Spassky chimes. The main secrets of the Kremlin chimes

The first clock on the Spassky Tower of the Kremlin appeared in the 16th century, at least, this is evidenced by the mention of watchmakers who are in the service at the Spassky Gates. For their work, they were entitled to a good annual salary: 4 rubles and 2 hryvnias in money, as well as four arshins for a caftan. However, the first watch was sold to the Spassky Monastery in Yaroslavl by weight, so the Englishman Christopher Galloway made new ones.

The dial showed day and night hours, depending on the time of year and the length of the day, their ratio changed. At the same time, it was not the arrow, made in the form of a golden ray of the sun, that rotated, but the dial itself.

Galloway, either jokingly or seriously, explained this by saying that "since the Russians do not act like all other people, then what they produce should be arranged accordingly."

These chimes burned down in 1656. During the interrogation after the fire, the watchmaker said that he “wound the clock without fire and from what the tower caught fire, he does not know about it.” Contemporaries said that when Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, returning from the Lithuanian campaign, saw the charred Spasskaya Tower, he wept bitterly. It was decided to restore the clock only after 13 years. All metal parts were “washed in a large trough”, and then boiled for two days in a huge beer cauldron. After a thorough cleaning of all metal parts, for which a whole cartload of fine river sand went, they were wiped with rags and abundantly “smeared with pickled lard”. However, by 1702 they were in complete disrepair.

Peter I ordered to deliver to Moscow a new clock "with a bell game with dances, in the manner that they are in Amsterdam." The mechanism, bought for 42,000 silver thalers, was brought from Holland on 30 wagons. The ringing of 33 bells installed on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin was heard, according to the memoirs of foreigners, "in the surrounding villages for more than ten miles." Also, additional alarm bells were installed there, announcing fires in the city. The dial on Peter's watch has finally become familiar, with 12-hour divisions.

The melody of the clock, which Muscovites heard at 9 am on December 9, 1706, unfortunately, has not been preserved in history. The chimes served until 1737 and died in another fire. They were in no hurry to repair them - by that time the capital had been moved to St. Petersburg. Almost 30 years later, a large English chiming clock was found in the Faceted Chamber, who knows how it got there. A German master was invited to install them, who tuned them so that they played the melody "Ah, my dear Augustine."

This is the only case in the history of the country when the chimes played a foreign melody.

By 1851, from fires (including the one that engulfed the entire city in 1812) and repairs, the chimes came, according to the characteristics of the Butenop Brothers company, "in a state close to perfect disorder." The same brothers made a new mechanism and carried out the restoration of the watch room. New iron dials were installed on all four sides. Nicholas I ordered that two of the 16 melodies most familiar to Muscovites be left for ringing: “... so that the clock chimes should be played in the morning - the Transfiguration March of Peter the Great, used for a quiet step, and in the evening - the prayer “How glorious is our Lord in Zion”, usually played by musicians, if both pieces can be adapted to the mechanism of hourly music. At the same time, the emperor refused to perform “God Save the Tsar” with bells, writing that “the chimes can play any song except the anthem.”

On November 2, 1917, during the storming of the Kremlin by the Bolsheviks, a shell hit the clock, breaking one of the hands and damaging the mechanism for rotating the hands. The clock stopped for almost a year, until Lenin decided: "It is necessary that this clock speak our language." Thus, the restored clock from August 18, 1918 began to play the "Internationale" at 6 am, and at 9 am and 3 pm - "You fell a victim ...". Subsequently, the "Internationale" was left at noon, and the "victims" - at midnight, but from 1932 only the "Internationale" remained. However, he did not have to rule over the ears of the townspeople for long: since the device of the chimes was subjected to deformation from time and frost, the melody became unrecognizable. So in 1938 the clock went silent for 58 years! During Yeltsin's inauguration, chimes with added bells played Glinka's "Patriotic Song". Later, the choir "Glory" from the opera "Life for the Tsar" was added to this melody.

Now the chimes are chiming the national anthem Russian Federation at noon, midnight, 6 am and 6 pm, and at 3 and 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm, “Glory” is performed. Interestingly, many believe that the bell strikes (first or last) at midnight on December 31st herald the onset of the new year.

However, in fact, the new hour, day and year begin with the beginning of the chiming of the chimes, that is, 20 seconds before the first strike of the bell.

Clock on the building of the Central Telegraph

The first telegraph station was located in the building of the Nikolaevsky railway station on Kalanchevskaya Square (now the Leningradsky railway station on Komsomolskaya Square). Four years later, in order to make it easier to use the telegraph during the emperor's stay in Moscow, the Assumption was adopted for the construction of a telegraph station in the Kremlin Palace in Moscow. This document prescribes: "It was appointed to arrange a telegraph station with an institution on it to receive dispatches as private." In 1859, in connection with the development of the telegraph network, the Moscow Telegraph Station was opened in Gazetny Lane.

From the side of Nikitsky Lane, you can see a huge clock, and attentive observers will notice that the number “four” on the dial is made in the old manner - IIII, while on the same Spasskaya Tower it is traditionally indicated - IV.

The clockwork itself, which must be wound every week, is manufactured by Siemens-Halske. At that time it was the most practical and high-tech time control system. And the most accurate - it was with these watches that the ministries and Moscow University checked. Even in the Regulations on the reception and transmission of telegraphic dispatches by electromagnetic telegraph, approved by Alexander II in 1855, there was a special paragraph "... on checking the clocks of all stations on all telegraphs of the empire", so that great attention was paid to the exact time.

The clock station, located in the "heart" of the telegraph, has been operating uninterruptedly for about 80 years, transmitting impulses to all the secondary clocks of the building. And the "outdoor chimes" are installed in the attic. It is noteworthy that all this time the clock is marked every half an hour and an hour by the sound of bells. True, residents of neighboring houses complained about the noise back in the 30s of the last century, and since then the clock has been quieter. And in our time, their ringing is not heard at all because of the noise of Tverskaya Street.

By the way, the telegraph bell, like the roof, is green. But this is not a copper patina, but paint applied to objects in war time for the purpose of camouflage - after all, the telegraph has always been an important strategic object and the first target in air raids.

In addition to unusual clocks, one of the early drafts of the coat of arms can now be seen on the building of the Central Telegraph Soviet Union (1923): Earth surrounded by ears of corn, at the top there is a red star, on the sides there is a sickle and a hammer.

Clock tower of the main building of Moscow State University

The clock on the main building of Moscow State University may well be called the "Russian Big Ben". More precisely, four "big-bens", since each tower has two dials, looking at different directions of the world. Engineers call them that: East, North, South and West. The diameter of their dial is nine meters, like that of the London landmark. Previously, they were considered the largest in the world, but now they have moved to the end of the dozen and share a place with the clock railway station Swiss town of Aarau. The length of the minute hand is more than four meters, and once the watch almost lost it. The masters at the next lubrication loosened the gears a little more than they should, and the huge arrow literally had to be held by hand so that it did not collapse down.

The clock was installed in 1953, when the construction of the main building of Moscow State University was completed. Initially, the pendulum mechanism was set in motion by heavy weights that descended on cables into mines six stories deep. However, many people had to maintain the system, which was simply unprofitable. Therefore, in 1957, all the tower clocks of Moscow State University were transferred to work from an electric motor. In addition, the Soviet engineer Yevgeny Lapkin invented, designed, implemented and patented a unique development. Namely, a clock power station with a reverse control system that connected all 1,500 clocks located in the university buildings. If the course of at least one clock was broken, a signal about this was immediately received on the scoreboard, and the master at the station knew exactly the location of the malfunction.

In 1983, a funny thing happened.

Vigilant Soviet pensioners wrote a letter to the Pravda newspaper complaining that the clock was different towers Moscow State University shows different times.

Like, it's a mess. There was a fuss, a correspondent was urgently sent, who, having arrived at the place, to his own surprise, found out: it turns out that not only the clock was installed at the university, but also the world's largest barometer and thermometer, which "showed the time" out of order.

After the first and only major repair in 2000, the watch got a new "heart" - a modern motor. The clock station now automatically adjusts the time according to the signals of the radio broadcasting network. In addition, it manages bells announcing the beginning and end of classes, which is important for Moscow State University. If there is a temporary power outage, the watch “remembers” the time for up to 30 days and automatically sets all 1500 secondary hours. But once the clock was stopped and waited for the moment when the position of the hands coincided with the “correct” time.

Clock at the Obraztsov Central Puppet Theater

The famous clock, made from the same material as parts for jet aircraft, was installed on the building of the puppet theater in 1970 in parallel with the opening of the center itself. A clock on a dull, windowless concrete box draws attention unusual view: this is an ensemble of 12 houses with wrought iron closed doors. When the arrow points to the house, they swing open, a crowing is heard and, to the music of “In the garden, in the garden”, some kind of fairy tale character- animal or bird The "menagerie" has a donkey, an owl, a cat, a hare, a fox and other characters that change with the time of day. At noon and midnight, all the animals come out of the houses at once, often gathering a large crowd of spectators.

At first, a loud crowing was carried almost throughout the Garden Ring, and the rooster crowed at night, causing the residents of neighboring houses to want to wring his neck.

Therefore, later the clock was transferred to two modes of operation: night and day.

The idea of ​​doll clocks is, strictly speaking, not new: back in the Middle Ages, large, so-called tower clocks were often installed in monasteries and city halls in Germany, England and Italy. Intricate figures sometimes acted out whole performances, and appearing at night, they frightened random passers-by.

As for the Moscow clock, in the theater a whole room was previously allocated for them, where the mechanism was located, and two people from special service hours, they monitored the equipment and turned on tape recorders with recordings of the corresponding “voices”. After the clock became fully electronic, the quality of technology has greatly decreased. They have ceased to be corrected by the control clock, so they can sometimes lag behind or rush, and now the cock crow is barely audible even during the day, especially considering the ever-roaring Garden Ring.

The clock gave rise to such a concept as the “hour of the wolf”, familiar to every drinker in Soviet times.

The grocery store located opposite the theater was selling vodka exactly from 11 am. At this time, a rooster crowed on the clock, and a wolf appeared from the house. And everyone who, after yesterday's "pipes were on fire", like children, rejoiced at the appearance of this figure with a knife, hinting at cutting snacks.

Clock at Kievsky railway station

The tower with a mechanical clock is a visiting card of the Kievsky railway station. The author of the building, Ivan Rerberg, could not decide for a long time where the tower could be built, and as a result, he took it outside the main structure.

The roof of the tower is guarded by four sculptures of two-meter eagles perched on the corners of a technical balcony. The same eagles stand on the Borodino field, and the centenary of the battle of the same name was celebrated in the year the construction of the station began.

However, from the pigeon invasion predator birds they don’t save, and it was because of the pigeons that the clock had to be stopped twice, 40 and 10 years ago.

Watch dials are made of stained glass mosaic white color and are located on all four sides of the tower. The clock mechanism was made in Switzerland, in fact it is a simple clock, almost no different from a cuckoo clock. In 1918, the device was lifted onto the tower with a winch and installed in a wooden box-case. Since then, they have counted over 50 million minutes. The clock mechanism itself (weighing 250 kg) is still manually wound, just like on the Kremlin chimes, and there are no more than a dozen such clocks throughout Russia.

Kremlin chimes (clock on the Spasskaya Tower), which are installed on the Moscow Kremlin - for sure, the most famous tower clock in the Russian Federation (Russia).

History of the Kremlin chimes

History of tower clocks in the city of Moscow takes us back to 1404, when they were first installed on the territory of the estate of the son of Prince Dmitry Donskoy - Vasily. The court of the Grand Duke himself was located not far from.

These chimes were made by a Serbian clergyman - monk Lazar. A mechanical device in the form of a human figure beat off the bell every hour.

It is not known exactly when the clock with chimes appeared on the Spasskaya Tower. The tower itself was built by 1491 under the guidance of the architect Piero Solari. It happened during the reign of Tsar Ivan III.

First documentary evidence The presence of a clock on the tower dates back to 1585: some watchmakers were mentioned there, who, in addition to the Spassky clock, maintained the same mechanisms on the Tainitskaya and Troitskaya towers.

There is no description of the chronometers, but the weight of the watch from the Spasskaya Tower was about 960 kilograms, which follows from the bill of sale dated as early as 1624 (it indicates the sale of watches to the Spassky Monastery from Yaroslavl lands for 48 rubles).

A watchmaker, an English mechanic Christopher Galovey, was invited to make a new watch mechanism. Local blacksmiths were appointed as his assistants - master Zhdan with his son and grandson, whose names were Shumilo Zhdanov and Alexei Shumilov. 13 bells for chimes were cast by Kirill Samoilov, a master caster.

The new watch did not have hands, the role of which was assigned to a rotating dial, which was divided into 17 parts.

The dial itself, weighing over 400 kilograms, was knocked down from wooden boards and painted in sky blue colors. On it there were hour divisions, which were indicated by Slavic letters. For decoration, along the field, tin stars of a light shade were added.

Above the dial are the moon and sun painted in gold. The motionlessly fixed arrow, as it were, emanated from the beam of the last luminary.

Directly the ringing of the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower was even higher - in an arranged octagon.

How did the chimes show the time and beat off the ringing?

Such a strange dial, it turns out, denoted the course of daytime and nighttime, i.e. in the days summer solstice he was wound up for seventeen daytime and seven nighttime hours. How did it happen?

The first sharp blow sounded at the moment when the first sunbeam fell on the walls of the Spasskaya Tower. The exact same blow heralded the end of the day. Every hour a special ringing sounded: the first hour - one blow, the second - two, and so on up to the maximum possible number of 17. After that, the watchmaker climbed the tower and switched the dial to 7 night hours. Thus, the watcher of time had to rise to the height twice.

Every 16 days, a correction was made to the number of day and night hours, which in total amounted to the usual figure for us - 24.

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin delighted not only Russians, but even foreigners arriving in Moscow. Contemporaries wrote about this diva:

... a wonderful city iron clock, famous all over the world for its beauty and device, and for the sound of its big bell, which was heard ... for more than 10 miles.

In 1626, the clock on the tower burned down, but two years later it was restored by the same Galoway to serve until the end of the seventeenth century.

New chronometer appeared under Peter the Great, who ordered the destruction of one-hand old-fashioned clocks, and instead of them to install new ones with a 12-hour dial. The mechanism with clocks and music, which the emperor himself bought for 42,000 efimki in Dutch Amsterdam, was delivered to Moscow in thirty carts.

Yakim Gornel, a foreign watchmaker, was invited to install the chimes. He, together with nine Russian artisans, assembled and debugged the clock mechanism for 20 days. And finally, at 9 am on December 9, 1706, the people gathered at the tower heard the first bell.

The chimes on the Spasskaya Tower chimed both hours and quarters. At a certain time, a melody was played, which was played by 33 musical bells. Unfortunately, the motive for that bell playing is not known.

Petrovsky clock served until 1737 until they are burned in the fire. The capital was then already in St. Petersburg, and there was simply no hurry to repair the Moscow chimes.

In 1763, a large chiming clock made in England was found in one of the rooms of the Faceted Chamber. They began to mount them on the Spasskaya Tower only in 1767, for which the master watchmaker Fatz (Fats) was sent from Germany. Together with the Russian craftsman Ivan Polyansky, he launched them only three years later - in 1770. The music of the chimes was somewhat frivolous and was an excerpt from the German song "Ah, my dear Augustine."

A fire in 1812 destroyed the clock. The inspection of the mechanism was entrusted to Yakov Lebedev, who in February 1813 reported on its significant destruction and offered his services for restoration. Permission was obtained, but, in advance, a receipt was taken from the master watchmaker that he would not permanently damage the device.

Two years passed and the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower sounded again, for which Lebedev was awarded an honorary and high rank"Master of the Spassky Clock".

The current Kremlin chimes were installed between 1851 and 1852. The mechanism was made by the Dutch brothers Butenop, whose workshops were located on Myasnitskaya Street, 43. For the euphony of the ringing and more accurate reproduction of the melody, 24 bells were added to the already existing belfry, which were dismantled from the Trinity and Borovitskaya Kremlin towers.

The first melody of the new watch should have been the anthem Russian Empire“God save the Tsar!”, but Emperor Nicholas I did not give his permission for this, saying that “the chimes can play any song except the anthem.” I had to record two melodies on the playing shaft - "March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment" (sounded at 6 and 12 o'clock) and "How glorious is our Lord in Zion" (3 and 9 o'clock), which did not change until 1917.

The installation of the Butenop brothers' clock mechanism required some restoration and repair work, which was led by the architect Petr Alexandrovich Gerasimov. The pedestal for the clock, floors and stairs were made according to the drawings of the architect Konstantin Ton.

Clock on the Spasskaya Tower after the October Revolution

November 2, 1917 during the shelling of the Moscow Kremlin from artillery pieces, the projectile hit directly on the dial, while interrupting one of the hands and destroying the mechanism of their rotation. The clock has become!

Restoration work began only in August 1918 on the personal instructions of Lenin. At first, they turned to the watch firms of Roginsky and Bure, but refused their services because of the prohibitive price. Nikolai Berens, who worked as a locksmith in the Kremlin, decided to take up the job. He knew this mechanism, since his father worked as a master for the Butenop brothers and passed on his knowledge to his son.

Berens set to work together with the artist Mikhail Mikhailovich Cheremnykh, who took up a new score for the chimes. With great difficulty, a one and a half meter pendulum weighing 32 kilograms was made, instead of a damaged one, made of lead with applied gilding.

In September 1918, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower launched again. In the chime of the chimes, the “Internationale” (at noon) and “You fell a victim in the fatal struggle” (at midnight) sounded.

In 1932, another reconstruction was carried out: the clock was repaired; replaced the dial numbers, rim, and also the hands were covered with gilding, having spent, in total, 28 kilograms of precious metal. As a ringing, only a fragment of the "Internationale" was left, which sounded both at 12 and at 24 o'clock.

Since 1938, the chiming melody has ceased to sound, leaving only an hourly and quarterly short chime. This decision was made by a special commission, which recognized the sound as unsatisfactory due to the deterioration of the movement.

In 1941, the "Internationale" was again played on the Spasskaya Tower with the help of a special electro-mechanical drive. True, it did not last long.

In 1944, Stalin ordered the chimes to be tuned and the music of the new anthem of the Soviet Union, the author of which was Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, to be set as a chime. The work did not go well, and the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin fell silent for many years.

In 1974 they held a major restoration with the clock stopped for 100 days. Then they dismantled and restored the entire clock mechanism, replaced worn parts, mounted an auto-lubrication system, but the chimes did not sound - they simply did not reach their hands.

In 1991, a decision was made at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU to restore the Kremlin chimes, but the issue arose due to the lack of 3 bells needed to play the anthem of the USSR.

They returned to the issue in 1995, but the Union had already collapsed, and the anthem new Russia became "Patriotic Song" by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka.

In 1996, on the day of the inauguration of Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, after 58 years of silence, the chimes sounded again. The missing bells for the tone were replaced by metal beaters. Now, at midnight and noon, the hymn was sung, and every quarter - a fragment of the opera "Life for the Tsar" by the same composer Glinka.

The last restoration to date took place in 1999. In addition to the restoration work, the ringing was changed from the old anthem to a new one, approved on December 8, 2000.

Interesting facts about the Kremlin chimes

And finally, a few words about the mechanism of clocks and chimes on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin.

• The total weight is 25 tons.
• Three weights from 160 to 224 kilograms are used to drive the clock mechanism.
• A 32 kg pendulum with a length of 1.5 meters ensures the accuracy of the watch.
• The diameter of the four dials located on the four sides of the tower is 6.12 meters.
• The length of the minute and hour hands is 3.27 and 2.97 meters, respectively.
• The height of the numbers is 72 centimeters.

The mechanisms of the movement, the strike of quarters and the strike of the clock are located on separate levels from the 7th to the 9th floors. Above them, in an open area protected by a high tent, there are 9 bells for the end of the quarter and big bell to clear the clock. By the way, the clock was cast back in the middle of the eighteenth century by master Semyon Mozhzhukhin.

Bells, due to the difference in size, can produce sounds in the range from low bass to treble. Weight - from 320 to 2160 kilograms. In the ensemble of chimes, bells dating back to 1702 and 1628, cast in Amsterdam, have been preserved.

Clock on the Spasskaya Tower (Kremlin chimes) start twice a day - at noon and at midnight. For these purposes, three electric motors are used - separately for each of the mechanisms (the system was introduced back in 1937). The translation of the arrows is done only manually.

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Photo: Stepan Kildishev/Rusmediabank.ru

We cannot imagine without them, we measure Moscow time by them. But the Kremlin chimes have a rather stormy history that began 700 years ago...

Man with a hammer and a heavenly dial

The first tower clock in the Kremlin appeared in the 14th century. under Grand Duke Vasily I. They were a complex mechanism and consisted of a human figure, an iron hammer and a bell. Every hour the "man" struck the time by striking the bell. In 1491, when a brick Kremlin was erected instead of a white-stone one, the first “classic” chimes were installed on the Frolovskaya (later Spasskaya) tower.

The annals mention that in 1624 the Kremlin chronometer, which had fallen into disrepair, was “written off” and sold to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery for a “ridiculous” price of 48 rubles. For some time, the Spasskaya Tower remained completely without a clock. However, having ascended the Russian throne in 1625, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov made an order for a new tower clock to the famous English watchmaker Christopher Golovey. A "team of professionals" under the leadership of Golovey made and hoisted a clock with thirteen bells on the Spasskaya Tower. True, it was not so easy to find out the time from them: the watch had a huge rotating dial, but did not have ordinary hands ...

The dial was knocked together from boards and painted blue, imitating the sky. A lot of tin stars were scattered around it. At the top was an image of the sun, emitting a fixed beam, which played the role of the hour hand. The divisions were marked with the letters of the Old Slavonic alphabet. Every hour bells rang, the chime of which was heard for more than 10 miles.

Alas, in 1626 the clock burned down. They were restored, but they constantly acted up, and at the end of the 17th century they completely failed ...

Petrovsky innovations

In 1705, he introduced a single daily countdown in Russia and gave the order to replace the old-fashioned “miracle” with a Dutch tower clock with a twelve-hour dial. They struck not only every hour, but also quarters of an hour, and they also played music. However, the clock kept breaking. During a fire in 1737, the wooden “inside” of the Spasskaya Tower was badly damaged, and the chimes were so badly damaged that they stopped playing melodies.

Catherine and Nicholas

Catherine II gave the order to dismantle the old clock. Others were installed in their place, from the Faceted Chamber of the Kremlin. This time, the German watchmaker Fats took up the installation. So in 1770, the fourth chimes appeared on the tower, playing the frivolous song "Ah, my dear Augustine."

The new chimes, nicknamed Catherine's, lasted long enough. During the fire of Moscow in 1812, they stopped running, but were restored three years later by watchmaker Yakov Lebedev, for which he was awarded a special title - "master of the Spassky clock." After that, they regularly walked for more than eighty years. In 1851 they were restored, but for this it was necessary to replace the entire filling. The number of bells increased from 24 to 48: 16 were moved here from the Troitskaya and 8 from the Borovitskaya towers. By order of Emperor Nicholas I, the restored chimes from now on at 3 and 9 o'clock played the anthem "How glorious is our Lord in Zion", and at 6 and 12 o'clock - the march of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

End of music...

The October Revolution, of course, made its own adjustments. During the assault on the Kremlin, the working mechanism of the chimes was damaged by an artillery shell. The clock has a broken hand. The repair was entrusted to an experienced locksmith Nikolai Berens. By July 1918, the clock had been fixed. True, now at 12 o’clock in the afternoon they performed the “Internationale” in accordance with the trends of the time, and at midnight - “You fell a victim in the fatal struggle ...”

In 1932, a new dial was made according to the instructions, which was an exact copy of the old one. The melody was left alone - "Internationale". True, six years later it stopped sounding: the musical mechanism was recognized as worn out ...

IN last time in the Soviet era, the reconstruction of the Kremlin chimes was carried out in 1974 by specialists from the Research Institute of the watch industry. The clock was stopped for 100 days. During this time, it was possible to completely disassemble the mechanism and replace worn parts. Also, from now on, the chimes began to be controlled electronically, and not manually. But they didn't play music anymore.

Symbol of the revived Russia

The next time the clock performed a musical melody only in 1996, at the inauguration of the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, who was elected for a second term. From now on, at noon and at midnight, the “Patriotic Song” sounded, which from 1993 to 2000 was the official anthem of the country, and at three and nine o'clock - the aria “Glory” from M.I. Glinka's opera “Life for the Tsar”.

Since 1999, the Kremlin chimes began to play the new, officially approved anthem of Russia ...

Chimes are tower or large room clocks with bells that beat a given melody every hour. However, for the inhabitants of the Russian Federation, this word is steadily associated with the Chimes of the Moscow Kremlin.

It is well known that the Kremlin chimes are the main clock in Russia. However, a much smaller number of people know that modern chimes are already the fourth in a row installed in the Spasskaya Tower.

At present, it has not been established when the first clock was mounted on the Spasskaya Tower. The first mention of this that has come down to us dates back to 1585, but there is no exact certainty that these were the first clocks. Despite the lack of reliable information, the history of the existence of the Kremlin chimes is counted from this date.

The Kremlin clock, which was the first to be installed in the Spasskaya Tower, had a 17 o'clock dial, which displayed longest duration days in summer. Only in 1705, by decree of Peter I, the tower clock was replaced with a normal 12-hour one. These chimes, purchased in Holland, were of insufficient quality and constantly broke down, in connection with which Peter had to keep a large number of watchmakers for repairs. After the capital of the Russian State was moved to St. Petersburg, the courtiers ceased to be interested in the fate of the Kremlin chimes. The staff serving them was irresponsible in the performance of their duties. So, in 1770, at the whim of the master who served the chimes, and he was a purebred German, an Austrian folk song became one of the watch melodies, while, state authorities for a year they did not react to such a disgrace in any way.

During the sack of Moscow by Napoleon, the chimes suffered significant damage, and after the liberation of the city, the clock could not return to normal for a long time.

However, the history of the Kremlin chimes received a new round when, in 1852, the clock so familiar to us was installed in the Spasskaya Tower. They have already been produced in Russia. Their authors were Danes - the Butenop brothers.

With the development of science and technology, the watch mechanism was modernized: individual blocks were remade, parts were replaced with better ones, made from new materials, etc. The melodies played for hours were also updated. This was primarily facilitated by the political events taking place in the country, revolutions, changes of sovereigns and leaders, as well as many others.

Modern chimes play two melodies at once. When it strikes "six" or "twelve" o'clock, plays National anthem RF, and in "three" and "nine" - the melody "Glory". In 1937, three electric motors were integrated into the watch mechanism, which carried out automatic winding of the watch. At present, the Kremlin chimes are calling card Russia.

Everyone who has ever visited the capital of Russia, Moscow and in its very center - on Red Square, admired the famous Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin.

From the history of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

In 1491, under Prince Ivan III, the Spasskaya Tower was built to strengthen the northeastern part of the city. The construction was carried out by the architect Pietro Antonio Solari. At first it was called Frolovskaya, after the church in the name of the Holy Martyrs Frol and Laurus, located nearby. The structure was two times lower than it is now. The multi-tiered top and stone dome in the Gothic style were built much later - in 1624-1625. English architect Christopher Galovey and Russian master Bazhen Ogurtsov. By decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on April 16, 1658, the tower was renamed Spasskaya. It received this name because the road to the Spaso-Smolensk Church went through it. It is believed that it received its name in honor of the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, placed above the gate from the side of Red Square.

The Spassky Gate is the most important of the Kremlin Gates. Men took off their hats in front of the image of the Savior from the side of Red Square. It was impossible to ride through them. According to legend, when Napoleon passed through this gate, the wind tore off his cocked hat. All the kings before the coronation passed through this gate. Warriors left here for decisive battles. For many years, the Spassky Gates were opened very rarely, only in exceptional cases, for example, for the passage of the presidential cortege. Since August 2014, through the gate you can go to Red Square. The only way to get to the Kremlin is through the Kutafya Tower.

The Spasskaya Tower is square at the base and has 10 floors. Its height is 71 meters. In the middle of the 17th century, a figure of a double-headed eagle, the coat of arms of Russia, was placed on it. Experts believed that the image of the Savior over its gates was irretrievably lost. Presumably in 1937, the year of the anniversary of the revolution, the icon of the Savior, like other images on the gates, was immured. But recently it has been found. On the initiative of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, on June 29, 2010, specialists began its restoration. The icon is well preserved. Its plot is dedicated to the deliverance of Moscow from the invasion of Khan Mehmet Giray. Then, in 1521, Saints Sergius and Varlaam asked the Mother of God for intercession before God. And Mehmet Giray retreated. The icon also suffered from fire and during the war with Napoleon. After restoration, it will be restored.

Clock and chimes on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

The first clock on the Spasskaya Tower was installed in 1491. In the future, they were repeatedly changed and restored. So, in 1625, under the guidance of the English master Christopher Galoway, new ones were made that played music. In 1705, at the direction of Peter I, the clock was remade according to the German model with a dial at 12 o'clock. In 1851-1852. on tiers 8-10, chimes were installed, performing alternately the “March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment” and the anthem “How glorious is our Lord in Zion” by Dmitry Bortnyansky. These melodies sounded until 1917. In 1920, the melody of the Internationale was picked up on the chimes.

In 1999, the hands and numbers were gilded. The chimes began to play the national anthem of Russia. The height of the Roman numerals of the clock is 0.72 meters. The length of the hour hand is 2.97 m, the minute hand is 3.27 m. The watch is wound up with the help of three electric motors. The fight of the clock is carried out with the help of a hammer connected to the mechanism and the bell. The dials have a diameter of 6.12 m and come out on four sides.

Star on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

In 1935, the Tsar's Eagle on the Spasskaya Tower was replaced by the first five-pointed star, a symbol of the Soviet era. It was copper, covered with gold and Ural gems. After 2 years, she was replaced by a ruby ​​star. The first star now crowns the spire of the Northern River Station. The wingspan of the new star is 3.75 meters. This is slightly less than the first. Inside the star, a 5000-watt lamp burns around the clock.