Red Square
The Red Square is a symbol of Russia. In its architectural ensemble it is considered to be one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. Through the ages it changed its name many times and only in the 17th century it received its present name "Krasnaya" - Red, which in old Russian meant - "Beautiful".
The Kremlin's magnificent redbrick walls form an irregular triangle around Moscow's ancient citadel and are 2,235 meters in length, 19 meters high and up to 6.5 meters thick. They are topped with swallow-tailed crenellations and defended by 18 separate towers, most of which were built at the end of the 15th century by the Italian architects Marco Ruffo, Pietro Antonio Solari and Alevisio Novi. The distinctive jade-green spires of the towers were added in the 17th century and their crowning ruby-red stars in 1937.
The most remarkable of all the Kremlin towers is the Spasskaya (Saviour's) Tower, known as the Frolovskaya (St. Frol's) Tower until the 17th century, built in 1491 under the supervision of Pietro Antonio Solari. The gate has for centuries been the main official entrance to the Kremlin. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spassky (Saviour's) Gate was used for ceremonial processions made by the Czar and the Patriarch and for meeting foreign ambassadors.
Right before the famous Spasskaya tower you can watch the newest and smallest tower on the Kremlin wall. This is the Tsarskaya (Tsar's) Tower - a small tent-like turret built on the wall between the Spasskaya (Savior's) and Nabatnaya Towers. The tower was erected in 1680, in the place of an older wooden tower from which the young Ivan the Terrible is rumored to have hurled dogs to their deaths and watched the executions taking place on the slope behind St. Basil's Cathedral. The tower was traditionally the vantage point from which the Tsars watched important events taking place on Red Square.
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