World-famous watches on the Spasskaya Tower of the capital of the Russian Federation appeared a very long time ago, according to historians, in 1404. However, they were not installed for the first time on the Kremlin Tower, but were located near the Annunciation Cathedral, right in the royal court near Vasily Dmitrievich himself. The name of the master who made them is forever imprinted in the annals of those years: "The watchmaker planned the prince himself, the watch was set by the Serbian monk Lazar."
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: history
The word "chimes" from French is translated as "current." All of us from childhood, the famous Kremlin chimes, under the battle of which we celebrate the New Year, have an amazing story. They are a tower clock, which, thanks to a set of tuned bells, emit a certain melodic musical battle. This clock tower overlooks Red Square and has passage front gates, which at all times, except revolutionary, were considered holy.
Only in 1658 did the Spasskaya tower get such a name, before that it was called Florovsky and was one of the 20 towers of the Kremlin, but it was built in 1491 by the Italian master and architect Antonio Solari. According to historical documents, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower was installed in the 16th century by watchmakers who received good salaries and four arshins of cloth per year.
The watch fully earned in 1585. The fact that they existed earlier is also indicated by one more testimony: it turns out that at the three gates of the Kremlin tower structures - Spassky (Florovsky), Trinity and Tainitsky - the watchmakers were in the service. At the beginning of the XVII century, tents appeared above the Kremlin towers (except Nikolskaya), and thanks to this, the ten-story Spasskaya Tower began to reach a height of 60 meters. In 1614, Nikifor Nikitin became a watchmaker, his duties included maintenance, repair, and timely movement of the movement. It is also known that the military clock, which became completely unusable, was sold in 1624 to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery by weight.
The mechanism of Christopher Holloway
The clock of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin at that time was the most primitive, in addition, they suffered greatly from frequent fires, and then the famous English watchmaker Christopher Gollway was invited to Moscow. The Russian blacksmiths helped him - Zhdan, his son Shumila and grandson Aleksey. In 1626, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower burned out and was restored again by Galloway.
The Russian artist Bazhen Ogurtsov in 1636 created for them a magnificent tent, which became the decoration of the entire architectural ensemble of the Kremlin. Vologda peasants — the father and son of the Virachevs — worked on the production of watches, and Galloway led this process. For the “pereshatch”, a foundry worker Kirill Samoilov cast 13 bells.
At that time, the salary of the English master for the year was 64 rubles. The old clockwork was sold for 48 rubles. This indicated that watchmakers in Moscow enjoyed great respect and privileges, they were paid a lot of salary, and those who watched the tower clock were especially valued. A special instruction was even created for the workers, in which it was written that in the Spasskaya Tower it was forbidden to drink, play cards, sell tobacco, wine, etc.
Watch Description
According to contemporaries of that time, it was a wonderful city clock made of iron. Thanks to their beauty and arrangement, they were famous all over the world, and their noble sound was heard for more than 10 versts. The dial was painted blue. The main and central parts of his circle remained motionless, while the outer side, which reached 1 meter in width, rotated. The watch had letters from the Slavic alphabet, the weight of the watch was 3,400 kg.
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower measured day and night time, indicated by Slavic numbers and letters (copper, covered with gilding), and played music. Instead of the hands, there was a sun with a long beam, attached to the top of the most basic large dial. The disk was divided into 17 equal parts, which was due to the maximum longitude of the day in the summer. The middle of the disk was covered with blue enamel, and silver and gold stars and images of the sun and moon were scattered across it. There were two dials (with a diameter of 5 meters). One was turned towards the Kremlin, the other went to Kitai Gorod.
Peter I
By the end of the 17th century, the watch on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, once made by Christopher Gollway, became completely unusable, and then in 1704 Peter I brought new ones from the Netherlands by sea. They were transported from Arkhangelsk in thirty carts; more than 42,000 Efimka (West European silver coin) were allocated from the treasury for this business. The whole country at this time is moving to a single daily countdown. Three years later, this huge clock with a 12-hour dial was installed on the Spasskaya Tower. Ekim Garnov and several other apprentices took up the matter, who adjusted and started the mechanism in 20 days.
Master Faz
However, after some time, this watch also became dilapidated, and after the great fire of 1737 they completely fell into disrepair. True, by this time Petersburg had already become the capital, and therefore no one was in a hurry to repair them.
When Catherine II ascended the throne, she became interested in the Kremlin chimes. Later, the Berlin watchmaker Fatz (Faz) will replace the watch with large English chimes found in the Faceted Chamber. Within three years, under his leadership, Ivan Polyansky, a Russian master, will install them, in 1770 the work will be completed. Since the chief master was discharged from abroad, the song O du lieber Augustin (“Ah, my dear Augustine”) sounded over the Kremlin by his will. This is the only case in the history of watches when they played a foreign melody.
Times of Napoleon
When Napoleon’s troops were expelled from Moscow, the clock on the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower underwent a thorough examination and it was revealed that their clockwork was not working. Then the master Yakov Lebedev in February-1813 proposed to repair it for his money. This matter was entrusted to him, but before that they took a subscription that he would not completely incapacitate the mechanism. And after 2 years the watch was launched again, and Lebedev was awarded the title of watchmaker of Spassky watches.
After several decades, another attempt was made to clean the mechanism without stopping the chimes, but this could not be done. Then, the Butenop brothers company was hired for overhaul. In 1850, the watch was dismantled, the mechanism was sorted out, the parts that had become unusable were replaced. By this time, a new bed was cast, its weight was 25 tons. For this work, the company received money in the amount of 12,000 rubles. As a result, in March 1852 all the work was completed, and for the first time the chimes on the tower began to play the melodies “Transfiguration March” and “Our Lord Is Glorious”.
The updated watch worked for 25 years, and in 1878, the master V. Freimut, who became the next watchmaker of the Kremlin Tower, undertook to repair it for 300 rubles. Initially, it was necessary for the chimes to play the melody “God Save the Tsar!”, But Sovereign Nicholas I did not allow this, wishing that any musical compositions except the anthem would sound. In 1913, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, a full-scale restoration was carried out. The Butenop brothers company continued to service the mechanism.
Revolution
The dashing times of the October Revolution came, and in 1917 a missile hit directly on the dial and severely damaged the legendary watch. In the summer of 1918, when Moscow became the capital again, V. I. Lenin instructed the government to urgently repair the chimes.
They searched for the masters for a long time, everyone was afraid to take up this work. Well-known watch brands (Bure and Roginsky firms) requested huge sums, which at that time could not be allocated by the newly-made state. And then the then Kremlin fitter N.I. Berens undertook to repair them. He knew how the complex mechanism worked, as his father had once worked for a company that previously serviced chimes. And the artist Ya. M. Cheremnykh agreed to help him in this matter, he also composed a score for the music “You fell a victim” and “International” at the request of the leader of the proletariat.
And then, with great expense, a new pendulum was created with a length of about one and a half meters and weighing 32 kg. The restoration work was completed in September 1918. Then the Muscovites first heard the clock on the Spasskaya Tower. After some time, in 1932, the chimes again require repair. The craftsmen made a new dial (an exact copy of the old one) and re-gilded the rims, numbers and hands, which involved about 28 kg of gold.
Stalin
At the direction of Stalin, the clock tried to tune the tune to the already new anthem of the USSR by Aleksandrov, but to no avail. In 1991, they again wanted to accomplish this task, but, as it turned out, there were not enough three bells for this. In 1996, after 58 years of silence, Kremlin chimes played a tune at the inauguration of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin (“Patriotic Song” and “Glory” to M. I. Glinka).
The last restoration took place in 1999, it lasted six months. The hands gilded again, restored their whole appearance and instead of the “Patriotic song” the watch finally played the anthem of the Russian Federation.
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: photos and sizes
The clock occupies special floors on the Spasskaya Tower: from the 8th to the 10th. Their main mechanism is in a special room on the 9th floor. It is driven by three weights weighing from about 160 to 224 kg. The musical mechanism consists of a set of bells (they are all configured on the basis of a certain gamut) and the so-called program cylinder, the diameter of which reaches two meters, and it is rotated by a giant weight weighing 200 kilograms.
Cylinder pins drive bells, each weighing 500 kg. The bells are allocated the tenth floor. By the way, one of them says that it was made by Claudius Fremy in Amsterdam in the summer of 1628.
It’s hard to imagine the dimensions of this whole device, because only the dial has a diameter of 6.12 m. How much then is the length of the minute hand of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower? And what are the sizes of the sentinel? Let's reflect. Based on the fact that the value of any of these elements should not exceed half the diameter of the dial, it can be assumed that the large hand will be approximately 3 meters. A small one, respectively, will be slightly smaller. Now let's turn to the official data. So, the minute hand of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower is 3.27 m long, the hour hand is 30 cm less - 2.97 m. The watch is wound twice a day. With the help of an electric motor weights are lifted, each shaft is gaining weights from cast iron ingots weighing up to 200 kg, in winter their weight is increased.
Monitoring and Maintenance
Every day, the watch mechanism is subjected to a routine inspection and once a month for details. The watch on Spasskaya by a watchmaker on duty is checked by a chronometer and controlled by special instruments. The entire mechanism is lubricated twice a week, with summer and winter lubrication being used.
The mechanism of the Kremlin clock on the Spasskaya Tower has been working properly for almost a century and a half. On the cast iron side, it is written that the watch was remade by the Butenop brothers in Moscow in 1851. At noon and midnight they beat the anthem of the Russian Federation, and in between - “Glory”.
Conclusion
Many are interested in the question: "On which tower, in addition to Spasskaya, is there a clock?" In the Moscow Kremlin, in addition to chimes, a clock is also installed on the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Trinity and Borovitskaya towers.
The legendary chimes still measure the history of a great country; they have become the main symbol of a great and powerful Russia.