How the king's bell fell. How much does the king bell weigh

In the long-suffering Russian history, the main historical subject symbol of the country, the Tsar Bell, occupies not the last place. Its history is inextricably linked with the history of the whole country. But presented today to the masses as a funny adventure with a well-known beginning and end for verification, it turns out to be not so unambiguous. Presented on the website of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, two images of the bell, modern and ancient, and having fundamental differences, make us look at the history of the bell with a critical eye.

According to historical data, the personal decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna (AI) on the transfusion of the Tsar Bell from the remains of the broken bell of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (AM) took place in 1730, shortly after her accession to the throne. However, it took about 4 years to start actually casting the bell. It was cast by the bell-maker Ivan Motorin with his son Mikhail. The first attempt was unsuccessful. And the master Ivan Matorin died either from disorder, or from the plague. A year later, in 1735, his son Mikhail Motorin repeated the transfusion. This attempt turned out to be more successful, but when the bell was still being processed in its native pit, a fire broke out. According to one version, from cold water, which fell on the bell during extinguishing, the latter cracked and a piece weighing 12 tons broke off from it. The bell lay in the ground for 99 years before it was raised and placed on a pedestal in 1836 by the famous architect Montferrand. Here is a brief basic history of the Tsar Bell. The height of the bell is 6 m 14 cm, the diameter is 6 m 60 cm, the total weight is 201 tons 924 kg (12327 pounds). So what is the strangeness of the mentioned images Fig.1-3?

Rice. 1. The Tsar Bell today and on an early 19th century engraving.

Rice. 2. Portrait of the Empress on the bell and engraving.

Rice. 3. Portraits of the king. As you can see in the engraving, both main figures turned out perfectly and are not damaged, as they are now on the bell. From the angle in which the bell is depicted, the figure on the right should not be visible, except for the fact that this additional image is missing now. But since the same cartouche is depicted above the head of the figure, it can be assumed that the artist deliberately distorted the perspective in order to show both characters in one picture. This engraving was placed in the book of the traveler Edward Clarke, published in 1811, and dated 1809. In addition to the whole figures, it is clear that there is still no cartouche with an inscription, which refers to the casting of the bell under Anna Ioannovna. Why did the authorities need to spoil the appearance of the bell, and when was it done? The low resolution makes it impossible to see in detail both portraits, but what is visible no longer corresponds to the modern legend about the bell. This especially applies to the royal figure on the right, where the king is depicted in a turban! The figure of "Anna Ioannovna", with difficulty, but could fit the current legend. But the lithograph of 1837 makes one doubt it

Rice. 4. Tsar Bell. Drawing from life by J.I. Bell 1837 On the lithograph, the perspective of the image is shown correctly and the royal figure is not visible on the right. But the figure of the queen looks great! But what is surprising is that her image differs both from the current one on the bell and from the previous one on the engraving. And there is already a cartouche with the inscription

Rice. 5. Fragment of the image of a bell with a female figure on a lithograph.

The Tsar Bell acquired its modern look somewhere in the middle of the 19th century. Since the Englishman William Spottiswoode saw the bell in 1856 and his notes were published in The Morning Post on May 6, 1857. Describing the bell, he notes that the bas-reliefs are not finished, more or less only the top came out, everything else is a slur. That is, the bell by this time already had a modern look. What changed in the appearance of the Empress? First of all, this dress and rug in the engraving were replaced with a chic 18th-century imperial coat in lithography, i.e. when the bell had already been raised from the pit. But something changed in the state ideology for the history of the bell and the bas-reliefs were changed again. Now it was decided to simply spoil the clothes of the figures by simulating an unsuccessful casting. But the heads of the figures have undergone a serious alteration. It must be assumed that during the first "restoration" they were not touched or not significantly changed and became dangerous for the new paradigm. Today it is known which portrait was taken as the original for the bas-relief of the Empress. This is a well-known portrait of Anna Ioannovna by Louis Carravac Fig.6.

Rice. 6. A fragment of a portrait of Empress Anna Ioannovna by Louis Caravacc (1730).

In order to achieve a portrait likeness, the crown was completely changed, and its hoop was lowered onto the forehead, braids were made from the collar of the coat, a tight necklace was removed from the chest and a powerful bust was formed. Anna Ioanovna was a large woman under 2 meters tall. Due to the low resolution, it is impossible to judge facial features. But it is obvious that the original portrait belonged to another person. Not only the main figures were reworked, but also the bas-reliefs above them! It is clearly seen that on the current bell there are portraits in ROUND frames (at least with the image of Christ), while in the paintings they are oval and approximately the same size, which cannot be said about the current ones. And the characters themselves in the drawings look more secular than saintly or spiritual, and the face of the Savior is clearly without a beard and short haircut, which of course should not be. In the inscription "HOLY ANNA THE PROPHETESS" the last letter in the word ANNA turned out to be covered by a decorative element, which seems unlikely for the original design.

The question deserves special attention - why were beautiful rugs removed from under the feet of the figures? Harmless at first glance, but with the image of the Russian coat of arms! And the coat of arms, as you know, the symbol is changeable and each ruler had his own ... Let's recall that the main points in the history of the bell are described in two inscriptions (there are three in total) located on it. These inscriptions are textually independent and are located on opposite sides of the bell. One of them claims that a certain 8000 pood bell was cast under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and the second that under Tsarina Anna Ioannovna a new bell was cast from some old 8000 pood bell with the addition of metal. According to the current history of Russian bells, indeed, under both of these monarchs, giant bells were cast, and it is believed that the current giant was poured from the fragments of the bell of Tsar AM. And to check it turns out that the stories of the creation of these bells look like twin brothers. It is known that the witness of the casting of the bell of Alexei Mikhailovich was Pavel Alepsky, who described the whole process in his notes. Table 1 below compares the main moments of the creation of two bells based on Alepsky's memoirs and the history of the Tsar Bell.

Table 1.

Bell AM 1653-4 Tsar A.M. first he called the craftsmen from Austria and instructed them to make a bell. They asked him for a five-year term in order to make it, because the labors for its manufacture and the adaptations required for this are very great and countless. Bell

AI 1735 Count Munnich was instructed to "find a skillful person in Paris in order to make a plan of the bell with all dimensions." Munnich turned to "the royal goldsmith and member of the Academy of Sciences Germain, who for this part is revered as the most skillful mechanic." “This artist was surprised when I announced to him the weight of the bell, and at first he thought that I was joking, but, confident in the truth of the proposal, he drew up a plan where he increased the difficulty of the work and their cost to such an extent that the empress abandoned his plans.”

“They say that a Russian master appeared, a man of small stature, invisible to himself, weak, about whom no one even thought of, and asked the tsar to give him only one year.” According to these characteristics, it can be assumed that the person was already old.

The casting of the Central Committee was entrusted to Ivan Fedorovich Motorin (1660-1735), who was 74 years old at the time of the casting of the bell.

According to Pavel Alepsky, this bell, cast by a Russian master, soon broke due to a strong ringing and was lowered.

The first attempt to cast the bell in 1734 was unsuccessful, the furnaces leaked.

In the summer of the same year, 1654, Danila Danilov, the bellman, also died of the plague.

At the beginning of 1735 Ivan Motorin died,

A year later, a new bell was successfully cast.

When he died, and this rare thing remained spoiled, another master from the survivors of the pestilence appeared, a young man, short, frail, thin, under twenty years old, still completely beardless.

The new bell was cast by Motorin's son Fyodor.

5 furnaces were built for melting metal. 2,500 poods were put into each oven, and only 12,500 poods.

The smelting of metal for the bell was carried out in four smelting flame furnaces installed around the casting pit. Each furnace contained up to 50 tons of metal. those. 12500 pounds! For Tsar Kolokol, rather complicated calculations of its weight are given: “From the first casting, 14,814 poods 21 pounds (242 tons 662 kg) of metal were left, 498 poods 6 pounds (8 tons 160 kg) were added to this. In total, during the second smelting, there were 15,312 poods 27 pounds (250 tons 822 kg) of metal. The rest turned out to be 2985 poods 8 pounds (48 t 898 kg) of metal, therefore, minus waste, the poured bell weighs 12 327 poods 19 pounds, or 201 t 924 kg. Losses amounted to 1.3% ". With a copper waste of 1.3%, the weight of the bell of Alexei Mikhailovich turns out to be almost equal to the weight of the Central Committee - 12337.5 pounds! It is unlikely that such a coincidence can be accidental. There is no inscription on the engraving on the bell, but there should be one (all large bells have inscriptions)! And if you think about it, we can assume that the figure with a torch in the background, carefully examining something, just depicts a person reading the text. This impression is reinforced in the version of the colored copy of the engraving, where the author more clearly depicted on the bell, opposite the viewer, something resembling a curl from the edge of a scroll with the inscription Fig.7.

Rice. 7. Fragment of a colored engraving; the man with the torch apparently reads the bell inscription.

In one of the early studies devoted to the Central Committee, the author is surprised that "... the casting of this bell, although it does not belong to deep antiquity, is covered with obscurity behind all that ...". And then he complains that he was not able to find the original project for casting the bell, believing that the archives either burned down in the Moscow fire of 1812 or are located somewhere in St. Petersburg. Why was it necessary to change the legend of the Central Committee so laboriously? Is the Central Committee a rarity masquerading as a remake? And who was actually depicted on the Tsar Bell? About 10 years ago, I made the assumption that the female figure in the engraving belonged to the Swedish Queen Christina Vasa. Today, thanks to the new data that have appeared, the history of the bell seems to me completely different ... As you know, before the rise, the bell was in the ground in a foundry pit equipped for viewing it. In Fyodor Alekseev's watercolor of 1800, in front of the house, near the Assumption Belfry, a fence is depicted, it is with it that the pit with the Central Committee is fenced Fig.8.

Fig.8. Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin. View of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Fedor Alekseev. 1800s

We are told about the belfry that the French blew it up in 1812 during their retreat from Moscow. What remains of it can be seen on the old lithograph Fig.9.

Rice. 9. View of the remains of the Assumption Belfry after the explosion. Today we are informed that according to one of the versions, the reason for the breakdown of the Central Committee was the fall of a burning log on it during the fire of 1735, when the bell was still in the casting pit. What, then, could be left of him after the fall of the entire Assumption Belfry onto the pit? However, another question arises - who actually blew it up, and was it blown up at all? The nature of the location of the fragments of the belfry indicates the direction of the blast wave towards the palace square, i.e. from the bell to the building. It is known that the French blew up the Kremlin on the night of October 8-9 (according to other sources, from October 11 to 12), but the artist Ivanov Ivan Alekseevich (1779-1848), in his painting entitled “The expulsion of the enemy from Moscow by a detachment of light cavalry under the command of Major-General Ilovaisky on the 4th, October 10, 1812”, had a completely different idea of ​​the fate of the belfry at that time Fig. 10.

Rice. 10. "Expulsion from Moscow on October 10, 1812 by the Cossacks of General Ilovaisky 4th of the French from the detachment of Marshal Mortier, who was preparing to blow up the Kremlin."

As you can see, according to the artist, when the Kremlin was liberated from the French, the Assumption Belfry was still intact. The question is, what was the artist thinking about when choosing such a nature for his subject and placing an unprecedentedly lengthy signature with the exact date of the illustrated event under the engraving?

Here is the architect A.N. Bakarev, who participated in the restoration of the Kremlin, echoes Ivanov, leaving a drawing with a panorama of destruction

Fig.11.

Rice. 11. The Kremlin in 1812, after the departure of the French. Drawing by architect A. N. Bakarev.

In the background of the picture you can see the spire of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, and against its background the dome of the still intact Assumption Belfry, when the walls and towers have already been destroyed...

Worthy of attention is the fact that only part of the walls and towers of the Kremlin were blown up by the French, but not a single cathedral was blown up! And for some reason, the Assumption Belfry turned out to be destroyed ...

Based on the foregoing, it can be assumed that the Central Committee, as the bearer of a certain secret, was blown up after the liberation of Moscow from the French (which may have caused the bell tower to collapse). Since the bell was well known to the world, they decided to keep the secret of destruction ... by pouring it! And in order to preserve the main similarity of the bells, the new bell apparently had a piece cut out in the likeness of its predecessor, but it does not seem to be entirely successful (the shape of the cutout turned out to be different). The fact that a broken piece of a modern bell could not be the result of banal cracks, says, for example, the head of the Moscow school of bell ringers Ilya Drozdikhin: “If you look at the bell itself, you can see that the cuts are very even. a bursting bell, its cracks seem to go chaotically. And here, as if one slice was cut off from it ".

The very first image of the Central Committee was placed in the book by Jonas Henvey (Jonas Hanway) 1753. . The image is schematic without decor, but with a demonstration of the shape of the broken hole. A similar image was placed by J. Lecoent de Lavoe in his book “Description of Moscow”, 1835 Fig.12.

Fig.12. Central Committee from the book of 1753. (left) and from the book of 1835.

Comparing these drawings, it is not difficult to see the difference not only in the shape of the "cutouts", but also in the shape of the bells themselves. Moreover, the “cutout” and the shape of the bell in the drawing of 1753 are more consistent with the engraving of 1809 than with the current original.

Only a few years have passed since the pouring of the bell, and something has changed in the views on the past, the bell again ceased to satisfy the new legend. But now they decided not to pour it, but subjected its decor to re-minting, while, apparently due to the great complexity of such work, an additional layer of metal was simply welded onto part of the clothes of the figures, imitating an unsuccessful casting. On the lower edge of the upper frieze, you can see how much metal was cut down to form new bas-reliefs Fig.13.

Rice. 13. Fragment of the edge of the upper frieze of the Central Committee.

About when the bell was poured, one can make an assumption based on the history of another large bell - the Assumption, which hung on the belfry of the same name. He died in its explosion and a number of engravings depict his fragments Fig.14.

Rice. 14. Analysis of the ruins of the Assumption Belfry. Drawing and lithograph by James John Thomas. First quarter of the 19th century.

The remains of the Assumption bell are depicted in the lower right corner. Its history is no less mysterious and tragic than the history of the Central Committee. Without going into its details here, I will give an inscription that adorns today’s copy: “In the summer of the creation of the world 7325 from the incarnation of God the Word 1817, the month of Junius on the 22nd day, by the command of the Most Pious Great Sovereign and Autocrat of All Russia Alexander Pavlovich ... for a happy and the glorious end of the terrible and bloody wars and the establishment of a lasting peace throughout Europe, this bell will be poured from the old one, merged in 1760, but in 1812 damaged by the fall of the former bell tower, blown up by the frantic Gallus, who invaded Russia with twenty languages, when they, Being punished by the angry Lord of Hosts, Whose name and shrine they dared to quarrel, they rushed to flee from the sowing capital from the wrath and fury of God. Enemies of holiness and humanity, by the power of God are persecuted and smitten everywhere, they covered the entire space from the sowing capital to the very borders of Russia with their corpses, and hardly a small part of them could be saved ... ".

The inscription, as we can see, is patriotic, but EVERYTHING was blamed on the defeated "furious Gallus", it's bad to be defeated. And allegedly in 1817 the large Assumption bell was poured. But this date is not unambiguous. So the famous writer, journalist and connoisseur of Russian antiquity Pylyaev M.I. (1842-1899), in his work on historical bells, the date of its casting is given as 1819. We find the solution to the dilemma in a historical guide to Moscow, where, when describing the history of the rise of the Central Committee, in particular, it says: "... Let's read the inscriptions discovered on it when cleaning it in 1817 ...". That is, for the first time, the inscriptions on the Tsar Bell became known only in 1817, as a result of its cleaning immediately after casting. And as you can see from the engraving of 1809, the bell was already clean and available for full viewing. The Assumption bell, cast in 1819, was deliberately marked with a false date.

And so, based on the above, we can assume:

1. The Tsar Bell is a remake, presented as a rarity.
2. The predecessor of the Central Committee was destroyed shortly after the liberation of Moscow from the French.
3. The Assumption Belfry was not blown up by Napoleon.
4. The current Tsar Bell was cast in 1817.
5. A few years after the bell was raised, its decor underwent alteration.

So what is the world's largest bell silent about?

The article tells briefly for children about the tsar bell - one of the most famous, along with the tsar cannon, symbols of Russia. The Tsar Bell has no analogues in the world in size (about 6 meters high and 6.5 in diameter). The bell is the pride of Russian craftsmen.

1. Raising the Tsar Bell
2. Video

The forerunners of the Tsar Bell

The history of the creation of the Tsar Bell

• During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the idea arose again of the need to create the largest bell in Russia. In 1730, the Empress issues a decree aimed at its casting. It was prescribed that the weight of the new bell was greater than that of the previous one. Invitations were even sent to famous French masters. However, they refused, considering such a project impossible. It is believed that the French decided that they were just joking.
• Finally, the Russian master Ivan Motorin volunteered to take on the task of making the Tsar Bell. After a long approval of the project, procurement of the necessary materials, the work process began. The manufacture of large bells and cannons in those days was a very difficult and stressful business. What can we say about the casting of a gigantic, unparalleled bell.
• A 10-meter pit was dug on Ivanovskaya Square, four huge melting furnaces were built nearby. The walls of the pit were reinforced with wooden beams, iron, lined with bricks. In addition to the remains of the previous Tsar Bell, the missing amount of copper, tin and precious metals was prepared. In total, about 200 people were employed in the construction work and in the casting process itself: carpenters, masons, sculptors, etc.
• Evil fate still pursued the Tsar Bell. During the melting of the metal, an accident occurred: a leak was discovered in two melting furnaces.
• It took the repair of damage, the hasty construction of additional furnaces. In addition to all the problems, Ivan Motorin himself dies in the midst of work. His place is taken by the son and student of the master - Mikhail Motorin.
• Finally, in November 1735, a successful melting of the metal took place, which took about a day and a half. The casting process itself lasted about an hour. Work began on artistic chasing and decoration of the bell. After two years of hard work, in 1737 a major fire broke out again. The wooden structure above the pit caught fire. Fearing for the safety of their masterpiece, many Muscovites took part in extinguishing the fire. Unfortunately, due to a sharp temperature drop, the metal could not stand it: cracks appeared on the bell, a huge (11.5 tons) piece broke off from it. The Tsar Bell remains buried in the pit for a long time.

Raising the Tsar Bell

• It is still not clear why the Tsar Bell remained in the ground for almost a hundred years. Only two unsuccessful attempts to extract it are known.
• Most likely, there were no such masters who would consider this incredible operation possible.
• There was a fear of possible damage to the work of art.
• In 1820, restoration work continued in Moscow after the fire of 1812.
• The pit in which the bell was located and the territory adjacent to it were cleaned.
• To descend into the pit, a special staircase was built so that one could admire the decorative decorations of the Tsar Bell.
• Since that time, the Russian government has been thinking about the project of extracting a work of art to the surface.
• This idea was implemented by the architect A. Montferrand in 1836.
• As usual, there were no problems.
• In the process of lifting, there was a threat of breaking the ropes.
• Only after the installation of additional mechanisms, the Tsar Bell was finally raised from the ground.
• On a specially installed pedestal, it is in our time.
  The Tsar Bell is an obligatory object for the tourist program of visiting the Moscow Kremlin.
• It is the pride of not only Muscovites, but all Russians.

The weight of the Tsar Bell located in the Moscow Kremlin is 201 tons 924 kilograms.

The monument is famous for the fact that during the minting work in May 1737, a fire broke out and the bell was damaged - a piece weighing 11.5 tons broke off from it (about five pounds for the then calculation of weight). Preparatory work on the manufacture of the giant took more than a year and a half, it took 36 hours to melt the metal, and the casting process itself took 1 hour and 12 minutes. The date of the casting of the bell is November 25, 1735. After the casting was completed, the craftsmen began the chasing work, during which a fire broke out, according to one version, the scaffolding installed around the bell caught fire. When extinguishing a fire, water got on the red-hot metal, which led to its damage. In the casting pit, the bell stood for more than a hundred years. In 1836, the Tsar Bell was removed from its storage place and installed on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin.

The history of the creation of the Tsar Bell

The dimensions of the monument are impressive to this day: its height (together with the ears is 6.14 m), the diameter of the bell is 6.6 m).

To make the bell, the Empress ordered the son of Field Marshal Munnich to find a master in Paris. The court offered to take on this job to the royal mechanic Germain, but he considered the offer a joke and abandoned the project.

The weight of the Tsar Bell is 201 tons 924 kilograms.

Russian masters took up the casting: Ivan Motorin and his son Mikhail. Casting was carried out at the Cannon Yard (located on Ivanovskaya Square) in a specially prepared earthen mold with a depth of about ten meters, the casing was protected from the enormous pressure of the molten metal with a layer of densely packed earth and brickwork. The clay ingot determined the internal shape of the structure, the images and inscriptions were made by masters P. Galkin, P. Serebryakov, Kokhtev, P. Lukovnikov and V. Kobelev.

After the completion of the ebb process, the bell was placed on an iron grate, which was fastened on twelve oak piles driven into the ground. A wooden crate was built over the melting pit, which caused the fire. The version of the split of the Tsar Bell is not accepted by all historians, there is an assumption that ten through longitudinal cracks appeared as a result of a violation of manufacturing technology - a cooling product could be left on the rod, as a result of which its partial destruction occurred, and the fire became only a plausible pretext for justification. Evidence of this version is also considered the fact that for the work the master received only 1000 rubles and the rank of foundry master, while for casting bells for the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Novodevichy Convent of smaller size and complexity, the master was given 8000 rubles each.

In order to cast the gigantic structure, not only new metal in the amount of 1276 pounds was used, but also an alloy of the metal of the Great Assumption Bell (cast by Russian craftsman Grigory Alexandrov), which was split during a fire in the Kremlin in 1701. The composition of the Tsar Bell alloy includes:

In the process of preparing the ebb, unforeseen circumstances constantly arose that required a prompt solution: the final smelting process was successful only the third time, the first two ended unsuccessfully - two melting furnaces failed on the first attempt, a fire broke out the second time. Ivan Motorin died before the end of the bell smelting, his work was worthily completed by his son Mikhail.

Restoration of the Tsar Bell

Initially, the Tsar Bell was supposed to be operational, it was planned to hang it on the belfry of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower after the construction of several galleries at different heights. The purpose of the construction of galleries connected to the bell tower was to give stability to the entire complex of structures and protect it from the heavy-duty ringing of the Tsar Bell. The implementation of the project was prevented by a fire in 1737, which destroyed part of the city around the Tsar Bell.

Attempts to raise the structure in 1792 and 1819 ended in failure, the massive monument spent more than a century in the ground. In 1836, Auguste Montferrand led the operation to retrieve the bell from its earthly confinement. The holy persons who were previously in power also tried to find ways to raise the bell to the surface. So Emperor Paul I in 1792, during one of his visits to Moscow, gave the task to the mechanic J. Guirt to come up with a way to move the bell to another place. But the project drawn up by the engineer was not implemented due to the fear that the giant would break when raised. A few years later, Emperor Alexander I also set the task of General Fabre to rearrange the monument. But the Tsar Bell appeared on the surface only during the reign of Nicholas I. Initially, the emperor decided to build a bell tower for the giant, but the restoration of the bell turned out to be impossible due to the size of the copper giant.

The operation to raise the bell from the ground consisted of several stages. Excavation was made around the structure, at a depth of 30 feet, and a blockhouse was built to strengthen the walls of the structure. Then several pumps completely pumped out the water and the monument was inspected. The ascent began early in the morning, two ropes burst from the maximum load and the fastening block bounced into the scaffolding. For this reason, there was a skew and the giant began to fall on its side. Only the courage of one of the workers, who went down into the pit and arranged a selection of oak logs, was able to correct the situation. The colossus was lowered onto a support and the rise was stopped. The reason for the failure was the ropes, which were damp and partially rotted, in anticipation of the arrival of Montferrand. New cables were ordered and the number of gates increased to twenty. A new operation was scheduled for July 23, it turned out to be successful and took 42 minutes 33 seconds, the colossus was removed and put on skids, which delivered the Tsar Bell to a pedestal made in advance. Despite centuries of oblivion, the foundry monument has completely retained its original appearance and, after cleaning, the bas-reliefs of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Empress Anna Ioannovna clearly appeared on it.

The weight of the "brothers" Tsar - bells

In addition to the grandiose historical building resting on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin, the Tsar Bells are known, which were made at the beginning of the 12th century and in 1654. The last bell weighed about 130 tons. In 1748, a bell was cast, which was also called royal, its weight was 64 tons or 4 thousand pounds. It was destroyed in 1930. The largest bell of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra also bears the name "Tsar". The most massive modern bell was cast in 2004, it weighs 72 tons. The metal giant is a symbolism on stamps, paintings, banknotes. Issued in the era of the revolution of 1917 and instantly depreciated money "Kerenki" with the image of the Tsar Bell, the people were nicknamed "bells". Many years later, the monument of foundry art still remains one of the most massive and majestic structures in world culture.

Moscow has a huge number of curious and amusing monuments from different eras, whose history arouses indefatigable curiosity.

These can be sculptures dedicated to fairy tales, heroes of books and films, real people, the vices of society, and even such “ordinary” things as a stool, a fly, or the signs of students.

Some of these monuments have a rather long and interesting history. These include the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell, which are located on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin.

Unfortunately, the latter is remarkable not for its main purpose (ringing), but only for its appearance and weight.

In contact with

Appearance

This is not just a huge structure that stands in the Kremlin, but one of the main attractions of Russia. It is also considered a monument of the 18th century casting art.

"Royal" copy. View from Ivanovskaya Square

In height, it exceeds the mark of 6 meters, in diameter it is more than 6.5 meters. The weight of the whole structure is more than 200 tons. The authors were well-known at that time casters father Ivan and son Mikhail Motorins. The design was originally created for the Ivan the Great bell tower, but was not used for some reason.

Outside, royal persons, the Mother of God, Christ and other saints are minted, there is a commemorative record with a description of the creation, the names of the creators and the date “1733”, although the copy was cast only after 24 months.

Above and below it is encircled by a pattern, at the top there is a large gilded cross. However, many researchers note differences in the coinage of reality and in the images of past centuries. Information and photos about this can be additionally found on the Internet.

Interesting fact: there is no tongue inside the structure: for the reasons indicated below, it was not cast at all, a tongue from someone else was placed inside.

According to the analysis carried out in the Soviet Union, the royal specimen consists of a mixture of several metals. Almost 85% is copper, another 13% is tin, a little more than 1% is sulfur. Less than 0.5% is occupied by silver and gold. However, gold accounts for more than 70 kg, silver for more than 500 kg.

This is interesting: According to Wikipedia, during the Civil War, Denikin, while in the position of general, decided to print his own currency, choosing this monument as an image - because of this, after depreciation, they received the nickname "bells".

You can see the monument in the Moscow Kremlin: it stands on Ivanovskaya Square not far from Ivan the Great. He never left this place in his life.

"Ancestors"

The first Russian "Tsar Bell", which was cast at the beginning of the 17th century.

Today, this is far from the only "sovereign" that existed in Rus'. Such a title appeared long before the current one - each had an outrageous mass and size at a certain moment:

1. For the first time, such a nickname was given to a copy cast at the beginning of the seventeenth century, which weighed 40 tons, but its fate turned out to be unenviable: in the middle of the century it crashed.
2. The next one was immediately smelted - already weighing 130 tons. But he lived even less: already in 1654 he fell and crashed during the Christmas bells.
3. The next was a bell weighing 160 tons, made by the foundry worker Grigoriev. In order to shake it, it took about a hundred bell ringers. He lived until the beginning of the 18th century. and fell down when a big fire started.

It is important to know: the material of the Grigorievsky bell went to the ebb of the current one.

1. After that, the bells were left alone for 30 years, but Empress Anna Ioannovna decided to try again to break the record and ordered the largest version - the one that stands in the Kremlin today. However, his fate was not much better than that of the "ancestors".

How was the work

The preliminary work took several years. First, four years were spent preparing the forms. To do this, a hole 10 meters deep was dug on Ivanovskaya Square, in which a mold was placed.

The distance between the walls of the pit and the form was filled with rammed earth, the form itself was reinforced with broken bricks and oak inserts. An iron grate was placed at the bottom, on which the form stood.

The embossing on the foundry monument-bogatyr belongs to the hands of the sculptor Fyodor Medvedev: he carved patterns and images from wood, and then made an impression on the inside of the casing. Also, several craftsmen took part in the work, who, by order of Peter I, took courses in molding and pedestal work abroad.

Chasing made by sculptor Fyodor Medvedev

Do you know that: at first, the work on casting was offered to the French royal mechanic by the name of Germain, but he decided that this was a joke - it was difficult to even imagine a product of the required parameters and weight.

Casting began in 1733 and took more than twelve months. In 1734, just before the start of work in the smelters, an accident occurred: spilled copper not only spoiled the sample, but also led to a major fire in the city. Its consequences were eliminated only a year later. During this period, the project manager changed: Ivan Motorin died, and the business passed to his son.

Everything was ready only two years later. In four melting furnaces, the required amount of metal was melted in 36 hours, after which it was poured into molds.

The process took a little over an hour, and all this time about 400 firefighters were on duty nearby. A pit with a huge structure was covered with wooden ceilings and left to cool. Then, without pulling it out, they began to make chasing, since the image on the walls came out uneven and blurred.

Note: since the production, apparently, took place according to the old forms, this copy has the wrong casting date - “1733”.

How did the piece break off?

But the adventures did not end: in 1737 there was a major fire. The wooden ceilings above flared up, and then the bell was red-hot. It was decided to pull him out of the pit.

The metal was pre-cooled with cold water, but due to the huge temperature difference, several through cracks appeared. This was the main reason why, when raised, it split, making a fall. The fallen off piece weighed more than 11 tons.

However, some researchers believe that the fire was just a pretext, and the blame should be placed on carelessly done work, for example, on violations that occurred during the casting.

Confirmation is often called the price paid to the foundry worker Motorin: for his work he received a thousand rubles and the shopmaster rank of a foundry worker. However, his next orders were estimated at almost eight times more: 8 thousand per work.

This is how the uprising took place in Moscow in 1836.

The first projects to extract the "king" from the forms ended in failure. It was possible to do this only after a hundred years: the project of pulling out was made by the architect Mironovsky.

Note: when a huge colossus was pulled out, several ropes burst, and it lists dangerously. The case was saved by an unknown worker: having made his way under a loosely hanging object, he installed props that held the structure while the ropes were changed.

In mid-August 1836, the “king” was nevertheless pulled out of the pit and placed on a specially built bronze pedestal. The whole process was led by the architect of St. Isaac's Cathedral Auguste (August) Montferrand: he already had experience in lifting weights to considerable heights. He also created a copper cross, then covered the structure itself with gilding.

Today, a commemorative plaque flaunts on the pedestal. It contains a brief history, period of creation and time of pulling out of the form.

Further fate

A piece weighing 11.5 tons, which broke away from the main structure during the Trinity fire

Of course, no one wanted to lose such a huge and long-suffering colossus, and therefore the question of soldering a chipped piece was raised several times. But all this was just talk: the spike would completely distort the sound, and therefore would be meaningless.

During the Second World War, this attraction turned into a communications center: Signalmen of the Kremlin Regiment hid inside it. To prevent enemy bombers from noticing it, the structure was painted, and after the victory it was wiped off again.

Curious legend

Despite the fact that the fate of the monument of foundry art is interesting in itself, it seemed to many that this was not enough.

Peter I the last Tsar of All Rus' (since 1682) and the first All-Russian Emperor (since 1721)

Incredible rumors about him circulated among the people. Many believed that the bell was cast much earlier, even before Peter I came to the throne, and even successfully raised to the bell tower.

When, after the victory over the Swedes near Poltava, all the bells of the country began to ring, the "Tsar" could not even be moved.

Angry, the king sent a company of soldiers, but they only tore out his tongue, without achieving a single sound. The people gathered in the square began to laugh, shouts were heard that Tsar Peter would have to yield to the stubborn one.

Perth I, who was standing on the bell tower, was furious and hit this landmark with all his might with a baton. Because of the impact, a piece bounced off and fell to the ground, even went deep into it, from where it was taken out only after several decades.

Good to know: among the Old Believers there was an opinion that when the Last Judgment came, the monument to foundry art would fly into the air by itself, and its ringing would be heard, even though it would be without a language.

Not only Muscovites, but also many tourists know about this attraction. Huge and completely useless, he lived an interesting life, although he never rang, and even managed to help his country during the war, albeit in an unusual way.

Watch the video in which the historian tells the story of the creation and the further fate of the Tsar Bell:

The Tsar Bell, one of the Kremlin curiosities, stands near the Ivanovo bell tower on a granite pedestal. It is larger than all known bells in the world. Many people think that's why it's called that. In fact, the royal or tsar-bell in Rus' was called the one on which there were images of kings.

The Tsar Bell weighs about 200 tons. Height - 6.14 meters. The circumference is 6.6 meters, the thickness of the walls is 61 centimeters. The fragment of the bell weighs about 11.5 tons.

On the surface of the bell, images of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Empress Anna Ivanovna are cast on both sides. Above them in round medallions are images of the Savior, the Mother of God, the evangelists and the Moscow saints metropolitans - Peter, Alexy, Jonah and Philip. On the sides of the bell are lengthy inscriptions about the history of its creation.

The image of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich testified that the new bell was poured from an older one, made at the time of this sovereign in the 17th century.

The image of Anna Ivanovna on the reverse side of the bell is even more justified, since the adjacent inscription says that the bell was cast in her reign in 7241 from the Creation of the World, or in 1733 from the Nativity of Christ, weighing 10,000 pounds. In fact, both are wrong, since the bell was created in 1735, and its weight is 2000 pounds more. The discrepancy arose due to the fact that the inscription on the casing for the casting was made in advance, but the work failed the first time. The bell was recast two years later with added weight, but the "birth certificate" remained the same.

Under the image of Empress Anna Ivanovna, on the lower edge, there is another inscription: "The Russian master Ivan Fedorov, son of Motorin, with his son Mikhail Motorin, poured this bell." The decorative ornaments of the Tsar Bell were created by the sculptor Fyodor Medvedev. After casting, they began to be minted, but due to a fire in 1737
did not finish the year. Therefore, some of the images remained unprocessed.

An inscription is fixed on the pedestal, which says that the bell was in the ground for 103 years and was placed here on August 4, 1836 at the behest of Emperor Nicholas I. It also repeats the inaccuracy regarding the year the bell was cast.

The Tsar Bell is made of tin bronze containing impurities and metals. The composition of the alloy: copper - more than 170 tons (about 85%), tin - about 26.5 tons (more than 13%), sulfur - 2.5 tons (more than 1%), zinc, arsenic and other impurities (gold and silver) - about 2 tons (1%)

1. A ball with a gilded cross is a power, one of the symbols of royal power.
2. The names of the masters who cast the bell in 1735 are Ivan and Mikhail Motorins.
3. The names of the authors of the cast images: sculptor Fyodor Medvedev, master chasers - Vasily Kobelev and others.
4. Images of kings.
5. Images of saints.
6. A piece that broke off as a result of a fire weighing 11.5 tons.
7. Octagonal pedestal, designed by Montferrand in 1836.
8. Inside the bell there is a tongue about 5 m long, probably from the predecessor of the Tsar Bell

History of the Tsar Bell

During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, in 1654, by the will of Patriarch Nikon, the predecessor of the Tsar Bell was cast.
It was called Tsarsky, or Big Uspensky, and weighed 8,000 pounds (over 130 tons). On it, according to some evidence, there were images of Alexei Mikhailovich and the patriarch himself. According to legend, the bell was cast from the wreckage of an even more ancient bell that had broken in a fire from the time of Boris Godunov. The foreign traveler Olearius wrote about the more ancient bell, that in 1611 it hung on a wooden tower about five meters high and 24 people swung its huge tongue. It was called on major holidays and at the meeting of ambassadors. In one of the fires, the belfry burned down and the bell broke. During another fire in the Kremlin on June 19, 1700, the new bell fell and broke.

Inside the bell there is a tongue about 5 m long, probably from the predecessor of the Tsar Bell

For thirty years, huge fragments lay near the Ivan the Great, causing everyone's surprise. In 1730, the niece of Peter I Anna Ivanovna became the Russian Empress. As soon as she was crowned, she immediately ordered the restoration of this shrine and, in a decree dated June 26, 1730, with a truly royal scale, rounded the weight of the future bell to 10,000 pounds (about 164 tons). No one in the world has ever cast such bells.

The French architect and academician Germain involved in the work expressed great doubts about the reality of the project, but made drawings. They were transferred for execution to Ivan Motorin's bell foundry in Pushkarskaya Sloboda.

From January 1733 to November 1734, preparatory work was going on in the Kremlin. In one of the courtyards between the Chudov Monastery and the bell tower of Ivan the Great, a small foundry had to be built. A hole 10 meters deep and 10 meters in diameter was dug next to the stoves.

The first casting was unsuccessful, but master Ivan Motorin was not going to retreat. He made his drawings, added another 2000 pounds to the weight, but soon died. In November 1735, the casting was made by his son Mikhail.

Then the bell, which remained in the pit, on a lattice platform, was processed by master chasers sent from St. Petersburg. In terms of size and cost, the cast bell surpassed all existing bells in the world.

On May 29, 1737, on the day of the Holy Trinity, one of the strongest fires occurred in Moscow, called Troitsky. The wooden roof over the casting pit caught fire, and burning logs began to fall on the bell. The people in a hurry rushed to pour water on the red-hot metal. When the fire was extinguished, it was discovered that many cracks appeared in the bell and a piece weighing 11.5 tons fell off.

Subsequently, the Tsar Bell lay in the pit for about 100 years.
Finally, in 1835, Emperor Nicholas I instructed to put it on a pedestal. The case was entrusted to the architect Auguste Montferrand, who first examined the bell back in 1819, having just arrived in Russia. Since then, he has erected St. Isaac's Cathedral and erected the Alexander Column in St. Petersburg.
However, the first attempt to pull the bell out of the pit failed.

And then came July 23, 1836.
Despite the early morning, in the Kremlin, all the best places around the foundry pit were occupied. At 06:55 the soldiers took up the winches again, and this time everything went well. For 42 minutes and 33 seconds, the bell moved along the sloping floor to the granite pedestal. His final journey was accompanied by a service in the Assumption Cathedral (that day was the feast of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God), which ended just when the Tsar Bell was hoisted onto a pedestal.

You can see the Tsar Bell on all excursions on