The Moscow Kremlin presented historians and art critics with another sensation. Ancient gate icons, walled up during the years of Soviet power, were discovered on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers. For a long time the icons were considered lost.

It all started with the fact that Bishop Michael of Geneva and Western Europe some time ago provided researchers with a photograph of the icon of St. Nicholas on the St. Nicholas Tower. The photo was taken after the shelling of the Kremlin towers in October 1917. Patriarch Tikhon at that time handed it over to Admiral Kolchak. However, in modern history The Kremlin believed that all the icons located on the towers were completely lost, although there were no documents indicating their destruction.

Scientists have suggested that the icons on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers were nevertheless preserved in icon cases under a layer of plaster.

The search for icons began on the initiative of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation back in 2007. Since the Kremlin is an architectural monument under special protection, the decision about whether to look for icons and how to do it was made collectively. An initiative group was created, which included the chairman board of trustees St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation Vladimir Yakunin, commandant of the Moscow Kremlin Sergei Khlebnikov, head of the Russian Federal Security Service Alexander Kibovsky, general director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums Elena Gagarina, director of the Federal Security Service of Russia Evgeniy Murov.

In February 2010, after all the necessary approvals, we decided to conduct field research. From April 23 to April 27, 2010, a sounding was made. Under the layer of plaster they found a metal grating and mesh, which were 10 centimeters behind the painting. The icon on the Spasskaya Tower is dated by art historians to the 19th century, presumably Latest updates were made in 1896.

On the Nikolskaya Tower one can see an image in a more ancient technique, tempera. Presumably late 15th - early 16th centuries. Restoration work on the towers began immediately after the May holidays. As the work progresses, restorers will determine deadlines and try to complete the restoration of the icons by the end of August.

According to historical chronicles, on the Spasskaya Tower there is an icon of the Savior with the Venerables Sergius and Varlaam fallen at his feet. And on the Nikolskaya Tower there should be a fresco of Nikola Mozhaisky. In the lectures of the famous art critic Igor Grabar, there is a mention that during the battles in October 1917, the gate image of Nikola Mozhaisky on the Nikolskaya Tower was riddled with bullets and shrapnel, but the face itself was not damaged, which was perceived as a miracle by believing Muscovites.

Elena Gagarina, general director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, notes that the most unexplored architectural monument in Moscow is the Kremlin:

Any restoration work in the Kremlin entails a lot of discoveries and knowledge about the life of the Russian state. The names of the Kremlin towers were not initially associated with the icons depicted on them. Thus, the Spasskaya Tower, before the icon of the Savior was painted on its wall, was called Frolovskaya, and then received the name Spasskaya, since the road to the Spaso-Smolensk Church, located behind St. Basil's Cathedral, went through it. And from the Nikolskaya Tower the path to the Church of St. Nicholas the Old began.

Today it became known that the icons walled up in the Kremlin towers will be restored. Soviet times And long years considered lost. The image of the Savior from the Spasskaya Tower and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from Nikolskaya disappeared in the 30s, but no documentary evidence of destruction remains.

And recently it was discovered that the images were in place. True, it is under a thick layer of plaster, which restorers promise to carefully remove by the end of this summer.

Details NTV correspondent Anton Volsky.

Both icons were considered lost without a trace, but were found on the main towers of the country. It would seem, what new can you learn about the most popular Moscow landmark - the Kremlin?

Elena Gagarina, General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums: “The most unexplored, most unexplored monument in Moscow is the Kremlin.”

Icons, presumably painted in the 14th-15th centuries, crowned the gates of two Kremlin towers: Spasskaya and Nikolskaya. The last time the images were seen was in 1934, after which they disappeared into thin air. Only the white rectangles remained, which were carefully tinted every year since then. For some reason it never occurred to anyone to look under the plaster.

Sergei Filatov, director of the restoration and artistic department: “Under the layer of plaster that we have all always seen, there is a metal lattice and a metal mesh. They are, in fact, about 10 centimeters away from the paint layer of the painting, that is, there is an air gap there.”

So far it has not been possible to examine the icons in their entirety, but presumably this is what they were looking for. Icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands on the Spasskaya Tower and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on Nikolskaya.

Elena Gagarina, General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums: “The names Spasskaya Tower and Nikolskaya Tower do not come from the fact that icons were located there. The Spasskaya Tower was so called because a road led from it to the Church of the Savior of Smolensk, which was located below St. Basil's Cathedral. And the Nikolskaya Tower was the beginning of the path to the Church of St. Nicholas the Old, which stood on Nikolskaya Street.”

An archaeological discovery on Red Square brings with it a difficult political question. After all, if the icons are opened, they will find themselves under the symbol of the fight against God - ruby ​​stars.

Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation: “When was the last time you saw the towers? But then you definitely didn’t notice the five-pointed stars there.”

We checked the stars on site: both on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers. This can be seen in the footage taken this afternoon. Perhaps their fate has already been decided, but not yet announced? But then this news is no less important than the discovery of icons.

However, the question is not limited to stars alone. If the icons are opened, then right between them will be the unburied remains of Lenin, and in the wall connecting these two towers there will be a columbarium with the ashes of Soviet leaders. And what until recently seemed incompatible - church shrines and communist ideals - will turn out to be united by a single architectural ensemble.

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In the middle of the 17th century. An epidemic of pestilence (plague) swept through the central regions of the Russian state, in which Moscow suffered especially.

One of the cities, Khlynov, was spared the epidemic; rumors began to appear that the reason for this was the miraculous image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, to whom the townspeople prayed.

Having learned about this, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered to bring the icon to Moscow. The image was delivered in a religious procession in 1648.

unknown, Public Domain

The Tsar liked the icon so much that he ordered it to be left in Moscow, where it was located in. In exchange, an exact copy of the icon was sent to Khlynov; a second list was installed above the gate from the side through which the image was brought to Moscow.

In honor of the image of the Savior and the fresco of the Savior of Smolensk on the outside, the gate through which it was delivered and the tower itself were named Spassky.

In 1839, the icon was decorated with a gilded silver chasuble with precious stones to replace the one stolen by the French in 1812.

People's Cathedral, Public Domain

With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the gate image, as well as the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands itself, were lost.

The Novospassky Monastery was closed in 1918. Shortly before this, the miraculous icon disappeared from it.

It was also not possible to save the list sent to Vyatka (Khlynov) - in 1929 the Spassky Cathedral in Vyatka was closed and the list stored there also disappeared. However, in June 2010, on the initiative of the People's Council movement in Moscow, icon painter Dmitry Vinokurov wrote an exact list of the famous miraculous icon Vyatsky Savior based on an ancient reproduction discovered by Vyatka art critic Galina Alekseevna Mokhova.

On August 28, 2010, a new accurate list of the Savior Not Made by Hands was transferred to the Spassky Cathedral of Kirov (formerly Vyatka).

List from the miraculous image of the 19th century. preserved in the Novospassky Monastery, which occupies the place of the original in the iconostasis of the Transfiguration Cathedral.

The gatehouse of the Spasskaya Tower on the inside of the Kremlin is still empty.

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Helpful information

The Savior Not Made by Hands on the Spasskaya Tower

Vyatka (Khlynovsky) image

A distinctive feature of the Vyatka Savior Not Made by Hands is the image of angels standing on the sides, whose figures are not fully depicted.

Angels do not stand on clouds, but seem to float in the air. One can also highlight the peculiar features of the face of Christ.

On a vertically hanging panel of ubrus with wavy folds, a slightly elongated face with a high forehead is depicted frontally. It is inscribed in the plane of the icon board so that the center of the composition becomes large eyes, endowed with great expressiveness.

Christ's gaze is directed directly at the viewer, his eyebrows raised high.

Lush hair falls in long strands flying to the side, three on the left and on the right. A short beard is divided into two parts. The strands of hair and beard extend beyond the circumference of the halo.

The eyes are painted lightly and transparently, their gaze has the attractiveness of a real look. The face of Christ expresses calmness, mercy and meekness.

Muscovites have already become accustomed to the current appearance of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower, and not everyone remembers that it was different a few years ago. In August 2010, the Orthodox rediscovered the gate icon of the Savior of Smolensk, which had been hidden for decades behind a thick layer of plaster. Her salvation and revival were truly miraculous deeds.

On April 26-27, 2010, after a control opening of the plaster layer and remote research in the icon cases of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers of the Moscow Kremlin, under a layer of concreted metal mesh, spaced 4-5 centimeters from the icon, well-preserved iconographic images of the Savior of Smolensk and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker were discovered , or, as he has been called since ancient times in Russia - Nikolai Mozhaisky “with hail”.

Main tower

In 1462-1464, shortly before the complete reconstruction of the walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin under Grand Duke Ivan III, the Russian builder and sculptor V.D. Ermolin reconstructed the dilapidated parts of the white stone walls in the area from the Sviblova Tower to the Borovitsky Gate. He also updated the Frolovsky (now Spassky) gates, building them over the Church of St. Athanasius and decorating them with stone, richly decorated reliefs depicting the patrons of the Moscow princes - Saints George the Victorious and Demetrius of Thessalonica. These reliefs are unique, rare monuments of ancient Russian sculpture and, judging by the fragment stored in the Tretyakov Gallery, they are distinguished by their amazing harmony of image.

The modern design of the Spasskaya Tower is dominated by stylized Gothic images with openwork decorative lace made of white stone, characteristic of the Moscow architectural tradition. They appeared in the 17th century, when the upper tiers of the tower were built on. But since ancient times, the tower has been decorated with decorative white stone pyramids, stone sculptures of people who received the nickname “blockheads” from Muscovites, and stylized figures of animals. There were also white stone reliefs of St. George the Victorious and memorable “mortgage” boards with an inscription in Russian and Latin languages.

During the construction of the new brick Spasskaya Tower, architect Pietro Antonio Solari richly decorated it with ancient sculptures. Sculptures were on its facades until the superstructure took place in 1624-1625 under the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich. Then, during the creation of a new artistic architectural image of the tower, the construction of its upper tiers and spire, the white stone reliefs by Ermolin disappeared from the facades. The sculptural image of St. George the Victorious, dismantled from the tower, was transferred to the Church of St. George in the Ascension Monastery, which was located before its abolition on the site of the newly built Church of St. Catherine. And with early XIX century, the relief became the icon case of the Church of St. Michael Malein of the same convent. Thus, for many centuries, holy images from the Spasskaya Tower became part of the shrines of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery.

In 1491, white stone boards were installed above the gates of the Spasskaya Tower, on which were inscribed in Latin and Slavic script: “In the summer of July 6999, by the grace of God, this archer was made by the command of John Vasilyevich, sovereign and autocrat of all Russia and the Grand Duke of Volodymyr and Moscow and Novgorod and Pskov and Tver and Ugra and Vyatka and Perm and Bulgaria and other states in the 30th year, and Peter Anthony Solario was made from the city of Mediolan" (as Milan was called in the old days in Moscow). The inscription testifies not only to the special status of this Kremlin tower, but also to the highest respect the prince had for the invited architect. The appearance of such a memorial sign is in itself a rarity for ancient Moscow buildings.

For centuries, the Spassky Gate was considered the main ceremonial entrance to the Moscow Kremlin. Through them, Russian autocrats entered the Kremlin for the sacred ceremony of crowning the kingdom, starting with Mikhail Fedorovich and ending with Nicholas II. Kremlin religious processions passed through them, carrying holy icons and relics to the Church of the Intercession Holy Mother of God, which is on the Moat during major church holidays.

Here, in previous centuries, the “donkey procession” ceremony took place with the participation of the Russian sovereign and the Patriarch. It began in the Assumption Cathedral on Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin and ended in the Intercession Cathedral on the Moat, after which His Holiness the Patriarch went up to the walkway of the Spasskaya Tower, blessed the water and sprinkled it on the Kremlin walls.

Through Red Square and the Spassky Gate, especially revered shrines were delivered to the Kremlin: the image of the Mother of God from Vladimir, the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands from Vyatka and the Annunciation of the Mother of God from Veliky Ustyug.

For many centuries, the Moscow Kremlin remained an Orthodox monastic shrine for the Russian people. It was possible to enter the Spassky Gate only on foot and with your head uncovered. And those who did not take off their hats when passing the gates were forced by the people to bow 50 times in front of the gate icon of the Savior of Smolensk, installed above the passage of the Spasskaya Tower from the side of Red Square.

In 1648, the custom of uncovering one's head at the Spassky Gate was enshrined in law by a decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich the Quiet. This practice extended to all classes, regardless of birth and rank. The sovereign of all Rus' himself “broke his hat,” that is, bared his head in front of the images of the Spasskaya Tower.

To the right and left of the Spasskaya Tower on its outer side there were two small chapels - the Great Council of Revelation and the Great Council of Angels at the Spassky Gate. Both chapels belonged to the Intercession Cathedral and were known among the people as copies of the most popular and revered icons from the Kremlin cathedrals and churches - Our Lady of Smolensk from the main Assumption Cathedral and the image of the Savior with the figures of Sergius of Radonezh and Varlaam of Khutyn. In the mid-20s of the last century, the chapels were dismantled, and the fate of the sacred images remains unknown to this day.

Original title- Frolovskaya - the tower received the name of the nearby church of Saints Frol and Laurus. The gates were popularly called Jerusalem Gates, since the patriarchal procession to Moscow Jerusalem was traditionally carried out through them - the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, which is on the Moat, popularly called St. Basil's Cathedral. Moreover, the symbolic Golgotha ​​on Red Square became the Execution Place, which not only symbolized the sacred mountain, but was also the place where the Russian tsars addressed the people and announced the most important state documents.

The familiar name of the main tower of the Kremlin most likely comes from the icon of the All-Merciful Savior of Smolensk, erected on its facade from Red Square in memory of the annexation of Smolensk to the Principality of Moscow. However, it is possible that the tower received its name from the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, placed in 1658 in the upper part of the white stone icon case above the passage gate on the inside of the Kremlin.

In the same year, a royal decree was adopted to rename the Kremlin towers. For example, the modern Armory Tower was called Kolymazhnaya, and the modern Petrovskaya - Ugreshskaya, Troitskaya - Znamenskaya, the Corner Arsenalnaya was called the Sobakin Tower, named after the Sobakin boyars, who had a farmstead next to it. From that moment on, the tower began to be officially called Spasskaya.

Like other towers, Spasskaya was part of the defense system of the Moscow Kremlin. But if the enemy penetrated the walls, the heavy iron doors were closed - and the tower became a small independent fortress, capable of withstanding the most serious attack. Residents of ancient Moscow, who called the Spasskaya Tower, attached another meaning to this name. The fact is that in the event of a threat of enemy invasion, it was through these gates that the residents of Kitai-Gorod could escape to the Kremlin, saving, if not their homes (as a rule, during the siege of Posad, Posad was set on fire by the enemy), then at least the main material values and your own life. So the unique defensive capabilities of the Spasskaya Citadel often guaranteed salvation for Muscovites in the event of an unexpected enemy attack.

Shrines of the Spasskaya Tower

On the Spasskaya Tower there is an icon depicting the image of Jesus Christ with the saints falling to him - St. Sergius of Radonezh and Varlaam of Khutyn. The exact time when the fresco was painted is unknown, but it was created no earlier than the mid-second half of the 17th century. This icon may have given its name to the tower, which was previously called Frolovskaya.

About the time of the initial painting of the icons of the All-Merciful Savior and Pechora Mother of God exact instructions have not been preserved. As Elena Gagarina, general director of the Moscow Kremlin museums, previously said, the first mention of their existence dates back to XVI century.

“There is such a monument as the “Book of Election to the Kingdom,” which was created during the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. And there is an image of the Spasskaya Tower with an icon on its wall. From here we count down,”- said Gagarina.

In 1521, during the siege of Moscow by the army of Magmet-Girey, one nun saw a vision: a procession through the Frolov Gate with Saints Peter, Alexei and Jonah of Moscow and Leonty of Rostov carrying the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God. Saints Sergius and Varlaam began to beg the saints to ask the Mother of God to intercede for the people before God. The vision became known among the people. And, indeed, soon Magmet-Girey retreated from Moscow.

In memory of this event, icons were painted: the Savior with the Venerables Sergius and Varlaam falling at His feet on the eastern (external) wall of the Spassky Gate and the Mother of God (icon of the Pechersk Mother of God) with the Moscow saints Peter and Alexy standing before Her on the western (internal) wall of the tower . The fate of this icon is still unknown.

In 1673, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered “in connection with the destruction” to paint the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands and the Venerable Mother of God again. In 1737, during a fire, the image of the Savior was severely scorched, but the following year it was restored.

The icon case of the Savior was made of white stone, had a carved wooden frame with a special glass frame that protected the image from dust and dampness.

In 1812, the icon cases, which were significantly damaged by explosions in the Kremlin organized by Napoleonic troops retreating from the city, were damaged and restored in 1813. In 1851 and 1866, the icon of the Savior and the frame around it were renewed and partially recorded.

The last renovation of the icon of the Savior (the letter was washed, the robe was cleaned and restored, the frame and lantern were re-gilded and the canopy over the icon was painted) was carried out in 1896 for the coronation ceremony of Emperor Nicholas II.

By 1918, the icon of the Savior of Smolensk looked like this: painted on the wall, painted on plaster with oil paints. The Savior is depicted standing at full height, His right hand with blessing fingers is lowered down, and in his left hand he holds the Gospel, revealed in the words: “The Lord said to the Jews who came to Him: I am the door: By Me, whoever enters will be saved.” Saints Sergius (on the left side) and Varlaam (on the right) fell at the feet of the Savior. The image of the Savior was covered with a robe. In the upper corners of the icon there are two flying angels: the angel on the right side has a cross in his hand, the angel on the left side holds a spear. Above the icon is a triangle with a radiance, in the middle of it is the inscription “God”. The background of the icon is golden. Around the icon there was a wooden carved gilded icon case with glass.

The last mention of the icon dates back to the 30s of the 20th century, then a decision was made to close and, as it has now turned out, preserve it - and in fact hide the image under a plastered mesh. At the same time, the icon of St. Nicholas (Nicholas of Mozhaisk) on the St. Nicholas Tower was also hidden.

Experts were alarmed by the fact that there was no documentary evidence of the destruction of the icons. In the 30s of the twentieth century, Soviet restorers, deciding not to destroy the ancient icons, covered them with a metal mesh, covered the mesh with plaster and painted the top with red paint. There was no mention of this in the documents, although the restorers kept daily and very detailed entries in diaries.

“Precisely because the restorers wanted to preserve the icons, they did not leave any mention that there were any icons here. The icons were not destroyed, they were not cut down, but were simply covered,”- said Gagarina.

Accordingly, it remains unknown who exactly hid the icons.

Therefore, at the end of April 2010, soundings were made in the icon cases of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, which confirmed the safety of iconographic images under a layer of plaster. During a trial fragmentary clearing of the plaster layer in the icon cases of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers on April 26-27, 2010, ancient lists of icons were discovered in satisfactory preservation. The layer of plaster and the mounting mesh are located 40 millimeters from the surface of the frescoes, with an air gap between them. The preservation of the icons turned out to be very good, which was facilitated by competent conservation carried out by unknown masters in Stalin's times.

This made it possible to quickly carry out measures for the restoration and conservation of the ancient image of the Savior of Smolensk on the Spasskaya Tower, and on August 28, 2010, the newly acquired icon began new life, as one of the main Orthodox shrines of the Kremlin. Restoration work was carried out by the Interregional Scientific and Restoration Art Administration (MNRKhU).

"The painting was carefully and professionally closed - this suggests that it was closed by professional restorers", - noted the chief restorer - director of the MNRKhU Sergei Filatov.

Icon on the Nikolskaya Tower

This icon of St. Nicholas dates from the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. During the fighting in October 1917, the gate image was severely damaged in the area right hand Saint Restoration work on the newly found icon on the Nikolskaya Tower was also completed in 2010.

On the Nikolskaya Tower in the Kremlin for many centuries there was a fresco depicting St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. This image of Nikolai Mozhaisky most likely dates back to the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century. The icon is located above the passage gate and faces Red Square and Nikolskaya Street of Kitay-Gorod. It can serve as an example of the amazing quality and strength of ancient frescoes. In 1812, during the French retreat from Moscow, the tower was blown up. Its entire top collapsed, but, despite the terrible shaking from the explosion, the fresco almost completely survived and did not fall apart.

In October-November 1917, during the storming of the Kremlin, this fresco was damaged by bullets and shrapnel, which, fortunately, did not spoil the figure of the saint depicted on it. The restoration of the fresco, carried out in 1918, revealed that it was all written down in the 17th century and again in the 19th century with oil paints, which were removed by the restorers.

The icon on the Nikolskaya Tower also suffered on holidays, when, according to tradition, crowded prayer services were held here every winter on the feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Eyewitnesses described how in 1918 the pilgrims were dispersed and the icon was hung with a red flag. But the next morning, during prayer, the cloth tore off and fell to the ground. The believers, inspired by this phenomenon, were dispersed by the Bolsheviks, many were killed and wounded, and they shot at the icon from rifles, but not a single bullet hit the face of the saint. In 1927, the famous restorer Igor Grabar said at one of his lectures that the icon was restored in 1918; then it was discovered that it was “all written down in the 18th century and again in the 19th century in oil paints, which were removed.”

As a result of the restoration of the 21st century, it was discovered that under the fresco there is another, more ancient one. When clearing away the later layers, a beautiful, well-preserved fresco of the late 15th or early 16th century was revealed, which was conserved. A photograph of the icon, which Patriarch Tikhon secretly handed over to Admiral Kolchak, who led the White movement in the Urals and Siberia, helped to recreate the image. Decades later, the photograph was transferred to Russia by Russian emigrants.

The 70-meter Nikolskaya Tower of the Kremlin, decorated with openwork white stone ornaments, was erected by Pietro Antonio Solari in 1491. It faces the northern part of Red Square towards Historical Museum. From there comes a street called Nikolskaya.

The opening of the icon on the Nikolskaya Tower took place at the end of 2010. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' led a solemn religious procession from the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square to the Nikolskaya Tower and, after performing a prayer service, sprinkled the image with holy water.

Return of the relic

A solemn ceremony was dedicated to the new discovery of the gate icon on the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower on August 28, 2010, when all Orthodox Christians celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill performed a festive prayer service early in the morning in main shrine Kremlin - the Assumption Cathedral, and then arrived to conduct the rite of consecration of the newly found icon of the Savior of Smolensk on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin.

The then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took part in the festive ceremony.

“This, of course, is a completely special situation - truly a miracle,” the head of state said about the “return” of the icon. In his opinion, “this was a feat of those people who, risking their own lives, preserved the icons for us.” “And the fact that they were miraculously acquired in this way is a completely special situation for our country, for Moscow, for the Kremlin,” Medvedev is sure.

In his opinion, we should remember “everyone who contributed and helped restore these icons, including those who, in a very difficult time for our country, during a period of godlessness, during hard times, sheltered them, risking not only their positions, but also life, and preserved this miracle to this day for those who will come to the Kremlin, who will admire the feat of our fathers and will be inspired by the image that protects Moscow, protects the Kremlin, protects all of us."

“I am sure that from the moment of finding and consecrating these icons, the restoration of justice, our country receives additional protection, and therefore, all those present here, all those praying and all those who love our country,” Medvedev said.

It is symbolic that on the day of the ceremony, long-awaited rain fell on Moscow after many days of drought. That summer, the center of Russia and the Volga region suffered from fires.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' went up to the gate icon, performed a prayer service and consecrated the newly found icon of the Savior of Smolensk on the Spasskaya Tower. After this, His Holiness addressed the president and Orthodox believers with a pastoral word.

“Indeed, you can evaluate all this from the point of view of the coincidence of some facts in history, or you can still try to look at it with some other scale of vision. The face of the Savior appeared on the Spasskaya Tower - this, of course, is a symbol,” I am sure Patriarch. He called the rain on the day of the ceremony "a manifestation of God's grace."

Kremlin secrets

Years and centuries later, the Moscow Kremlin continues to present surprises. Despite the close attention to the Kremlin, many secrets may well be kept on its territory, in its walls and towers, historians believe. And the icons found on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers are not the only confirmation of this.

The first surviving image of the Russian coat of arms is probably older than previously thought. He is 525, not 518 years old. Historians came to this conclusion after studying the image of a double-headed eagle under a single crown mounted in the Borovitskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin.

Academicians Sergei Karpov (Dean of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University), Valentin Yanin (Head of the Department of Archeology of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University), Nikolai Makarov (Director of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences) and several of their colleagues believe that the Borovitskaya Tower contains the oldest relief white stone image known to date coat of arms of the centralized Russian state. They believe that the author of this work of art is the builder of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, Pietro Antonio Solari. The age of the coat of arms is indicated by the fact that it is mounted at a height of 18 meters in the Borovitskaya Tower, and this could not have been done later, namely during the construction of the structure - in 1490.

On this moment the oldest double-headed eagle - on the golden seal of Grand Duke Ivan the Third - dates back to 1497. If the academicians’ hypothesis is confirmed, then the image of the Russian coat of arms will “age” by 7 years.

Scientists outlined these considerations in a letter to Evgeniy Murov, director Federal service guards in charge of the Kremlin territory. The authors of the letter are sounding the alarm: three reliefs on the Borovitskaya Tower (two depict a horseman with a sword raised above his head, a lion and a snake, the third is a double-headed eagle) are in varying degrees of preservation and need restoration and conservation. Academicians believe that urgent conservation is required, or even better, the ancient coats of arms should be removed from the wall of the tower, restored and placed in the museums of the Moscow Kremlin, so that the unique valuables are no longer exposed to the aggressive influence of the Moscow atmosphere. It is quite possible to place copies on the Borovitskaya Tower.

Why did the Russian coat of arms appear on the Borovitskaya Tower? Since its construction, the Kremlin has had several passage gates, but the most solemn and sacred were the Spassky ones; religious processions passed through them; metropolitans and patriarchs used the Trinity Gate, and the Borovitsky gate served for the daily movement of the highest secular state power- it is quite logical that the coat of arms appeared above these gates.

For five centuries, the tradition of using the Borovitsky Gate “on weekdays” has not changed. The president's motorcade, cars of distinguished foreign guests and high-ranking officials enter the Kremlin through them.

Currently, restoration work is continuing on the walls and towers of the Kremlin, so soon the turn will come to the Borovitskaya Tower. Then the specialists will take a closer look at the coat of arms above the gate.