The Ivanskaya Tower is the largest four-tiered gate tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, built between 1500 and approximately 1516. It is situated in the lower part of the fortress, between White Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. It is a federally protected cultural heritage site.[1] The lower section of the Ivanovskiy Descent, formerly known as Bolshaya Mostovaya Street, passes through the tower. The tower takes its name from Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, which stood on the approaches to it. The Church of John the Baptist is one of the oldest churches in Nizhny Novgorod: a wooden church on the site is attested from the 14th century; according to one account, it was on its porch that Kuzma Minin addressed the city's inhabitants, calling them to rise against the foreign invaders. The stone Church of John the Baptist was built at the expense of the merchant Gavriil Stepanovich Dranishnikov, who received a metropolitan's blessing to begin construction in 1676; after the patron's sudden death in 1679, his brother Lavrentiy completed the project, and the church was consecrated in 1683.[2][1]
History
According to one account, the Ivanskaya Tower was the first stone tower of The Kremlin and was originally called the Tverskaya Tower — its foundation is dated to 1500, although no documents bearing that name have survived. In support of the idea that construction of the Kremlin began with this tower, researchers cite a strategic argument: the tower protected the most important part of the city, with its trading posad and wharves.[1]
The tower is associated with a legend about Siege of Nizhny Novgorod (1505) by the combined forces of Muhammad-Amin and his brother-in-law, a murza of the Nogai Horde. According to the legend, the death of the Nogai murza, shot from the Ivanskaya Tower by a captive Lithuanian gunner, was what caused the siege to be lifted.[1]
Of all the Kremlin's surviving towers, the Ivanskaya reached modern times in the most damaged condition, owing to the constant action of water running down from Chasovaya Hill along the curtain walls, which had no roofing. Its walls were reinforced on the outside with buttresses on wooden piles from the time of the earliest repairs. The tower suffered repeatedly from fires, and in 1531 a gunpowder explosion occurred inside it, necessitating extensive rebuilding. After the explosion, the outer walls above the encircling gallery were not restored: on the north-eastern wall of the gallery, merlons were formed from the original piers between the embrasures, while the remaining sides received small decorative merlons.[1]
The side chambers of the tower were used as storerooms. The southern section of the annex served as a prison, and in the 17th century a gubnaya izba (a local criminal court) was located nearby, where interrogations and investigations were conducted.[1] After the Kremlin lost its military significance (by 1697), repairs and alterations continued. Following the fire of 1715, the upper superstructure was completely rebuilt and came to resemble an ordinary single-storey house with windows, a low roof, and a chimney. In 1786–1788 the tower was repaired and converted entirely into a prison. In 1815, a breach gate with a flat lintel was made in the wall alongside it. In 1819 the last fire occurred in the tower. Until 1887 it housed Fire Stations in Nizhny Novgorod.[1]
Architecture
The tower has a rectangular footprint and four tiers. Structurally it belongs to the gate-tower type: the Ivanovskiy Descent passes through it. The walls were reinforced with buttresses on multiple occasions over the centuries; behind them, a mass of stone and brick rubble accumulated over time.[1]
Restoration
The tower acquired its present appearance in the 1950s, when restoration works raised it to approximately twice the height it had retained up to that point. The restoration thus effectively doubled the tower's height relative to the condition in which it had survived to the mid-20th century.[3] This intervention was subsequently assessed by specialists as a distortion of the structure's historical appearance.[1]
Sources
- Wikipedia (ru) — Ivanskaya Tower
- nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitanate — The Church of John the Baptist, which gave the tower its name, is one of the oldest churches in Nizhny Novgorod: a wooden church on the site is attested from the 14th century. According to one account… (archive)
- ru.ruwiki.ru — During the restoration of the 1950s, the tower was raised to twice the height at which it had survived up to that point… (archive)
- experience.tripster.ru — Unusual tours and excursions around the world (archive)
- travel.yandex.ru