Editing Red Square (section)

=== Eastern Kremlin Wall ===

The eastern segment of the Kremlin wall, and the Red Square behind it, emerged on its present site in the 15th century, during the reign of [[Ivan III of Russia|Ivan III]];<ref>Schmidt, p. 13</ref> the wall and the square were separated with a wide defensive [[moat]] filled with water diverted from the [[Neglinnaya River]]. The moat was lined with a secondary fortress wall, and spanned by three bridges connecting the Kremlin to the [[posad]].

The northernmost of the three Kremlin towers is the 70 meter high [[Nikolskaya Tower]] named after [[Saint Nicholas]], whose icon originally adorned the lower part of the tower. The tower is one of the four towers of the Moscow Kremlin today that have an entrance gate to the Kremlin. It was originally built in 1491, to a design by the master builder [[Pietro Antonio Solari]], who as one of several Italian architects who were active in Moscow at the time, playing a key role in the construction of the Kremlin ensemble. In 1806, Nikolskaya Tower was significantly redesigned and under [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] architectural style, which was completely unusual for the Kremlin. Only a few years later, it was destroyed by the troops of Napoleon, and was finally rebuilt in 1816 with the participation of Joseph Bové. Owning its Gothic style, Nikolskaya Tower is still the most unusual of the twenty Kremlin towers.

The [[Spasskaya Tower]], is the main tower of the eastern wall of the Kremlin, and is arguably the most famous tower of all of Kremlin. It also has an entrance gate, which closes Red Square together with the neighboring Saint Basil's Cathedral from the south. Owing its name to an image of the Savior that once hung over the gate, the tower rises over 71 meters, and like Nikolskaya Tower, was also built by Pietro Antonio Solari in 1491. However, it was then about half as high as it is today. The tower has roughly the current shape since a reconstruction in the years 1624–1625, when it was supplemented by a bell tower with a large tower clock designed by [[Christopher Galloway]], which today, is the most famous architectural element of the tower. The clock's four dials, one on each side of the tower, date up to 1852, and each of them has a diameter of 6.12 meters. The high-precision clockwork occupies three floors of the tower, and a dozen bells below the top of the tower ring every quarter of an hour.

Both the Nikolskaya and the Spasskaya Tower are crowned by a three-meter-wide red star made of three-layer [[ruby]] and agate glass. These stars, were symbols of Communism, and were placed on a total of five Kremlin towers in 1937, which were previously adorned with the Imperial Russian [[double-headed eagle]].

The small tower at the level of Lenin's Mausoleum between the Nikolskaya and the Spasskaya Tower is the [[Senatskaya Tower]]. It was built in 1491, also by Pietro Antonio Solari, and was purely defensive in nature: it guarded the Kremlin on the Red Square side. For a long time it remained nameless. It was only in 1787, after architect [[Matvei Kazakov]] constructed the [[Kremlin Senate]] on the Kremlin's territory, that it was given its present name. The dome of the Senate can be seen from Red Square. Inside the central part of the tower there are three tiers of vaulted chambers. In 1860, the flat tower was topped with a stone tent [[roof]] crowned, in turn, with a [[Gilding|gilt]] [[weather vane]]. The tower contains a through-passage that allows VIPs to travel from the kremlin to Red Square. Its height is {{convert|34.3|m}}.