History: The famous Tsar Cannon, which is an integral part of the Moscow Kremlin exhibition, was created in 1586. It was cast in the Cannon Yard by the famous master Andrei Chokhov on the orders of Fedor Ivanovich, the Tsar of the Russian State. The history has preserved the name of the creator of an unusual cannon of gigantic proportions, since it was engraved on a massive barrel, like the year of its casting. The appearance of such an unusual foundry was the result of centuries of improvement in the technology of casting reliable and powerful guns.
Over the four-year history, the Tsar Cannon has repeatedly changed its location. At first it was located on the territory of the Cannon Yard, and only in the XVIII century it was very difficult to move it to the Moscow Kremlin. And even here a foundry masterpiece was in the courtyard near the Reserve building for the first time, and then this attraction was rearranged to the main gate and installed on a carriage.
Four large cores were placed at the foot of the massive gun, and each of them weighed almost a ton. The cores for this masterpiece were specially cast in St. Petersburg in 1834 at the famous Byrd foundry. The last time a foundry masterpiece changed its location in 1960, when the Kremlin Palace of Congresses was being built . The gun was neatly moved to Ivanovskaya Square and installed next to the temple of the Twelve Apostles, where it still stands out now.
The massive Tsar Cannon was never used as a powerful weapon, since it is simply impossible to shoot from a huge cast-iron carriage. If you try to shoot a bomb or core from a large barrel , the gun can simply be torn to pieces, and the gunners who are nearby will die. And the documents relating to the testing of the gun have not reached our days, so scientists are still arguing about its main purpose. Until the twentieth century, many military historians believed that the gun could shoot a fraction consisting of small stones.
But most researchers are convinced that the masterpiece of foundry was created for the sole purpose of frightening the ambassadors of foreign countries, and especially the envoys of the Crimean Khan. The secret of the guns was discovered in 1980 at the time of the scheduled repair, when the craftsmen examined the internal channels. It turned out that this product is neither a gun nor a shotgun, but was created as a bombard, therefore, for its barrel no bias was required.
Features: The Grand Tsar Cannon in Moscow is a huge cannon 5.34 meters long, its trunk diameter is 120 centimeters outside, and the caliber is 890 millimeters. For casting a massive gun, only high-quality bronze was used, and the barrel surface is beautifully decorated with all kinds of curly friezes, unusual inscriptions and ornamental belts. The breech and muzzle edges of the trunk protrude slightly above the surface of the decorative belt, for the design of which the creator of the gun used unique curly hinges.
The central part of the huge trunk of the grand cannon is divided into separate parts by flat and ornamental relief friezes. On the side you can see cast braces, designed to fully strengthen the ropes at the time of moving the gun. Above the front right bracket flaunts an inscription glorifying Sovereign Fedor Ivanovich. And the seed hole is located directly in the trunk, near the large posterior zone. The huge Tsar Cannon weighs almost forty tons, so moving it away is an impossible task even for Russian warriors.
Now Tsar Cannon and Tsar Bell are the most unusual sights in Moscow, attracting the attention of visitors to the Moscow Kremlin.