The Kremlin

Refreshed and ready for more we met by the great statue of Marshal Zhukov on his horse as he led the victory parade in 1945.
Past the tomb of the unknown soldier, we went through the gate through one of the towers into the Kremlin itself. First we saw the Armoury, and the Tsar’s Palace, later taken over by the Communist Party leaders as residence and offices and now the offices of President Putin. We walked past this on one side and the smart glass and steel Palace of Congresses, built in the Soviet era, on the other.

Next we came across two symbols of Russia’s power as it established its empire: the Tsar’s gun and the Tsar’s Bell. These huge pieces of cast bronze are each the largest of their kind in the world, and reinforce the sense of great power exhibited by the Kremlin.

The Kremlin is very much at the heart of the Tsarism. We were shown its three cathedrals – all dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries:  the Cathedral of the Dormition, where all the Tsars were crowned. Then its neighbour, the Cathedral of the Assumption, where all the Tsars were baptised and married and finally the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, where all the Tsars before Peter the Great were buried.

After these spectacularly decorated churches we continued our tour to the walls overlooking the Moscow River, and then back to the coach as the afternoon was ending and it was time to get to our Hotel.