Photo: architectural monuments, museums and exhibitions, castles, fortresses and palaces, Tula Kremlin, Tula

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The Tula Kremlin: nine towers, samovars and weapons museum

Architectural Monuments • Museums and Exhibitions • Castles, Fortresses and Palaces

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The Tula Kremlin of red brick, reminiscent of the jagged walls of the Moscow Kremlin, is the oldest building in Tula. It was with the appearance of the Kremlin that the history of the city began. The fortress was originally wooden. It was built in the beginning of the XVI century by the orders of the Prince of Moscow Vasily III. The prince ordered to build a stone city inside the fortress. By the end of the 17th century about 200 people lived in this city, thresholded by the Kremlin.

In 1605, when the Time of Troubles began, Tula for the whole two weeks became the pseudo capital city of Russia, and the boyars came to the Tula Kremlin to swear allegiance to the false tsar False Dmitry I. In the same decade the Kremlin survived the siege when it was occupied by the leaders of the peasant war that had begun. The Tula Kremlin is a sample of a well-fortified structure of the 16th century. Its walls stand on a powerful foundation of almost nine meters deep and are made of two materials: white limestone and red brick. The Kremlin has nine towers in which its firepower was concentrated. The underground passage to the river was constructed in one of the towers, which was especially important during the long lasting sieges. The observation tower with an alarm bell was added to another tower. It is not known for certain who built the Kremlin, but in its appearance there are elements that hint at the fact that the Italian masters worked on it.There are permanent exhibitions devoted to various aspects of the history of Russia and Tula in the towers of the museum. One of the most popular of them is "The Instruments of Punishment in Russia XVI-XIX centuries". At the territory of the Kremlin there is also a museum of one of the symbols of the city - samovar. Here one can see classic samovars of local production, samovars from birch bark and vines, clays and sugars, Russia's smallest samovar the size of a thimble and a samovar higher than human scale.There are two cathedrals in the Kremlin: the Assumption Cathedral and Epiphany Cathedral, which houses a part of exposition of the Tula State Museum of Weapons. The Assumption Cathedral in the Baroque style with a 70-meter bell tower was erected in the 1760's on the site of a decrepit cathedral of the same name, which was built a century earlier. The Tula masters built the cathedral, and the Yaroslavl masters painted it. The paintings show events from the Gospels, images of Christ and the Virgin and the Orthodox saints. During the Soviet era the cathedral was closed, they were planning to build an atheistic museum within its walls, but failed. Now the cathedral is open to parishioners.

The Tula Kremlin: nine towers, samovars and weapons museum

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