According to tradition the tall bell tower has a very ancient origin but as a matter of fact it was constructed at the close of the sixteenth century to find employment for a starving population. Its foundations are on a level with the river bed, 120 feet below the surface; its height above is 320 feet, built in five storeys, the first four octagonal, the topmost cylindrical. In the eighteenth century it was considered one of the wonders of the world, and to this day the orthodox invariably cross themselves when passing it. Dedicated to St John and containing in the basement a chapel to the same saint, it is supposed to owe its name to this, but tradition states that it was constructed by one John (Ivan) Viliers whose patronymic has been corrupted into Veliki—that is, “great” or “big.”
There are 450 steps to the gallery under the cupola, whereon is an inscription of which the following is a translation:—
“Under the protection of the Holy Trinity and by order of the Tsar and Grand Duke Boris Theodorovich autocrat of all the Russias, and of his son the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Theodore Borisovich, this church has been completed and gold-crowned the second year of their reign. A.M. 7180.”[A]
[A] Date erroneous: built 1590-1600 A.D.
Adjoining Ivan Veliki is another tower, that of the Assumption, in which are hung the larger bells, and still further to the north a third belfry with a pyramidal spire, known as the Tower of Philaret.
The chapel of St John is on, or near, the spot occupied by a small wood church first erected in 1320; it contains several ikons of interest. On the first storey under the dome of the Assumption Tower is a chapel dedicated to St Nicholas, replacing a fourteenth-century church in the Kremlin. It is specially visited by the orthodox about to marry, and contains some ikons removed from the church of St Nicholas of Galstun, demolished during the reign of Alexander I. (1816). A deacon of the old church, Ivan Theodorof, introduced printing into Russia, and in 1567 produced a book of hours on Moscow. Hence, the book depôt lodged in the tower. Very characteristic of Moscow are these three towers, of different styles of architecture, massed to form one building; that the three should all be white is a pleasing convention which has long endured. It is needless to state that there is an excellent view from the upper storeys, one well worth the toilsome ascent. Moreover the bells are interesting; though some visitors are content with an examination of the great Bell of Moscow which, broken and flawed, stands upon a pedestal at the foot of the Ivan Veliki tower.
The art of bell-founding first practised at Nola in Campania in the ninth century, has been known in Russia since the fourteenth; in 1553 a bell of about 15 tons was cast in Moscow and hung in a wooden tower. Since that date many large bells have been cast and recast. The largest, the Tsar Kolokol, the “Great Bell of Moscow,” is supposed to have been first cast in the sixteenth century, probably during the reign of Boris Godunov; in 1611 a traveller states that in Moscow is a bell whose clapper is rung by two dozen men; in 1636, a fire in the Kremlin caused the bell to fall and it was broken. In 1654 it was recast and then weighed some 130 tons; it was 2 feet thick and its circumference over 50 feet. It was suspended at the foot of the tower, and the wooden beam supporting it being burned by the fire of 1706 it once more fell to the ground and broke. It was recast by order of the Empress Anne in 1733, but it is doubtful whether it was hung. From 1737 to 1836 it lay beneath the surface. By the order of the Tsar Nicholas, De Ferrand raised it from the pit and mounted it on the pedestal it now occupies. It is 2 feet thick, 21 feet high (26 feet, 4 inches with ball and cross) 68 feet in girth, and weighs 185 tons. The fragment is 7 feet high and weighs 11 tons. The figures represent the Tsar Alexis and the Empress Anne. It bears a long inscription:—
“Alexis Michaelovich of happy memory, Autocrat of Great and Small Russia and of White Russia, gave the order that for the Cathedral of the pure and glorious Assumption of the Holy Virgin, a bell should be cast with 8000 poods of copper, in the year of the world 7162 and of the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour, 1645. This bell was used in the year 7176 (A.D. 1668), and served until the year of the creation 7208 and of Jesus Christ 1701; in which last year on the 19 June it was broken in a great fire that destroyed the Kremlin: it was mute until the year of the creation ... and of our Lord.... By the command of the majestic Empress-Autocrat Anna Ivanovna, for the glory of God, of the Holy Trinity, and in honour of the Holy Virgin, in the Cathedral of her glorious Assumption, they melted the metal of the old bell of 8000 poods, damaged by the fire and added thereto 2000 poods of new metal, the year of the world 7241 and of the birth of our Saviour 1734, and the fourth of the glorious reign of Her Majesty.”
“Thirty-four bells hang in these three towers; the largest is the “big bell” of the Uspenski Sobor, which is in the middle tower and on the lowest tier. It was cast in 1817 by Bogdanof, to replace the bell broken when the tower was wrecked by the mine exploded beneath it in 1812. A bell of 7 tons is the largest in the tower of Ivan, which, originally founded in 1501 by Afanasief, has been subsequently recast; the next storey has three old bells and amongst those of the highest storey are two “silver” bells. The oldest here dates from 1550; other old bells, Russian, Dutch, and others, are hung in the belfry of Spass na Boru, in that of St Michael in the courtyard of the Chudov Monastery, and in the belfry of the Vossnesenski Convent. Russian bells are not swung, but are sounded by moving the clapper, to the tongue of which the bell rope is attached; the clapper of the “Kolokol” is 14 feet in length and 6 feet in circumference. The famous bells of Moscow are:—
“The Tsar Kolokol, 185 tons; Assumption or ‘Big Bell’—in use—64 tons; The Thunderer (Reut), 30 tons, cast by Chokov in 1689, it also fell in 1812 but was not broken; The Every Day (Vsednievni), 15 tons, cast in 1782; The Seven-hundredth (Semisotni), 10 tons; Bear (Medvied), 7 tons; Swan (Lebeda), 7 tons; Novgorodsk, 6 tons; The ‘Wide’ Bell (Shirokoi), 4½ tons; Slobodski, 4½ tons; Rostovski, 3 tons.”