It is difficult to say how many churches there are in Moscow, the several accounts differ so widely. Some speak of 1,500, others 500; the former number must include public and private chapels, and those in convents, but the holiest of them all are three in the Kremlin. Though not extensive, they are crowded with pictures and shrines, the heavy pillars that support the fine cupolas are covered with gold from top to bottom, and the walls the same with large fresco paintings, darkened by age.
Here is Mount Sinai, and a golden Moses of pure gold, with a golden table of the law, and also a golden coffer to contain the Host, said to weigh 120,000 ducats. A Bible, the gift of the mother of Peter the Great, the cover so laden with gold and jewels that it requires two men to carry it into the church; it is said to weigh 120 lbs. The emeralds on the cover are an inch long, and the whole binding cost 1,200,000 roubles, or £200,000 sterling.
In the house of the Holy Synod are thirty silver vessels containing the holy oil used in baptising all the children in Russia. It is made of the finest Florence oil, mingled with a number of essences, about three or four gallons serving all Russia for one and a half or two years.
Here one of our fellow travellers, impelled by that curiosity common to the sex, dipped her finger into one of the holy jars and forthwith anointed herself, bidding me to do the same; and, thus tempted, I followed her example and also tried its efficacy upon my other half, without finding, I must confess, any material change. I have since thought that such antics, though not done in derision, might have proved serious and led to our detention and perhaps final removal to a distant part of the empire.
In the church of St. Michael the Archangel are the tombs of the Russian sovereigns, which are raised sepulchres, mostly of brick, in the shape of a coffin and about two feet high.
In addition to the churches and palaces there is in the Kremlin an immense pile of buildings called the Senate.
In the upper storey are collected and arranged the crowns of the early Tzars, also a throne covered with crimson velvet and blazing with diamonds. The two long galleries which open out of this room contain innumerable treasures, the captured crowns of the various countries now forming provinces of this vast empire, as well as those of the Moscovite Tzars, one containing 881 diamonds, another 847, and that of Catherine, the first widow of Peter the Great, 2,536 fine diamonds, to which the Empress added a ruby of enormous size. In addition to these crowns are several rich diadems similarly ornamented.
Many thrones are to be seen in these rooms, one adorned with 2,760 turquoises and other precious stones—that of Michael Romanoff, the first of the reigning families, is enriched with 8,824 diamonds, and the throne of Alexis contains 876 diamonds and 1,220 jewels and many pearls.
Besides these numerous thrones, there are saddles, bridles, and reins and saddle cloths covered most lavishly with diamonds, amethysts and large turquoises—a large boss, adorning the horse's chest, in the centre of which is an immense diamond, and round this a circle of pink topazes, enclosed in pearls, and these again by diamonds, the whole encircled by a broad gold band.
But perhaps the greatest curiosity is a pair of old wooden chairs, used at the coronation of the Emperors. Though made of coarse wood they are said to contain 1,000 precious stones.