The world-famous clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the capital of the Russian Federation appeared a long time ago, according to historians, in 1404. However, for the first time they were installed not on the Kremlin tower, but were located near the Annunciation Cathedral, right in the royal court near Vasily Dmitrievich himself. The name of the craftsman who made them is forever imprinted in the annals of those years: “The clock was conceived by the prince himself, the clock was installed by the Serb monk Lazar.”
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: history
The word "chime" is translated from French as "current". The well-known Kremlin chimes, under which we celebrate the New Year, have an amazing history for all of us since childhood. They are tower clocks, which, thanks to a set of tuned bells, emit a musical beat of a certain melody. This clock tower overlooks Red Square and has a travel front gate, which at all times, except for revolutionary ones,were considered holy.
It was only in 1658 that the Spasskaya Tower received its name, before that it was called Florovskaya 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 According to historical documents, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower was installed in the 16th century by master watchmakers, who received a good salary for a year and four arshins of cloth for clothes.
The clock was fully operational in 1585. Another piece of evidence points to the fact that they existed earlier: it turns out that at the three gates of the Kremlin's tower structures - Spassky (Florovsky), Troitsky and Taynitsky - "watchmen" were in the service. At the beginning of the 17th 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. Nikifor Nikitin became a watchmaker in 1614, his duties included maintenance, repair and timely winding of the movement. It is also known that the fighting clock, which fell into complete disrepair, was sold in 1624 to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery by weight.
Christopher Gallway Movement
The clock of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin at that time was the most primitive, in addition, it suffered greatly from frequent fires, and then the famous English watchmaker Christopher Gallway was invited to Moscow. Russian blacksmiths helped him - Zhdan, his son Shumila and grandson Alexei. In 1626, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower burned down and was rebuilt by Galloway.
Russian artist BazhenOgurtsov in 1636 created for them a magnificent tent, which became an adornment of the entire architectural ensemble of the Kremlin. Vologda peasants, father and son Virachev, worked on the production of watches, and Galloway led this process. 13 bells were cast by the caster Kirill Samoilov for the "crossover".
At that time, the salary of an English master for a year was 64 rubles. The old clock mechanism was sold for 48 rubles. This indicated that watchmakers in Moscow enjoyed great respect and privileges, they were paid a large salary, those who watched the tower clock were especially valued. Even a special instruction was created for the workers, in which it was written that it was impossible to drink, play cards, sell tobacco, wine, etc. in the Spasskaya Tower.
Description of the watch
According to contemporaries of that time, it was a wonderful city clock made of iron. Due to their beauty and design, they were famous all over the world, and their noble sound was heard more than 10 miles away. The dial was painted blue. The main and central parts of his circle remained motionless, while the outer side, which reached a width of 1 meter, 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 gold), and played music. Instead of arrows, there was a sun with a long beam attached to the top of themain large dial. The disk was divided into 17 equal parts, which was due to the maximum day length in 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 (5 meters in diameter). One was facing the Kremlin, the other overlooked Kitay-Gorod.
Peter I
By the end of the 17th century, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, once made by Christopher Gallway, became completely unusable, and then in 1704 Peter I brought new ones from Holland by sea. They were transported from Arkhangelsk on thirty carts, more than 42,000 efimki (a Western European silver coin) were allocated from the treasury for this business. The whole country at this time switches 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 over the job, and they adjusted and launched the mechanism in 20 days.
Master Faz
However, after some time, this watch also fell into disrepair, and after the great fire of 1737, it completely fell into disrepair. True, by this time St. 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 (Fats) will replace the clock with large English chimes found in the Faceted Chamber. Within three years, under his leadership, they will be installed by Ivan Polyansky, a Russian master, in 1770 the work will be completed. Since the chief masterwas discharged from abroad, then, at his will, the song O du lieber Augustin (“Ah, my dear Augustine”) sounded over the Kremlin. This is the only time in the history of the watch that it played a foreign tune.
Napoleon times
When Napoleon's troops were expelled from Moscow, the clock on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower was thoroughly examined, and it was found that its clockwork was not working. Then the master Yakov Lebedev in February-month of 1813 offered to repair it for his own money. He was entrusted with this business, but before that they took a subscription that he would not completely disable the mechanism. And after 2 years, the watch was launched again, and Lebedev was awarded the title of watchmaker of the Spassky Clock.
After several decades, another attempt was made to clean the mechanism without stopping the chimes, but this could not be done. Then the firm of the Butenop brothers was hired for a major overhaul. In 1850, the clock was dismantled, the mechanism was sorted out, and the parts that had become unusable were replaced. By this time, a new bed was cast, its weight was 25 tons. For the performance of 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 "How glorious is our Lord."
The updated clock worked for 25 years, and in 1878 master V. Freimut undertook to repair it for 300 rubles, who became the next watchmaker of the Kremlin tower. Initially, it was necessary that the chimesThey played the melody “God Save the Tsar!”, but Tsar Nicholas I did not allow this to be done, wishing that any musical compositions, except for the anthem, sounded. In 1913, for the anniversary of the Romanovs' house, a full-scale restoration was carried out. The company of the Butenop brothers continued to service the movement.
Revolution
The hard times of the October Revolution came, and in 1917 a live shell hit the dial and severely damaged the legendary watch. In the summer of 1918, when Moscow again became the capital, V. I. Lenin instructed the government to urgently repair the chimes.
Masters were looking for a long time, everyone was afraid to take on this job. Eminent watch brands (the firms of Bure and Roginsky) requested huge sums, which at that time the newly created state could not allocate. And then the then Kremlin locksmith N. I. Berens undertook to repair them. He knew how the complex mechanism works, since his father once worked for a company that previously served chimes. And the artist Ya. M. Cheremnykh agreed to help him in this matter, he also composed the score to the music “You fell a victim” and “The Internationale” at the request of the leader of the proletariat.
And then, at great expense, a new pendulum was created, about one and a half meters long and weighing 32 kg. The restoration work was completed in September 1918. That was the first time Muscovites heard the clock on the Spasskaya Tower strike. Some time later, in 1932, the chimes will again require repairs. The craftsmen made a new dial (an exact copy of the old one) and re-gilded the rims,numbers and hands, for which about 28 kg of gold went.
Stalin
According to Stalin's instructions, they tried to tune the clock to the melody of the new USSR anthem authored by Alexandrov, but to no avail. In 1991, they again wanted to complete this task, but, as it turned out, three bells were not enough for this. In 1996, after 58 years of silence, the Kremlin chimes played a melody at the inauguration of Russian President B. N. Yeltsin (“Patriotic Song” and “Glory” by M. I. Glinka).
The last restoration took place in 1999, it lasted six months. The hands were gilded again, the entire appearance was restored, and instead of the “Patriotic Song”, the watch finally played the anthem of the Russian Federation.
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: photo and dimensions
The clock occupies special floors on the Spasskaya Tower: from the 8th to the 10th. Their main mechanism is located in a special room on the 9th floor. It is powered by three kettlebells weighing approximately 160 to 224 kg. The musical mechanism consists of a set of bells (they are all tuned to a certain scale) and a so-called program cylinder, the diameter of which is up to two meters, and it is rotated by a giant weight weighing 200 kilograms.
Cylinder pins drive the bells, each weighing 500 kg. The bells are on 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 is hard to imagine the dimensions of this entire device, because only the dial has a diameter of 6.12 m.the hands of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower? And what are the dimensions of the watch? Let's think. 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. And a small one, respectively, will be a little smaller. And 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 clock is wound twice a day. With the help of an electric motor, weights are raised, each shaft picks up weights from cast iron ingots weighing up to 200 kg, in winter their weight is increased.
Monitoring and maintenance
Every day, the watch movement is subjected to preventive inspection and once a month - for details. The course of the clock on Spasskaya is checked by a watchmaker on duty using a chronometer and controlled by special devices. The entire mechanism is lubricated twice a week, with summer and winter lubrication applied.
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 of them it is written that the clock 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, besides Spasskaya, is there a clock?" In the Moscow Kremlin, in addition to the chimes, there are also clocks on the Grand Kremlin Palace, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
Legendary chimes and still measure the history of a great country, they have becomethe main symbol of the great and mighty Russia.
