find the best architectural
and engineering talent. They brought back with them Rodolfo Aristotele Fioravanti of
Bologna who was at once an architect, an engineer, and an expert in military
fortifications, Most of the other architects were northern Italians, mainly form Milan
(Marco Ruffo, Pietto Solario, etc.).
       The Italians introduced a new concept of the fortress walls quite different in
character from that of the old Russian white-stone Kremlins. Thus during the reign of
Ivan III the walls of white stone were replaced by new red-brick walls and towers.
Stone was given up in favour of brick. Henceforth stone was to be used for wall bases,
decorative bands, cornices, and various ornamental features. The graceful rise of the
walls and towers is the result not only of the fine proportions and slenderness of their
architectural elements, but also of the special bricklaying technique employed.
       The sixteenth- century Kremlin had, on certain of its more vulnerable sides,
double and triple walls battlemented and studded with towers, barbicans and
drawbridges.
       Each tower of the Kremlin is composed of two principal parts: a massive square
of circular base erected in the reign of Ivan III and a superstructure added to it at the end
of the seventeenth century.
       The bases differ in size and proportions; but in all of them, especially in the
square towers, there are certain similarities of exterior appearance as well as of their
inner structure. The differences are more apparent in the superstructures, whose forms
and architectural treatment are quite varied.
       All the five Kremlin gate towers – the Spasskaia (Saviour’s) Troitskaia (Trinity),
Nikolskaia, Borovitskaia and Tainitskaia (Secret) – include the main tower with its
superstructure, and a barbican tower in front covering and protecting the entrance gates.
       The oldest part of the Kremlin is the Cathedral Square and its three grand
cathedrals. The Cathedral of the Assumption (Uspensky sobor) was built in 1475-1479.
The Russian Tsars and Emperors were crowned here. The Arkhangel Cathedral
(Arkhangel Cathedral (Arkhangelsky sobor, 1505-1508) was the burial place of Russian
princes and tsars. The Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagoveshchensky sobor),
erected in 1484-1489 by master-builders from Pskov, was home church of Russian
Tsars. It is famous for the icons painted by Andrei Rublev.
       The Kremlin walls enclose several palaces. The Patriarch’s Palace, built in the
mid-seventeenth century for Patriarch Nicon is a museum of Russian seventeenth-