Ivan the Great Bell-Tower
Tallest tower of a medieval fortress, its foundations surviving a Napoleonic demolition attempt in eighteen twelve.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Moscow Kremlin opens in September 1812, when Napoleon's soldiers, told the cross atop the tallest tower is solid gold, scale the scaffolding and wrench it down, only to find it's gilded iron. It traces the tower back to 1508, when architect Bon Fryazin raised it for Ivan the Third, and the later builders, including Boris Godunov, who kept adding tiers until it stood tall enough that no Russian building could rise higher for nearly four centuries. Humiliated, the retreating French pack the tower's foundations with explosives that October. Twenty-one bells still hang inside today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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