Vasili disregarded the decision of the Church and married a most able and enlightened woman, who had the foresight to surround the Kitai Gorod with a wall of good masonry, and it is said, named that part of the town after a similarly designated enclosure in her native place. She bore Vasili two sons, Ivan, the Tsarevich, who was later the “terrible” Tsar, succeeding to the throne in 1533, when but three years of age. The younger son, Yuri, fared badly at the hands of his cruel brother.
The Moscow of the Princes was of wood, and the vestiges remaining are unimportant. Some of the later buildings, as the palace of the Terem and towers of the Kremlin wall, have been built in the style of the wooden erections they replaced; but it is not easy to picture Moscow as it was before Ivan’s Italian workmen raised their walls of brick and stone.
The town was of great size; in 1520 it contained 41,500 dwellings and 100,000 inhabitants. Its circumference was nearly twelve miles. The Grand Prince and his relations lived in the Kremlin; so did a few of the richest and most powerful nobles. In the Kitai Gorod lived the traders, the wealthy boyards and foreigners. The Bielo Gorod, “White” or Free Town, was occupied by boyards, merchants and privileged citizens; in the outer ring lived the artisans and labourers. The churches and chapels were numerous. Ivan Kalita built ten when there were already eighteen in the town, in 1337; in the reign of Vasili III. there were as many monasteries and nunneries, and upwards of three score churches and chapels.
The first dwelling in the Kremlin was the Prince’s habitation, originally called the Prince’s apartment, which served only as a pied à terre for the Prince when passing through. When Moscow became a place of residence then a house was put up near where the Great Palace now is. Then followed the usual dependences; including a prison or dungeon. Even at that early date the Russian carpenters were able craftsmen; how expert they afterwards became the wonderful wooden palaces and churches of Russia accurately demonstrate.
The Princes of Moscow were not extravagant, their palaces consisting of four chambers, en suite—the one most distant from the entrance was the sleeping-room; then, adjoining it, the oratory or private chapel; the room for living or affairs of the town, the anti-chamber; the vestibule; add kitchens and domestic rooms on a lower floor, and the early palaces of the Russian princes is complete.
Vasili III. required no more; his palace in the Kremlin consisted, on the bel étage, of the vestibule, an anti-chamber, and two rooms. In a separate building, reached by a corridor or covered staircase, the bathroom and storerooms. Above the bel étage, either a large open loft, or a belvedere pierced with windows on all sides and communicating with the terrace. The apartments reserved for the children, and for relations of the sovereign, were in separate buildings offering similar accommodation.