Editing Red Square (section)

== Buildings ==
In the following, all of the buildings located directly on Red Square will be presented in a clockwise direction, starting with the State Historical Museum at the northwest end of the square.

=== State Historical Museum ===
{{main|State Historical Museum}}
[[File:Museo Estatal de Historia, Moscú, Rusia, 2016-10-03, DD 49.jpg|thumb|State Historical Museum, as seen from Red Square]]
The striking dark red building of the State Historical Museum forms the end of Red Square from the north-western side. It was built in the years 1875–1883 and is therefore one of the younger components of the architectural ensemble of Red Square. Before it was built, the first pharmacy building in Moscow stood on this site from the beginning of the 18th century, which was rebuilt in 1755 and served as the first campus of the then newly founded [[Moscow State University]] for two decades.

Today's museum building was built especially for the historical museum, which was newly founded in 1872, and was ceremoniously handed over to its destination in May 1883. Its architect was [[Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood]], who is considered to be one of the main representatives of the "Russian style", a variant of [[historicism (art)|historicism]] based on traditional [[Russian architecture]], which was widely used at the time. The museum building looks correspondingly "Old Russian": the facades are decorated with arched windows and ornaments reminiscent of traditional Russian Orthodox churches, several decorative towers reminiscent of some of the Kremlin towers are attached to the sides, and the shape of the roof is reminiscent of the [[Great Kremlin Palace]] in the Kremlin, a form of the Russian mansion that was particularly preferred in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Today the Historical Museum is the largest and most famous history museum in Russia. In 16 specialist departments, it houses around 4.5 million exhibits on Russian history from almost all epochs and also organizes themed special exhibitions several times a year. In addition to the actual museum building, the historical museum complex also includes Saint Basil's Cathedral and the [[Novodevichy Convent]], which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

=== Resurrection Gate ===
{{main|Resurrection Gate}}
[[File:Воскресенские (Иверские) ворота (1).jpg|thumb|Resurrection Gate, facing southeast]]
The Resurrection Gate forms one of the two entrances to Red Square from the northwest side. This structure, built for the first time in 1680, was initially part of the Kitai-Gorod fortifications. In its base part it consists of two arched portals, which are crowned in a symmetrical manner by two rectangular towers, the tops of which are strongly reminiscent of the Kremlin towers. Originally, the Resurrection Gate represented part of the architectural ensemble at the northern end of Red Square, which, in addition to the gate, included the affiliated building of the government administration (see below) and the no longer preserved pharmacy building, which had to give way to the History Museum at the end of the 19th century. During the times of the [[Russian Empire]], the gate served as a symbolic entrance gate to the heart of Moscow, especially during major celebrations: the [[tsar]]s always passed the gate at their coronation celebrations before the coronation was proclaimed in front of the people on Red Square.

In 1931, the new state authorities had the gate dismantled so that it would not obstruct the passage of military technology during major military parades on Red Square. Today's gate is largely a replica of the original and dates from 1996. Between the two portals on the north side of the gate, the chapel of the icon of the Mother of God of [[Iviron]], originally built in 1781, was rebuilt at the same time. A new copy of the icon was made for this chapel on [[Mount Athos]], where the Iviron monastery is located.

=== Former government administration ===
[[File:Moscow Red Mint asv2018-09 img1.jpg|thumb|left|The building in 2018]]
The building standing between the Resurrection Gate and the Kazan Cathedral is one of the less conspicuous buildings on Red Square. It was built between 1733 and 1740 and since then has served as the headquarters of the administration of the city of Moscow and the [[Moscow Governorate]] (the latter partially corresponds to today's [[Moscow Oblast]]). The government administration building was not spared from the [[French Invasion of Russia|war against Napoleon in 1812]], in which large parts of Moscow were destroyed. In the 1810s it was then rebuilt, under the direction of the architect [[Joseph Bové]], who was instrumental in the reconstruction of the city at that time. In the course of this reconstruction, a tower was added to the roof of the house, which for a long time served as an observation tower for a fire station. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, this tower was dismantled.

In the courtyard of the former government administration building, the old building of the state [[Mint (facility)|mint]] has been preserved to this day. This was built in 1697 by decree of [[Peter the Great]] and since then has housed a production facility for silver coins for almost a quarter of a century before the money issuing system of the tsarist Empire was essentially relocated to Saint Petersburg. After the end of minting, the lower part of the building, which had no windows, was temporarily used as a [[Debtors' prison]] for insolvent merchants. Today, both the former government building and the old mint belong to the neighbouring historical museum.

=== Kazan Cathedral ===
{{main|Kazan Cathedral (Moscow)}}
[[File:Kazansky Cathedral in MSK.jpg|thumb|Kazan Cathedral]]
The Kazan Cathedral is to the right of the former government administration building, on the corner of Red Square and Nikolskaya Street. Today's cathedral is a replica from 1993; originally there was a church at this site since the 1620s, initially a wooden one, then a stone one from 1636 onwards.

The Kazan Cathedral owes its name to the icon of [[Our Lady of Kazan]], which has been venerated by the believers of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] for centuries. According to a legend, it was precisely this icon of the Russian People's army, led by the national heroes [[Kuzma Minin]] and [[Dmitri Pozharsky]], who defeated the [[Military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] in 1612. A few years after the victory, the devout Prince Pozharsky founded the cathedral dedicated to this icon. This corresponded to the then usual Russian tradition of building churches in memory of historically important victories in Russia.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square was one of the most important Moscow places of worship and was the scene of solemn cross processions led by the patriarch and the tsar, especially on the anniversary of the victory over the [[Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]].

In 1936 the cathedral, like many other Moscow places of worship, was demolished at the approval of [[Joseph Stalin]]. It was not until the early 1990s that the reconstruction, which was called for by the public on several occasions, began and was completed in 1993. This made the Kazan Cathedral one of the first places of worship in Moscow to be destroyed during the Soviet era, to be rebuilt in the 1990s.

=== GUM department store ===
{{main|GUM (department store)}}
[[File:0169 - Moskau 2015 - Roter Platz (25795529393).jpg|thumb|GUM]]
The GUM department store, situated at the eastern side of the square, occupies the entire section between Nikolskaya and Ilyinka streets. Due to its location directly on Red Square, and its considerable size, the sales area is around {{convert|35000|m2|sqft}}. Owing to the building's striking architecture, the GUM is the best-known [[shopping center]] in Russia.

Built in 1893, it replaced an [[Empire style]] building that had housed the Upper Trading Ranks since 1815, which united a large part of Kitai-Gorod's trading activities under one roof. After this building began to deteriorate in the middle of the 19th century, there were plans for a building to replace it. However, due to organisational difficulties, these could only be implemented in the 1890s, for which a special company was founded and an ideas competition among architects was advertised. This was won by a project by the architecture professor Alexander Pomeranzewas, as well as the little-known engineer Vladimir Schuchow. The construction of the new trade rows lasted from 1890 to 1893. When they were ceremoniously opened on 2 December 1893, the new structure was able to impress the Russian and foreign public, not only with an unprecedented range of all kinds of consumer goods, but also with a completely new glass roof construction of the three passages, designed by Schuchow and built using around 60,000 panes of glass. The building's architectural style, like the neighbouring Historical Museum a decade earlier, was in the historical "Russian style" with a roof gable based on typical [[boyar]] palaces of the 16th century, two decorative towers based on the Kremlin and a main facade reminiscent of historical Russian buildings.

During the [[History of the Soviet Union|Soviet era]], the new upper trading ranks had an eventful history. In 1921, they were given their current name GUM («ГУМ»), which, at the time, was the abbreviation for «Государственный Универсальный Магазин» ('State Department Store'); today it stands for «Главный Универсальный Магазин» ('Main Universal Store'). In the early 1930s, they were closed for two decades and served as office and residential buildings, and from the end of 1953, until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the store was considered a model department store in the middle of the real socialist [[shortage economy]]. In the 1990s, the store was privatised and thoroughly renovated, and today, it presents itself to the locals and tourists as a noble shopping centre characterised by boutiques in the upper price ranges. Since 2013, GUM operates a yearly Christmas fair in front of its department store, the biggest one in all of Russia.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-12-02 |title=Новогодняя ГУМ-Ярмарка на Красной площади |url=https://www.buro247.ru/community/party/pervaya-gum-yarmarka-na-krasnoy-ploshcadi.html |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=BURO. |language=ru}}</ref>

=== Middle Trade Rows ===
[[File:Middle Trade Rows Moscow 06-2015.jpg|thumb|Middle Trade Rows]]
The building at the easternmost point of the square, on the corner of Ilyinka Street, stands exactly where the Middle Trading Rows stood in the 17th century. These formed, along with the Upper Trading Rows, where today's GUM store is located, as part of the broader market trading area that helped shape the [[Kitay-gorod]] district, adjacent to the Red Square. This massive expanse of assorted market stalls and self-made wooden huts was for the first time replaced at the end of the 18th century, by a building complex specially built for trade, whose authorship is attributed to the Italian builder [[Giacomo Quarenghi]]. In the war of 1812, however, these buildings were burned down and were replaced by the Middle Trading Rows building, rebuilt by [[Joseph Bové]], which has been preserved to this day and is located on Ilyinka Street a few hundred meters east of Red Square.

The Middle Trade Rows was not built until 1894, as was the GUM store. Planned from the start as a supplement to the latter, the upper rows were supposed to accommodate retail trade, while the premises to their right were reserved for the wholesale trade, which is why both of the buildings look very similar architecturally. The building's architect was [[Roman Klein]], who also designed numerous other well-known Moscow structures in the late 19th century, including the [[Pushkin Museum]].

After the Bolsheviks came to power, the building was no longer used as a trading house, but became the headquarters of various public bodies. Until recent times, it belonged to the [[Russian Armed Forces]]. At the beginning of 2007, four inner structures of the former trading rows were demolished while plans were made to reconstruct the entire building true to the original to house an exclusive hotel. These plans came under criticism from both Russian and foreign media as circumventing the preservation order by cleverly exploiting a loophole in the law. Work is currently underway to set up a museum in the building's interior space, to designs by Meganom and [[Nowadays Office]]. The new museum is going to form a part of the [[UNESCO]] protected ensemble of Moscow Kremlin Museums, and will bring a part of the [[Kremlin Armoury]] collection outside the Kremlin walls.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Kremlin museum|url=https://nowadaysoffice.com/en/project/27|access-date=2021-05-10|website=Nowadays}}</ref>

=== Lobnoye Mesto ===
[[File:Place of Skulls (Лобное Место) - panoramio.jpg|thumb|Lobnoye Mesto at the center]]
The Lobnoye Mesto (Russian: Лобное место) is a round, grandstand-like structure made of white stone in the southeastern part of the square, in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral. At the same time, it is one of the oldest buildings on the square that has been documented to this day. Lobnoye Mesto was first mentioned in 1549, when the then 19 year old [[tsar]] [[Ivan The Terrible]] gave a speech there. Thus, it must have been conceived from the beginning as a platform from which, above all, tsar decrees were announced to the people. The name ''Lobnoye Mesto'' could literally mean 'forehead' or 'skull' (and thus a literal translation of [[Golgotha]]), however, according to other hypotheses, it has nothing to do with a forehead, but with its location near the praise, as a steep river bank was called in medieval Russia.

According to tradition, the grandstand on Red Square was originally made of wood, and the current stone building with a gate made of iron grating dates from the late 1590s. In the course of time, the Lobnoye Mesto was not only used as a platform for state announcements and announcements, but also as the centre of solemn events; the [[patriarch]]s of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] gave speeches to the crowd here, at solemn services on Red Square. At the same time, the Lobnoye Mesto became notorious as the scene of executions, such as the one of [[Stenka Rasin]] in 1671, and many others. Although, these executions were not carried out directly in the stand, but a few meters away.

After Saint Petersburg became Imperial Russia's capital, the Lobnoye Mesto lost its function as the tsar's tribune and has been a monument ever since. In 1786, it was rebuilt according to a design by the architect [[Matvey Kazakov]], and moved a few meters to the east.

=== Monument to Minin and Pozharsky ===
{{main|Monument to Minin and Pozharsky}}
[[File:Moscow 05-2017 img07 Monument to Minin and Pozharsky.jpg|thumb|Monument to Minin and Pozharsky]]
The monument to the two Russian national heroes Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitri Poszharsky, erected between 1812 and 1818, stands directly in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral. Just like the Kazan Cathedral donated by the latter at the time in the northern part of the square, this monument also commemorates the liberation of Moscow from the Polish–Lithuanian occupation troops in 1612, to which the popular army led by Minin and Poszharsky made a decisive contribution.

The bronze monument, which weighs 20 tons, and was financed entirely from donations at the time, was designed by the sculptor [[Ivan Martos]]. After almost 15 years of planning and construction, it was unveiled in a festive ceremony in February 1818. Since at the time, it had been five years since Russia successfully [[French invasion of Russia|stopped the French invasion]] led by [[Napoleon]], and the reconstruction of Moscow had just been completed, the monument was celebrated when it was erected as a symbol of the invincibility of Russia and the heroism of its sons. Originally, however, the sculpture did not stand in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral, but in front of today's GUM department store at the level of the main entrance. It was only moved to its current location in 1930, to make more space for military parades and large-scale demonstrations.

=== Saint Basil's Cathedral ===
{{main|Saint Basil's Cathedral}}
[[File:1 Saint Basils Cathedral.jpg|thumb|Saint Basil's Cathedral]]
Saint Basil's Cathedral, which delimits the square on its southern side, is undoubtedly the square's most famous building, and one of Russia's cultural icons. Once, the church was the main place of worship in Moscow, but today the cathedral mainly functions as a museum that is part of the complex of the State Historical Museum in the opposite. Since the early 1990s, services have been held in the cathedral at irregular intervals.

In the middle of the 16th century, the wooden Church of the Holy Trinity, stood exactly on the site of Saint Basil's Cathedral. In 1555, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered a monumental church to be built on the site, which was a token of the victory of Russia over the [[Khanate of Kazan]] three years earlier. This was according to the tradition of the time to have churches built to commemorate military victories. The wooden church was then demolished and the present cathedral was built on this site by 1561, making it one of the oldest buildings on the square. The name of the cathedral, which is still more common today, was given in memory of [[Basil Fool for Christ|Basil the Blessed]], who was venerated by tsar Ivan at the time, and after his death in 1522, he was buried near the cathedral. [[Ivan Barma]] and [[Postnik Yakovlev]] were among the most popular architects of the church.

From the completion of the cathedral to the relocation of Russia's capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, it remained the most important church in the city and the venue for solemn services on all major Orthodox festivals. In its history, the cathedral was threatened with destruction several times; legend has it that Napoleon ordered the cathedral to be blown up when he withdrew from Moscow in 1812, but a sudden downpour extinguished the fuses that had already been ignited. In 1918, after the October Revolution, the cathedral was closed by the Bolsheviks and its head was executed. At the same time, there were demolition plans for the cathedral, only the personal commitment of the architect [[Pyotr Baranovsky]], who was commissioned to prepare the demolition against the plans ultimately prevented their implementation.

What is particularly striking about the cathedral is its asymmetrical and unique architectural style, which greatly distinguishes it from most other Russian Orthodox church buildings. The central element of the house are its nine church towers with brightly painted onion-shaped domes, some of which are very different in size and colour. The latter also has the effect that the building does not have a main facade and therefore offers the viewer an unusual view from every side. Originally built of white stone, the cathedral was decorated in places with red bricks during a renovation in the middle of the 17th century, which gives it its striking colour heterogeneity to this day. The inside of the cathedral is also very imposing with a labyrinth-like system of corridors and galleries.

=== 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}}.

=== Lenin Mausoleum ===
{{main|Lenin's Mausoleum}}
[[File:Moscow LeninMausoleum 1547.JPG|thumb|Lenin's Mausoleum, as seen in front of the Kremlin]]
An important monument of the Soviet era is the Lenin Mausoleum, which is located in the western side of the square. It stands by the Kremlin wall at the height of the Senate Tower, almost exactly where the protective moat ran until the 18th century, and a tram line ran from 1909 to 1930. Inside the mausoleum, the lavishly embalmed corpse of Vladimir Lenin rests in an armoured glass sarcophagus. To this day, the mausoleum is open to visitors on certain days.

Today's building made of [[granite]] and [[labradorite]], was preceded by two provisional mausoleums made of [[oak]]. The first of these was erected in January 1924, a few days after Lenin's death, and had a simple cube shape at a height of three meters, a second temporary arrangement was set up in the spring of 1924. The current building was erected between 1929 and 1930. From the outside, it has the shape of a multi-tiered pyramid, which should underline the character of the mausoleum as a monumental burial place based on ancient models. The author of the design was the renowned architect [[Alexey Shchusev]], who also had the two previous mausoleums built.

From the completion of the mausoleum, and until the end of the Soviet Union, the mausoleum was considered a central attraction, and a place of worship in the socialist world. During the military parades and marches on Red Square, heads of state appeared from the central stand on the roof of the mausoleum until the mid-1990s. In 1953, the body of the deceased Lenin's successor Joseph Stalin was embalmed and laid out in the mausoleum. Eight years later, however, he was removed from the mausoleum in the course of the so-called [[de-Stalinization]], which began after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, and buried at the Kremlin wall.

Today the mausoleum still attracts numerous tourists, although mostly no longer motivated by the personality cult surrounding the revolutionary leader. Notwithstanding this, the further laying out of Lenin's remains in the mausoleum is controversial. Many celebrities, including the last Soviet head of state, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], spoke out in favour of Lenin's burial.

=== Kremlin Wall Necropolis ===
{{main|Kremlin Wall Necropolis}}
Right behind Lenin's Mausoleum, along the walls of the Kremlin, there is a large [[Ehrengrab|cemetery of honour]]. This was created in November 1917, when around 250 soldiers had fallen during the [[October Revolution]] in Moscow. They found their final resting place in two collective graves near the Senate tower. The tradition of burying revolutionaries on Red Square, the ultimate symbol of the Bolshevik Revolution, continued immediately: as early as the spring of 1919, Lenin's leading comrade [[Yakov Sverdlov]] was buried on the Kremlin wall and received with Lenin's Mausoleum, which was completed in 1930 the burial place is its central element. Since then, the mausoleum and the surrounding cemetery have been collectively referred to as the Revolutionary Necropolis.

From the 1920s to the 1980s, hundreds of people were buried in Red Square who were considered to be the most deserving sons and daughters of the Soviet Union, that is, revolutionaries, [[heroes of the Soviet Union]], statesmen and military leaders of the highest order. The burial in the Kremlin wall necropolis was in fact considered the highest posthumous honour that was reserved for only a few. A total of twelve statesmen; including Sverdlov, [[Mikhail Kalinin]], [[Kliment Voroshilov]], [[Leonid Brezhnev]] and Stalin, who was laid out in the mausoleum until 1961, were buried in individual graves, and a large number of the revolutionaries rest here in a total of 15 collective graves. Most of the burials here, however, are niches in the Kremlin wall, in which over 100 [[urn]]s with the remains of revolutionaries, heroes or main ideologues are walled. The people whose urns are in the Kremlin wall include, among others, Lenin's companion [[Nadezhda Krupskaya]], the first cosmonaut [[Yuri Gagarin]], the revolutionary writer [[Maxim Gorky]], the nuclear weapon developer [[Igor Kurchatov]], but also foreign politicians [[Clara Zetkin]] and [[Fritz Heckert]].

The necropolis on the Kremlin wall has been a memorial since 1974. After the 1985 funeral of the head of state [[Konstantin Chernenko]], there have been no further burials. The tombs of the necropolis can now be visited at the same time as the mausoleum.