A clock on the Kremlin's Spassky Tower: history and photo

Famous for the whole world watches on the Spassky Tower of the capital of the Russian Federation have appeared for a very long time, as historians say, in 1404. However, they were installed for the first time not on the Kremlin Tower, but were located near the Annunciation Cathedral, right in the royal court near Vasily Dmitrievich himself. The name of the master who made them was permanently imprinted in the annals of those years: "The prince planned himself, the prince himself, the clock was set by the Serbian monk Lazar."

Watch on the Spassky Tower: history

The word "chimes" from the French language is translated as "current". All of us from childhood, the famous Kremlin chimes, for which we meet the New Year, have an amazing history. They are a tower clock, which, thanks to a set of tuned bells, emits a certain melodic musical battle. This tower with a clock goes to Red Square and has a front gate, which at all times, except for the revolutionary, were considered holy.

Only in 1658 the Spasskaya Tower was given such a name, before that it was called Florovskaya and was one of 20 towers of the Kremlin, it was built in 1491 by the Italian master and architect Antonio Solari. According to historical documents, the clock on the Spassky Tower was installed in the 16th century by watchmakers, who for a year received good salaries and clothes for four arshins of cloth.

The clock was fully earned in 1585. The fact that they existed before indicates another evidence: it turns out that at the three gates of the tower structures of the Kremlin - Spassky (Florovsky), Troitsky and Tainitsky - were registered as "watchmakers". At the beginning of the 17th century tents appeared over the towers of the Kremlin (except Nikolskaya), and thanks to this the ten-story Spassky tower began to reach a height of 60 meters. The watchmaker in 1614 became Nikifor Nikitin, his duties included maintenance, repair and a timely plant mechanism. It is also known that the combat hours that came to total worthlessness were sold in 1624 to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery by weight.

The Christopher Golwaye Mechanism

The watch of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin at that time was the most primitive, in addition, they suffered greatly from frequent fires, and then the famous English watchmaker Christopher Holloway was invited to Moscow. Russian smiths - Zhdan, his son Shumila and grandson Aleksey helped him. In 1626, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower was burnt and was again restored by Galloway.

Russian artist Bazhen Ogurtsov in 1636 created for them a magnificent tent, which became an ornament of the entire architectural ensemble of the Kremlin. The Vologda peasants, Viračeva's father and son, worked on the production of watches, and Galloway supervised this process. For the "overdraft" by the caster Kirill Samoilov, 13 bells were cast.

At that time, the salary of the English master for the year was 64 rubles. The old clockwork was sold for 48 rubles. This indicated that the watchmakers in Moscow enjoyed great respect and privileges, they were paid a large salary, especially those who watched the tower clock. Even a special instruction was created for the workers, in which it was written that it was impossible to drink in the Spassky Tower, play cards, sell tobacco, wine, etc.

Clock Description

According to the testimony of contemporaries of the time, it was a wonderful city clock made of iron. Thanks to their beauty and design, they were famous all over the world, and their noble sound was heard more than 10 versts. The dial was painted in blue. The main and central parts of its circle remained motionless, while the outer side, reaching a width of 1 meter, rotated. On the clock there were letters from the Slavic alphabet, the weight of the clock was 3,400 kg.

The clock on the Spassky Tower measured day and night time, indicated by Slavic figures and letters (copper, covered with gilding), and played music. Instead of the arrows, there was a sun with a long beam attached at the top of the most basic large dial. The disc was divided into 17 equal parts, which was due to the maximum longitude of the day in the summer. The middle of the disk was covered with blue enamel, and on it are scattered silver and gold stars and images of the sun and the moon. Dials (diameter of 5 meters) were two. One was turned towards the Kremlin, the other went to the China-city.

Peter I

By the end of the 17th century, the clock on the Spassky Tower of the Kremlin, made by Christopher Holloway, had become completely useless, and then in 1704 Peter I brought new ones from Holland by sea. They were taken from Arkhangelsk on thirty carts, from the treasury more than 42,000 efimki (a Western European silver coin) were allocated for this case. The whole country at this time moves to a single daily countdown. Three years later, these huge watches with a 12-hour dial were installed on the Spassky Tower. The case was taken by Ekim Garnov and several other apprentices who adjusted and launched the mechanism in 20 days.

Master Faz

However, after a while, these hours became dilapidated, and after the great fire of 1737 they completely disappeared. However, by this time the capital was already St. Petersburg, and therefore no one was in a hurry to repair them.

When Catherine II ascended the throne, she became interested in the Kremlin chimes. Later, the Berlin watchmaker Fatz (Faz) will replace the clock with large English chimes found in the Faceted Chamber. For three years, under his leadership, they will be installed by Ivan Polyansky, a Russian master, in 1770 the work will be completed. Since the master master was discharged from abroad, at his will the Kremlin heard the song O du lieber Augustin ("Oh, my dear Augustine"). This is the only time in the history of the clock when they played a foreign melody.

The Times of Napoleon

When the troops of Napoleon expelled from Moscow, the clock on the Spassky Tower of the Kremlin underwent a thorough examination, and it was revealed that their clockwork did not work. Then the master Yakov Lebedev in February-the month of 1813 proposed to fix it for his money. He was entrusted with this matter, but before that they took a subscription that he would not completely disable the mechanism. And after 2 years the clock was again started, and Lebedev was awarded the title of a watchmaker of the Spassky Clock.

After several decades, another attempt was made to clean the mechanism, without stopping the course of the chimes, but this could not be done. Then, for a major overhaul, the Butenop brothers' firm was hired. In 1850, the clock was dismantled, the mechanism was touched, the parts that had become unusable were replaced. By this time a new frame was cast, its weight was 25 tons. For the performance of this work the firm received money in the amount of 12,000 rubles. As a result, in March 1852 all the works were completed, and for the first time the chimes on the tower began to play the melodies "Preobrazhensky March" and "Our Lord is Glorious".

The updated clock worked for 25 years, and in 1878 for 300 rubles they took repair master V. Freimut, who became the next watchmaker of the Kremlin Tower. Initially, it was necessary that the chimes played the melody "God Save the Tsar!", But Tsar Nicholas I did not allow this to happen, wishing that any musical compositions except the hymn would sound. In 1913, the full-scale restoration was carried out to the anniversary of the Romanovs' house. The Butenope Brothers Company continued to service the mechanism.

Revolution

Dashing times of the October Revolution have come, and in 1917 a combat projectile hit the dial directly and severely damaged the legendary clock. In the summer of 1918, when Moscow became the capital again, VI Lenin instructed the government to urgently repair the chimes.

The masters were looking for a long time, all were afraid to undertake this work. The famous watch brands (Bure and Roginsky) requested huge sums, which at that time could not be allocated by the newly-made state. And then repair them took the then Kremlin locksmith NI Behrens. He knew how a complex mechanism is arranged, since his father once worked in a company that previously served as a chime. And the artist Y. M. Cheremnykh agreed to help him in this matter, he also composed the score for the music "You fell a victim" and "Internationale" at the request of the leader of the proletariat.

And then with great expense a new pendulum of about a meter and a half length was built and weighed 32 kg. Works on restoration were completed in September 1918. Then the Muscovites heard for the first time how the clock struck the Spassky Tower. After some time, in 1932, the chimes again require repair. The masters made a new dial (an exact copy of the old one) and re-gilded the rims, numbers and arrows, for which about 28 kg of gold went.

Stalin

At Stalin's order, the clock tried to tune into the melody of the already new Soviet anthem of Alexandrov's authorship, but without success. In 1991, again wanted to accomplish this task, but, as it turned out, there was not enough for this three bells. In 1996, after 58 years of quiet, the Kremlin chimes played a melody at the inauguration of President Boris N. Yeltsin ("Patriotic Song" and "Glory" by MI Glinka).

The last restoration took place in 1999, it lasted six months. The arrows gilded again, restored the whole appearance and instead of the "Patriotic Song" the clock finally played the national anthem of the Russian Federation.

Clock on the Spassky Tower: photos and sizes

The clock occupies special floors on the Spassky Tower: from the 8th to the 10th. Their main mechanism is in a special room on the 9th floor. It is powered by three weights of about 160 to 224 kg. The musical mechanism consists of a set of bells (they are all tuned on the basis of a certain scale) and the so-called software cylinder, whose diameter reaches two meters, it is turned by a giant weight weighing 200 kilograms.

Cylinder pins activate bells, each weighing 500 kg. The bells are reserved for the tenth floor. By the way, one of them says that he was made by Claudius Frémy in Amsterdam in the summer of 1628.

It's hard to imagine the dimensions of this whole device, because only the dial has a diameter of 6.12 m. How long, then, is the length of the minute hand of the clock on the Spassky Tower? And what are the dimensions of the sentry? Let's think about it. Proceeding from the fact that the value of any of these elements should not exceed half the diameter of the dial, we can assume that the big arrow will be approximately 3 meters. And the small, respectively, will be slightly smaller. And now let's turn to the official data. So, the minute hand of the clock on the Spassky Tower is 3.27 m long, hourly by 30 cm less - 2.97 m. The clock is set twice a day. With the help of an electric motor weights rise, each shaft collects weights from cast iron ingots weighing up to 200 kg, in winter their weight is increased.

Monitoring and maintenance

Every day the clock mechanism undergoes a preventive examination and once a month - by details. The clock on the Spassky watch watchmaker is checked on the chronometer and controlled by special devices. The entire mechanism is lubricated twice a week, with the use of a summer and winter lubricant.

The mechanism of the Kremlin clock on the Spassky Tower has been working properly for almost a century and a half. On the cast iron side of them it is written that the clock was altered by the Butenop brothers in Moscow in 1851. At noon and midnight they beat the anthem of the Russian Federation, and in the intervals - "Glory."

Conclusion

Many are interested in the question: "Which tower, besides Spassky, has a watch?" In the Moscow Kremlin, in addition to the chimes, the clock is also installed on the Grand Kremlin Palace, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers.

Legendary chimes and still measure the history of a great country, they became the main symbol of a great and powerful Russia.