How many times have you seen the walls of the Kremlin? Lots of. Have you ever wondered why the battlements of the Kremlin wall have such a shape?
Is it possible to somehow trace their history and practical application?
Now we will try …
The Italian city of Verona is known to us primarily thanks to the play by W. Shakespeare about Romeo and Juliet. But besides the balcony, where the first date of the lovers allegedly took place, there are many other attractions here. For example, the castle of Castelvecchio, built by the first governors of the city in the middle of the 14th century. You go up to the castle along the bridge and suddenly you notice something familiar. A red brick wall topped with M-shaped battlements (or, as the guides say, a swallow's tail). Bah, aren't we in the Moscow Kremlin? “No, not in the Kremlin,” the guide assures us.
Castle of Castelvecchio.
The foundation stone of the castle in Verona, now called Castelvecchio, was laid in 1355. This is evidenced by an old plaque preserved in the courtyard of the castle, on which the words are carved that in the specified year the construction of the castle was started by Captain Francesco Bevilacqua at the behest of the podesta (governor) of Verona Cangrande II della Scala. The architecture of this defensive structure included the remains of ancient Roman buildings and fragments of the old fortress walls that formerly defended the bank of the Adige River. The new building was named the Castle of San Martino because of the old church of St. Martin, which was located nearby and, as modern excavations show, was connected to the keep of the castle by a secret passage.
Simultaneously with the castle, the Bridge of the Scaligers was built, whose dynasty was represented by Cangrande della Scala. This bridge connected the castle with the left-bank part of Verona, which at that time was practically not inhabited. According to some modern researchers, the owners of the castle could use this bridge as their only salvation if the castle was besieged by the city. Known in history as a cruel tyrant, Kangrande II apparently feared more internal enemies than foreign attacks. However, his fears were not groundless, because his life was interrupted at the age of 38 from poisoning.
In 1387, the ruler of Milan, Galeazzo II Visconti, expelled the last representative of the Scaligers from Verona, and a few years later the Milanese decided to build a new castle on the hill of San Pietro, and then also the fortress of San Felice. It was then that the castle of San Martino, in order to avoid confusion, began to be called Castelvecchio - the Old Castle.
Promotional video:
Castle of Castelvecchio.
The apparent similarities between the two old fortresses can be easily explained. The castle of Castelvecchio in the 14th century, as well as the Moscow Kremlin at the end of the 15th century, was erected by architects from Milan. Hence the red brick of the walls used in both cases, and the unusual shape of the teeth on them.
At the beginning of the 16th century, Italian craftsmen (Anton Fryazin, Marko Fryazin, Pietro Antonio Solari and Aleviz Fryazin the Old) built new churches in the Kremlin: the Cathedral of the Chudov Monastery (1501-1503), the Cathedral of the Ascension Monastery (1519), the Church of John Climacus (1505-1508), the Church of St. Nicholas Gostunsky, the Church of John the Baptist is being rebuilt at the Borovitsky Gate (1504.
Simultaneously with the construction of the Grand Ducal Palace and the renovation of the Kremlin churches, the construction of new Kremlin walls and towers proceeded. Beginning in 1485, for a whole decade, under the leadership of Italian architects, the white-stone walls and towers were dismantled, and new ones were erected in their place from fired bricks. The area of the fortress was increased due to the annexation of significant territories in the northwest and reached 27.5 hectares, and the Kremlin received the modern outlines of an irregular triangle.
Sforza fortress.
But in fact, the model for the Moscow Kremlin is not the Verona castle of Castelvecchio, but the Sforza fortress built in the middle of the 15th century in Milan. There are similarities not only in the color of the walls and the shape of the battlements, but even in the shape of the towers.
Sforza Castle (it. Castello Sforzesco) - one of the most famous castles in Italy is located in the heart of Milan and, being inextricably linked, symbolizes the entire centuries-old history of the city. Many times the castle was rebuilt, many times it had to defend itself not only from external enemies, but also from the townspeople themselves, but thanks to Italian architects and restorers, it can still delight any visitor today.
Sforza fortress.
If we plunge even deeper into history, then we can remember that in the first half of the XIV century. the upper parts of the fortress walls were supplied with “visors”. often referred to in sources as "fences". In 1333 the walls of the Novgorod Yuriev Monastery were made "with fences". There were fences on the walls of the white-stone Kremlin of Moscow during the era of Dmitry Donskoy; Talking about his siege in 1382 by Tokhtamysh, the chronicles mention them several times: "and told them from the city from the fence," "Tartars, however, ostupish and rode around the whole city, surveying and scrutinizing attacks and ditches and gates, and took the shooter," "And many are standing on the grading visors", "the ovii shoot arrows from the fence", etc.
The sources do not explain what the fence was. P. A. Rappoport, analyzing the chronicle information about the fences of Russian wooden fortresses of the XI-XIII centuries, came to the conclusion that in Russia this term meant either the battle areas of the walls with protective parapets that fenced them, or the parapets themselves, or just walls. However, the fence could not have been walls. Since in 1382 the defenders stood on the fences of the Moscow Kremlin during the era of Dmitry Donskoy and they fired from them, we can conclude that the terms “took away” and “fence” in the first half of the XIV century. in Russia, only the battlegrounds of the walls were designated with some kind of protective fence, which served to cover the soldiers. This conclusion will be more convincing if we consider that in 1386, when "on the field near Mstislavl" between the troops of the Smolensk prince Svyatoslav Ivanovich and the Lithuanians there was a battle,the townspeople also "stand, in sight, on the visors of the city".
Referring information about the wall fences in Moscow only to the poetic language of the "Zadonshchina", and not to the real walls of the Kremlin, N. N. Voronin believes that their top was most likely jagged. Meanwhile, the existence of fences on the Moscow walls of 1366-1367. the annals say not only under 1382, but also under 1460. Moreover, in the latter case, it is noted that the storm that swept over Moscow, many churches were "shaken" and "temples … there are many in the city., obodra and time estimates, and grate visors for scattering and spreading. " Based on this, it can be concluded that the fences were made of wood and that they looked like some kind of relatively light shields, and not heavy log parapets. However, the top of the Moscow walls could then be jagged, and the fence could only be shields that closed the gaps between them.
It is believed that in a number of cases, the fence could hang over the walls, representing something like obs, well known in the wooden fortress architecture of Russia of the 16th-17th centuries. 89) However, there is no direct or indirect indication of the hanging of fences over the walls in the sources. It is unlikely that this kind of fence existed, since mounted battle is a later phenomenon both in wooden and stone fortresses. It exists in the monuments of Russian military architecture dating no earlier than the end of the 15th century. Consequently, there is no reason to talk about the existence of fences hanging over the walls of fortresses earlier than the end of the 15th century.
The section of the wall of 1330 in Izborsk shows that the battle course of the fortress walls of the first half of the XIV century. was covered from the outside by a blind parapet about 90 cm high. There were obviously no combat holes in the parapet. The parapet of the fighting course of the walls of the later fortress in the Island was, apparently, with loopholes.
Later, the fencing of the fighting course of the walls of Russian fortresses changed. It is rather difficult to talk about the nature of these changes in connection with the superstructures of the first half of the 15th century, subsequent changes and simply the strong destruction of the upper parts of the fortress walls. However, the walls of the Porkhov fortress of 1387, which have survived, although with great losses of their tops, but still in their original form, no longer have a parapet. Here, instead of a parapet, there was a fence in the form of deaf, apparently even at the top, wide teeth with gaps between them. Now only the lower, heavily broken off parts about 70 cm thick have been preserved on the walls from them. The same type of battlements existed on the walls of Pskov; at present, they have been partially restored according to the preserved traces, inventories and drawings of the 18th century.
At the end of the 15th century, when a new Kremlin was being built in Moscow with the participation of Italian architects, the character of the battlements of the fortress walls changed. They began to become narrower, with two semicircles at the top and a saddle between them, as a result of which they acquired a shape resembling a dovetail. Later, such teeth became an integral part of almost all Russian fortresses. They are found on the walls of the Kremlin in Novgorod (p. 215), Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, Kolomna, Ivangorod and Zaraisk. However, if in Moscow, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Tula and Kolomna, the battlements of the walls had an architectural treatment in the form of an overlap of brickwork above the semicircles, and sometimes a dividing ridge under their saddles, which clearly revealed the "heads" of the teeth, giving them special significance, then in Ivan-gorod, the teeth were absolutely even,without a ridge that separates the head and without overlap of the masonry above the semicircles, which is apparently explained by the nature of the building material.
However, the general character of all these teeth was essentially the same. A clear "comb" of teeth in the form of a swallow's tail visually facilitated the upper parts of the fortress walls of defensive structures and testified to their direct connection with each other. Moreover, separated from each other by small gaps, dovetail-shaped teeth, freely combining with the wide pitch of the arches of the fortress walls, as if complemented and supported their clear rhythm. Dismembered from the inside by arches and completed with two-horned battlements, the wall had a smooth transition from a heavy bottom to a light top. Along with this, the two-horned battlements crowning the walls of fortresses of both "regular" and polygonal types, as it were, spoke of their military unity. Typical for many defensive structures built in different parts of the country and at a later time,such prongs were like a symbol of Russia. Their clear form figuratively spoke of the inextricable connection of various fortified points with the capital of the state and testified to the cohesion of the Russian lands.
There is an opinion that in the defense of "cities" the dovetail-shaped teeth were of practical importance: their saddles allegedly served as a support for hand-held firearms. Meanwhile, it was indicated above that the saddles of the battlements of the Zaraisk Kremlin walls have a semicircular filling, and it could not serve as a support for weapons in any way. In addition, from the level of the fighting course of the walls, the saddles of the two-horned teeth are raised quite high everywhere. In the Tula Kremlin, for example, they are located at a height of 2.5 m. This is typical for other defensive structures, the teeth of which have a horned end. Consequently, the weapon did not lean on the prongs; to do this, the defenders of the "cities" would have to arrange for themselves some rather high platforms on the fortress walls, which, of course, never happened, since they would be inconvenient and would interfere with free movement along the walls. Shooting from the walls was carried out, as a rule, either through the loopholes of the battlements, or through the gaps between the battlements. The gaps have low walls everywhere, covering the defenders who fired from their knees. In Tula, such walls are made in the form of a brick filling with a height of about 70 cm. They are different in thickness: in some places the walls have a thickness equal to the width of the teeth, and are laid out flush with them, and in others they are somewhat thinner and deepened in relation to their back sides by 17 cm. Thanks to this, the battlements of the walls of the Tula Kremlin are, as it were, united into groups, which are well revealed even now. Such a union, apparently, had no practical significance. In Tula, such walls are made in the form of a brick filling with a height of about 70 cm. They are different in thickness: in some places the walls have a thickness equal to the width of the teeth, and are laid out flush with them, and in others they are somewhat thinner and deepened in relation to their back sides by 17 cm. Thanks to this, the battlements of the walls of the Tula Kremlin are, as it were, united into groups, which are well revealed even now. Such a union, apparently, had no practical significance. In Tula, such walls are made in the form of a brick filling with a height of about 70 cm. They are different in thickness: in some places the walls have a thickness equal to the width of the teeth, and are laid out flush with them, and in others they are somewhat thinner and deepened in relation to their back sides by 17 cm. Thanks to this, the battlements of the walls of the Tula Kremlin are, as it were, united into groups, which are well revealed even now. Such a union, apparently, had no practical significance.