The Terem Palace is an architectural monument of the 17th century, located on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin. The palace was built in 1635-1636 on the orders of Mikhail Fedorovich as the ceremonial royal chambers. The construction of the first stone royal chambers was carried out by masters Larion Ushakov, Bazhen Ogurtsov and Trefil Sharutin under the guidance of Antipa Konstantinov. Currently, the palace is part of the ensemble of the Grand Kremlin Palace and is the residence of the President of Russia.
The chambers of the Moscow princes were historically
built on a high place above the Borovitsky Kremlin hill. According to
Alexei Malinovsky, the author of the Moscow Review, “since the time of
Ioann Daniilovich Kalita, the Grand Duke’s Palace has occupied the most
beautiful location among the Kremlin, dominating the entire visible
neighborhood ...”. In the first half of the 15th century, the mansions
of Grand Duchess Sophia Vitovtovna, wife of Vasily I, were located on
the edge of the hill. Subsequently, the princely court expanded east to
the Annunciation Cathedral and took the place of the present Grand
Kremlin Palace. The princely mansions often changed their appearance due
to fires, reconstructions and expansions.
Under Ivan III, the
reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin was undertaken: the Grand Duke
decided to completely tear down the old white stone walls and build
brick ones in their place. Work began in the summer of 1485 and was
completed only under Vasily III. Inside the Kremlin, many new stone
buildings were erected, including: the Assumption Cathedral, a hall for
ceremonial receptions - the Faceted Chamber, the Archangel Cathedral.
The first stone residential buildings of the Sovereign's Court appeared
in 1499-1508, their authorship belongs to the Italian architect Aleviz
Fryazin. The palace of Aleviz stood for a long time, but wooden
mansions, porches and other structures were repeatedly attached to it.
By the time of Mikhail Fedorovich's accession to the
throne, the Tsar's Palace of the Kremlin was in poor condition: after
the Time of Troubles, much was burned, looted or destroyed. In
1635-1636, by order of the sovereign, new stone royal chambers were
built, which were called the Terem Palace. The construction of the
chambers was supervised by apprentices Antip Konstantinov, Trefil
Sharutin, Bazhen Ogurtsov and Larion Ushakov. For the construction,
innovative technologies for that time were used using iron "ties". This
contributed to a decrease in the thickness of the walls and,
accordingly, an increase in the internal space of the building. Another
feature of the Terem Palace was its enfilade layout - this is the first
example of such a building in Rus'.
The basis for the
construction of new royal chambers were the chambers of Ivan III built
by Aleviz Fryazin. Three new floors were built over the two existing
ones (the 15th-century basement and the 16th-century Master Chambers)
indented from the outer edge of the former walls, which made it possible
to create an open terrace around the palace. The main entrance to Terema
was located from the east. At the level of the basement, the front Bed
Porch (Boyarskaya Ploshchad) was built, where the Bed Staircase led from
the Church of the Savior on Bor. From the Boyarskaya platform, along the
open Golden Stairs (Lower Golden Porch), which ran at right angles to
the Bednaya, it was possible to climb the Front Stone Yard or the
Verkhospassky Platform (the name is given by the Church of the Savior on
Senya, built simultaneously with the palace above the Golden Tsarina’s
Chamber; this church limited platform from the east). From the 1670s,
the golden staircase was locked at the Verkhospassky platform with a
gilded copper lattice (according to this lattice, the Church of the
Savior was sometimes called “behind the golden lattice”). From the
Verkhospassky platform, through the Upper Golden Porch, decorated with
hipped lockers and creeping arches, one could go to the fourth floor of
the palace, to the royal chambers. The last floor, "Upper Tower", was
completed in 1637 [9]. It was built indented from the outer walls of the
fourth floor, so it is also surrounded by an open terrace (Upper stone
courtyard). Thus, the entire building of the Terem Palace received a
kind of stepped tiered composition with open stairs and porches.
The construction of the Terem Palace became for Mikhail Fedorovich an
important part of the large construction in the Kremlin. The chroniclers
noted that the transformation of the sovereign's chambers was "very
cunning", "very bizarre". In 1637, the decoration of the new stone choir
was completed: master Ivan Osipov painted the roof with silver and gold
leaf, inserted colored mica windows into the windows. The painting of
the palace rooms was carried out under the guidance of the icon painter
Simon Ushakov.
The final appearance of the Terem Palace was
formed during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. Gardens and greenhouses
were arranged near the building along Borovitsky Hill, which became an
additional decoration of the Kremlin.
The Terem Palace was one of
the buildings of the Tsar's court, which in the 17th century was a
complex complex of heterogeneous buildings. On the front side, to the
Cathedral Square, there was the Faceted Chamber, to the south were the
Middle Golden and Dining Chambers. On the edge of the hill were the
Embankment chambers, and on the north side were the Bed mansions of the
members of the royal family. After a fire in 1696, all the wooden
buildings of the complex burned down, which led to the gradual decline
of the Tsar's Kremlin Palace.
After the capital was transferred to St. Petersburg
and the royal court moved there, the newly established offices of the
collegiums settled in the palace.
The Kremlin buildings were
particularly damaged by large fires that repeatedly occurred throughout
the 18th and 19th centuries. The fire of 1701 destroyed many wooden
buildings of the Kremlin. The stone chambers of the Royal Court remained
unfinished for a long time.
Eyewitness report:
"July 19, 1701
... by the will of God, a fire started: the cells in the Novospassky
metochion caught fire (in the Kremlin); and the fire broke out
throughout the Kremlin, the tsar's court burned out without a trace;
wooden mansions and in stone everything inside, in basements and cellars
- all stocks food and drink ... Every wooden structure burned down
without a trace.
In 1737, another big fire broke out in Moscow,
and the buildings of the Tsar's Court were almost completely burned
down. Under Elizabeth Petrovna in 1749-1753, on the basements of the old
reception chambers, the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli erected a new
palace, called the Winter Palace.
During the Patriotic War of
1812, Napoleon stayed in the Elizabethan Winter Palace, and his retinue
was housed in the buildings of the former Terem Palace. In the same
year, the Winter Palace burned down, and in 1838 it was completely
dismantled. By 1849, the New Imperial Kremlin Palace was built in its
place, which is currently called the Grand Kremlin Palace. Architect
Konstantin Ton combined the new buildings with the Terem Palace. The
appearance and interior space of the Terems were recreated according to
the samples and drawings of the era of Alexei Mikhailovich. At the same
time, the palace did not escape some distortions of the original
appearance: the modest architraves of the first floor were replaced with
richly carved white stone ones, and a stair tower was added on the north
side.
The five-story palace of Mikhail Fedorovich was a
large and monumental building. Its appearance combines elements of the
Old Russian style with Italian architecture. Along with the traditional
methods of decorative decoration - fly, ornamental wickerwork, tiles,
carved gilded comb on the roof ridge - the architects of the palace used
classical order forms. The tiered stepped composition with open
walkways, platforms and stairs retains the features of the mansion
buildings of ancient Russian architecture. Nevertheless, it was a new
type of stone construction with a suite of interior spaces
characteristic of later palaces, balanced by regularly spaced volumes.
On the eastern and western sections of the basement, surrounded by
arched galleries, house churches were located; thus, the Terem Palace
was originally the center of a three-part axial composition. Innovations
include the appearance of the main facade facing the front yard. The
thin pattern of the palace volumes is violated by the "Looking Tower",
attached in 1836 from the western side to the upper floor.
The
palace is built of brick, its individual elements - pilasters, window
casings, door portals, the parapets of the ambush - are made of white
stone. The architecture of the building looks elegant thanks to carved
window frames with triangular pediments and hanging weights, wide
cornices made of colored tiles on the fourth floor and Teremka,
chess-painted roofs, and parapets of the mounds, the widths of which are
also decorated with multi-colored tiles. Tiles added to the decor of the
facades, probably at the end of the 17th century. Pilasters located in
the piers between the windows are used for decorative purposes; they do
not correspond to the internal divisions of the building. Many motifs of
external decoration are decorated with carvings in the form of
intertwining herbs, flowers, fruits and the image of heraldic eagles,
birds, masks. The window of the "sovereign's room", decorated with a
pediment and columns with figurines of lions, is distinguished by a
particularly magnificent decor. The palace with a gilded roof stood out
in the 17th century among other buildings and was an integral part of
the Kremlin palace ensemble.
Internal organization
The Terem
Palace had two tiers (basements of the 16th century and a palace of the
17th century) or five floors, each of which had its own purpose. The two
lower floors were reserved for household services. The basement housed
the Sytny Palace with 30 cellars, which remained, like the second floor,
from the Bed Chambers of the Ivan III Palace. Food, salt, candles and
other supplies necessary to ensure the life of the royal court were
stored here. The second floor housed the workshops of the Moscow
Kremlin, where gunsmiths, jewelers, silversmiths, masters of carving,
high relief embossing, lace weavers, gold embroidery and others worked.
The main premises of the Terem Palace in the 17th century were the
third and fourth floors, where the royal chambers and children's rooms
were located. On the third floor, where the royal soapbox (bath) was
originally located, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, an
archive of old state papers was located; now the premises of the floor
are used as service rooms. Most of the rooms in the living quarters are
the same in area, with three windows characteristic of huts. At the
level of the third floor, two upper stone courtyards were located, one
of which connected the Tsar's Palace with the house churches and the
Boyar Square, and the other was connected with the Church of the
Nativity of the Virgin and the Queen's mansions.
The Terem Palace
had stove heating. The tiled stoves of the palace were a special piece
of furniture and were decorated with multicolored glazed tiles of
various colors and shapes. The stoves of the 17th century have not been
preserved, and according to their analogues, found by the author of the
restoration project Fyodor Solntsev, new models were installed in
1835-1837, four of which are in the royal chambers.
In front of
the entrance to the palace from the east, there was a stone courtyard,
or Verkhospassky site, which received its name from the royal house
church of the Savior "on Senyah". In 1670, the Verkhospassky site was
fenced with a golden lattice made of gilded copper; According to legend,
copper money, withdrawn from circulation in 1662 to stop the Copper
Riot, was used to create the lattice. The golden lattice is decorated
with floral ornaments, as well as images of fish, birds and fantastic
monsters. The Golden Porch led from the Verkhospassky platform to the
second floor of the palace, which served as the main entrance to the
royal chambers. The porch was painted with gold and paint and topped
with a pyramidal tent. During the reconstruction of the palace in the
19th century, a roof was built over the Verkhospassky site, as a result
of which the Golden Porch ended up in the interior. Two stone lions were
placed near the porch, holding shields with the monograms of Nicholas I.
From the arch above the stairs hangs a weight in the form of a lion's
head with an apple in its mouth, symbolizing the keeping of palace
secrets. The forms of the Golden Porch with double and "creeping" arches
became widespread in Russian architecture after the construction of the
palace.
The royal chambers were located on the second tier (or
the fourth modern floor) and consisted of:
canopy,
living room
(Dumnaya) room or "Cross Chamber",
throne,
pantry
bedchambers
The first room of the royal chambers - the front or entrance hall -
has low closed vaults with stripping and paired lancet windows with
carved wooden window sills, as well as tiled stoves. On the walls are
images of the holy kings and princes: Constantine and Helena, Prince
Vladimir and Princess Olga. In the 17th century, a morning ritual took
place in the entrance hall: the boyars gathered, waiting for the tsar to
come out; from here, following the tsar, the boyars went to the
neighboring living room (or Cross) chamber. Later, a refectory (room)
was arranged here.
The second room was called the living room,
because it hosted "the seat of the king with the boyars" and in rare
cases received foreign ambassadors. It was also called the Cathedral, or
the Duma Chamber. In the mornings, the king took the blessing of the
priest here. Until 1918, the chamber kept the letters on the
establishment of the patriarchate in Russia (1589) and on the election
of Mikhail Fedorovich to the kingdom (1613).
Next was the most
richly decorated room of the Terem Palace - the Golden (or Throne)
Chamber. Its walls are painted with gold on a red background, the doors
are covered with gilded leather with images of plants and animals. The
coats of arms of the lands of the Moscow State are depicted along the
perimeter of the walls of the chamber. The vault depicts the Savior on
the throne, around him are the ecumenical and Moscow saints. The royal
throne, upholstered in velvet, also stood in the room. As a rule, only
boyars close to the tsar were accepted in the throne room. In this
chamber, the tsar also treated the poor and the pilgrims who lived on
full support near the choir. Important state issues were also resolved
here (as, for example, about the decision of Nikon as a patriarch). The
middle window of the room was called “petition”: a box descended from it
on a rope to the Boyar platform, where petitions were submitted. The
people called this box “long”, as petitions lay without consideration
for a long time. According to legend, it was from here that the saying
went: "do not put off the matter indefinitely."
On the side of
the throne room is the so-called pantry. A unique ornamental painting of
the 17th century has been preserved on its walls. Mica has been
preserved in the window frames.
The fourth chamber in the royal
chambers was the bedchamber, in which, after the reconstruction of the
19th century, there is a carved wooden bed with a canopy made of Chinese
silk and a canopy at the head. On the walls of the room are medallions
with scenes from the Holy Scriptures. Next to the bedchamber there was a
chapel, where in the 17th century precious icons were kept in silver and
gold frames trimmed with gems. A spiral staircase connected the royal
bedroom with a "soap-box", which was supplied with water by means of a
pump from the Kremlin's water tower. The chambers of the queen were
separated from this part of the palace and have not been preserved to
this day.
The fifth floor of the Terem Palace is a separate
chamber (or a stone attic), surrounded by an open gallery-ambulance
- the Golden-Domed Teremok. This part of the palace got its name
from the roof covered with gold and silver sheets. Teremok was
intended for the children of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich (an inscription
carved in stone above the entrance testifies to this purpose), but
the boyars repeatedly met in it. The facades of the tower are
decorated with carved architraves and portals; the carving of the
architraves of each window is individual and depicts various
fabulous creatures - strong with hooves and tails, centaurs with
bows, parrots in bunches of grapes and others. From the west, the
so-called Lookout Tower is attached to the tower, decorated with
multi-colored glass in ancient windows and carvings.
Churches
of the Terem Palace
The ensemble of the Terem Palace also
includes the Golden Tsaritsyna Chamber and house churches.
One of the oldest buildings in the Moscow Kremlin is the Church of
the Nativity of the Virgin on Senyah (another name is the
Resurrection of Lazarus), built in the 14th century. The top of the
church has not survived; in the 16th century, a new church was built
over it in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin, rebuilt in the
1680s.
In 1635-1636, a house church in honor of the Savior
Not Made by Hands was built on the male half of the palace. Later it
became known as Verkhospassky Cathedral. In the 1660s-1670s, the
Verkhospassky Cathedral was decorated with murals; the iconostasis
was made in baroque forms in the 18th century.
In 1682, three
palace churches - the Resurrection of the Word, the Savior Not Made
by Hands and the Chapel of the Crucifixion - were united under a
common roof, crowned with eleven gilded cupolas, the drums of which
were richly decorated with tiles and images of saints on round
copper sheets (the sheets have not survived). The architect Osip
Startsev supervised the construction work.
The original interior decoration and murals of the
Terem Palace were practically not preserved (fragments can be seen on
the walls of the prayer room and on the portals of the Golden-Domed
Tower) and were restored in the 19th century based on samples and
drawings from the time of Alexei Mikhailovich. The reconstruction of
buildings was carried out in 1836-1849 simultaneously with the
construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace.
In 1836-1837, under the
direction of Fyodor Solntsev and Pyotr Gerasimov, and with the
participation of Fyodor Richter, murals were made, carved oak window
frames with colored glass, carved wooden furniture of the 17th century
style were installed, and tiled stoves were installed. In the 1870s, the
artist Timofei Kiselev painted on a golden background. In 1966-1969, the
facades of the Terem Palace of the Moscow Kremlin were restored.
Currently, the Terem Palace is part of the ensemble of the Grand Kremlin
Palace and is the residence of the President of the Russian Federation.
The palace is closed to the public. You can visit it as part of an
excursion to the Grand Kremlin Palace, which requires special permission
from the commandant's office of the Kremlin.