Rostov Kremlin (Ростовский Кремль) - originally the residence of the
Metropolitan of the Rostov diocese, called the metropolitan
(bishop's) court. Located in the center of Rostov near Lake Nero. At
present, the ensemble of the Kremlin consists of the Bishop's Court,
Cathedral Square adjoining it from the north with the Assumption
Cathedral and from the south - the Metropolitan Garden.
During construction, Rostov no longer had any defensive
significance, and therefore the Kremlin’s defensive structures have
some architectural simplifications that would have to be eliminated
in case of military danger - wide entrance gates, the absence of
plantar loopholes in the towers, the line of the upper battle in the
towers continues windows with platbands and others. However, the
Kremlin was built in the tradition of Russian defense construction
of an earlier period and is a monument of Russian military
architecture of the pre-Petrine era.
Since 1998, the Rostov
Kremlin has been included in the provisional UNESCO World Heritage
List.
The Rostov Kremlin was built in the 1650s-1680s, according to a
single plan of the customer - Metropolitan Iona Sysoevich. This plan
involved the creation of a paradise in full accordance with the
biblical description: a garden of Eden surrounded by walls and
towers with a pond mirror in the center.
After the decision
was made in 1787 to transfer the episcopal chair from Rostov to
Yaroslavl, the Rostov Metropolitan Court lost its function, was
neglected and gradually dilapidated. The buildings of the ensemble
were occupied by various departments as warehouses. There were no
divine services in the temples of the ensemble, and the bishops were
ready to sell it for scrap. However, thanks to the enlightened
Rostov merchants in the 1860s - 1880s. the architectural complex was
restored at his expense.
On the initiative of A. A. Titov, I.
A. Shlyakov, in October 1883, the Rostov Museum of Church
Antiquities was opened in the White Chamber of the Kremlin. In 1886,
the Kremlin was taken under his patronage by the heir to the
imperial throne, the future Emperor Nicholas II. In 1910, the State
Duma legislated the all-Russian status of the museum, deciding to
release money from the treasury for its maintenance.
Many
monuments of the ensemble were damaged as a result of a tornado on
August 24, 1953, which had previously passed through two streets of
Rostov, and then left for Lake Nero. The emergency and recovery work
of individual objects of the Rostov Kremlin grew into a scientific
restoration to recreate the original appearance of the entire
ensemble. The work was supervised by the outstanding restorer V. S.
Banige, who arrived in Rostov almost immediately after the tornado.
In 1957, restoration work was completed on most of the objects. Due
to lack of funding, the completion of the restoration took place
later.
Since the late 1960s, the architectural and museum
complex of the Rostov Kremlin has been one of the key attractions of
the Golden Ring tourist route through the ancient Russian cities of
central Russia, attracting a significant number of visitors from
Russia and abroad.
In 1991, the Assumption Cathedral of the
Rostov Kremlin was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 2010, the public organization St. Gregory the Theologian
Foundation, with the support of Patriarch Kirill, sought the
transfer of the Rostov Kremlin complex to the Russian Orthodox
Church. In October 2010, the governor of the Yaroslavl region S. A.
Vakhrukov issued a statement on the transfer of the museum-reserve
"Rostov Kremlin" to the church, with the eviction of the museum
funds in a new building, and the creation of the bishop's residence
and the "All-Russian Center for Wedding and Baptism" in the Kremlin.
This project, however, caused criticism from specialists in the
protection and study of art objects and was not implemented in the
future.
In 2013, the Rostov Kremlin entered the top ten
"Symbols of Russia", having won the "Russia-10" media competition.
The Kremlin is located next to the shore of Lake Nero and has eleven
towers.
Assumption Cathedral (1508-1512)
Belfry of the
Assumption Cathedral (1682-1688)
Holy Gate (1754)
Gate Church
of the Resurrection (circa 1670)
Writ of Judgment (1650-1660)
Gate Church of St. John the Evangelist (circa 1683)
Hodegetria
Church (1692-1693)
Church of the Savior on Senyah (Savior Not
Made by Hands) (1675)
Church of Gregory the Theologian (1680s)
Red Chamber (1670-1680)
Clockworks (XVII century)
"House in
the cellars" (XVII century)
Economic building (XVII century)
Kitchen and henchmen (XVII century)
Samuil Corps (XVII-XVIII
centuries)
White (Dining) Chamber (circa 1675)
Walls and
towers of the Metropolitan Garden (1680s, mid-18th century)
Garden tent (XVII century)
Towers and walls of the Kremlin (1670s
- 1680s)
Stable yard (late 17th century)
Assumption
Cathedral
The Assumption Cathedral (1508-1512) stands on the site
of its white-stone predecessors of the 12th-13th centuries. The
cathedral is in many ways similar to the Assumption Cathedral in
Moscow. This is a monumental five-domed structure, made in simple
and noble forms. The height of the cathedral with the cross is 60 m.
The cathedral is made of brick, and the base and strongly protruding
shoulder blades are made of white stone.
Numerous decorative
elements - arcade-columnar belts, horizontal rods of panels, etc. -
give the appearance of the temple a special plastic expressiveness,
beauty and stability to this day. In 1991, the cathedral and belfry
were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Belfry of
the Assumption Cathedral
The belfry of the Assumption Cathedral
(1682-1688) was built to the southeast of the Assumption Cathedral,
consists of two volumes and is crowned with four domes. By order of
Metropolitan Jonah, 13 bells were cast, initially the Polieleiny
bell (1,000 pounds) and the Swan bell (500 pounds) were cast, and
shortly after them, the largest bell, Sysoi, weighing 2,000 pounds.
The bells had their own tonality and produced harmonious musical
chimes.
A set of 15 bells has been completely preserved on
the belfry.
Church of the Savior on Senyah
The Church of
the Savior on Senya was built in 1675. It was the home church of
Metropolitan Iona Sysoevich. This church is notable for the fact
that its architecture uses the features of the decor of the
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but only in
a simpler and more rigorous execution.
Church of Hodegetria
The Hodegetria Church is one of the churches in the Rostov Bishops'
Court (Kremlin). It was built in 1692-1693, a little later than
other buildings of the ensemble of the Bishops' Court, under the
successor of Iona Sysoevich, Metropolitan Joasaph. He is a
representative of the Moscow baroque style. The last independent
construction of the Bishop's Court.
Church of John the
Evangelist
The Church of St. John the Evangelist was built around
1683. This gate church is one of the last churches from the time of
Metropolitan Jonah. Researchers note that this monument of history
and architecture looks more elegant than other churches in the
Kremlin.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Rostov Kremlin was filming the episode of the capture of Fantomas by the collector Anisov for the film Seven Old Men and One Girl and the scene of old Moscow for the film Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession. In 2010, the Rostov Kremlin again played the role of the Moscow Kremlin for the television series Split.