The clock on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower - history and photos. Kremlin chimes: history and modernity
Kremlin chimes (clock on the Spasskaya Tower), which is installed on the Moscow Kremlin, is probably the most famous tower clock in Russian Federation(Russia).
History of the Kremlin chimes
History of the tower clock in the city of Moscow takes us back to the distant year 1404, when they were first installed on the territory of the estate of the son of Prince Dmitry Donskoy - Vasily. The Grand Duke's courtyard itself was located not far from.
These chimes were made by a Serbian clergyman - monk Lazar. A mechanical device in the shape of a human figure struck the bell every hour.
It is not known exactly when the clock with chimes appeared on the Spasskaya Tower. The tower itself was built by 1491 under the direction of the architect Piero Solari. This happened during the reign of Emperor Ivan III.
First documentary evidence the presence of a clock on the tower dates back to 1585: it mentioned certain watchmakers who, in addition to the Spassky clock, serviced the same mechanisms on the Tainitskaya and Trinity towers.
There are no descriptions of the chronometers, but the weight of the clock from the Spasskaya Tower was about 960 kilograms, as follows from the bill of sale, dated already 1624 (it indicates the sale of the clock to the Spassky Monastery from the Yaroslavl lands for 48 rubles).
A watchmaker, English mechanic Christopher Galovey, was invited to produce a new clock mechanism. Local blacksmiths were appointed as his assistants - master Zhdan with his son and grandson, whose names were Shumilo Zhdanov and Alexey Shumilov. 13 bells for the chimes were cast by Kirill Samoilov, a foundry master.
The new watch had no hands, the role of which was assigned to a rotating dial, which was divided into 17 parts.
The dial itself, weighing over 400 kilograms, was made of wooden boards and painted sky blue. There were hour divisions on it, which were designated in Slavic letters. For decoration, light-colored tin stars were added around the field.
Above the dial are the moon and sun painted in gold. The motionless arrow seemed to emanate from the ray of the last luminary.
The actual ringing of the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower was located even higher - in the figure of eight.
How did the chimes show the time and chime?
Such a strange dial, it turns out, indicated the course of day and night time, i.e. on the days of the summer solstice it was wound up for seventeen daytime and seven night hours. How did this happen?
The first sharp blow sounded at the moment when the first sunbeam fell on the walls of the Spasskaya Tower. Exactly the same blow announced the end of the day. Every hour a special bell sounded: the first hour - one strike, the second - two, and so on until the maximum possible number of 17. After that, the watchmaker climbed the tower and set the dial to 7 night hours. Thus, the timekeeper had to climb to the height twice.
Every 16 days, the number of day and night hours was adjusted, which in total amounted to the figure we are used to - 24.
The clock on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower delighted not only Russians, but even foreigners arriving in Moscow. Contemporaries wrote about this diva:
... a wonderful city iron clock, famous throughout the world for its beauty and design and for the sound of its large bell, which was heard ... more than 10 miles away.
In 1626, the clock on the tower burned down, but two years later it was restored by the same Galovey to serve until the end of the seventeenth century.
New chronometer appeared under Peter the Great, who ordered the old-fashioned single-hand clocks to be destroyed and new ones with a 12-hour dial installed instead. The mechanism with a clock and music, which the sovereign himself bought for 42 thousand efimki in Dutch Amsterdam, was delivered to Moscow in thirty carts.
Yakim Gornel, a foreign watchmaker, was invited to install the chimes. He, together with nine Russian artisans, assembled and debugged the clock mechanism for 20 days. And finally, at 9 o’clock in the morning on December 9, 1706, people gathered at the tower heard the first ringing.
The chimes on the Spasskaya Tower chimed both the hours and the quarters. IN certain time a melody played, played by 33 musical bells. Unfortunately, the motive for that bell loss is not known.
Peter's watch served until 1737 until they burned in the fire. The capital was already in St. Petersburg at that time, and there was simply no hurry to repair the Moscow chimes.
In 1763, a large chiming clock made in England was found in one of the rooms of the Chamber of Facets. They began to be mounted on the Spasskaya Tower only in 1767, for which master watchmaker Fatz (Fats) was sent from Germany. Together with the Russian artisan Ivan Polyansky, he launched them only three years later - in 1770. The music of the chimes was somewhat frivolous and was an excerpt from the German song “Ah, my dear Augustine.”
A fire in 1812 disabled the clock. The inspection of the mechanism was entrusted to Yakov Lebedev, who in February 1813 reported its significant damage and offered his services for restoration. Permission was obtained, but, first, a signature was taken from the watchmaker that he would not permanently damage the device.
Two years passed and the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower sounded again, for which Lebedev was awarded the honorary and high title of “Master of the Spassky Clock.”
The current Kremlin chimes were installed in the period from 1851 to 1852. The mechanism was made by the Dutch - the Butenop brothers, whose workshops were located on Myasnitskaya Street, 43. For the euphony of the ringing and more accurate reproduction of the melody, 24 bells were added to the existing belfry, which were dismantled from the Trinity and Borovitskaya Kremlin towers.
The first melody of the new clock“God Save the Tsar!” was supposed to become the anthem of the Russian Empire, but Emperor Nicholas I did not give his permission for this, saying that “the chimes can play any songs except the anthem.” I had to record two melodies on the playing shaft - “March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment” (sounded at 6 and 12 o’clock) and “How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion” (3 and 9 o’clock), which did not change until 1917.
The installation of the Butenop brothers' clock mechanism required some restoration and repair work, led by the architect Pyotr Aleksandrovich Gerasimov. The pedestal for the clock, ceilings and stairs were made according to the drawings of the architect Konstantin Ton.
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower after the October Revolution
November 2, 1917 During the shelling of the Moscow Kremlin from artillery guns, a shell hit the dial directly, breaking one of the hands and destroying their rotation mechanism. The clock has started!
Restoration work began only in August 1918 on the personal instructions of Lenin. At first we turned to the watch companies of Roginsky and Bure, but refused their services due to the unaffordable price. Nikolai Behrens, who worked as a mechanic in the Kremlin, decided to take on the job. He knew this mechanism, since his father worked as a master for the Butenop brothers and passed on his knowledge to his son.
Behrens began work together with the artist Mikhail Mikhailovich Cheremnykh, who began working on a new score for the chimes. With great difficulty, a one and a half meter pendulum weighing 32 kilograms was made to replace the damaged one, made of lead with gold plating.
In September 1918, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower relaunched. The chimes sounded “Internationale” (at noon) and “You fell a victim in the fatal struggle” (at midnight).
In 1932, another reconstruction was carried out: the clock was repaired; replaced the dial; The numbers, rim, and hands were covered with gold, using a total of 28 kilograms of the precious metal. Only a fragment of “The Internationale” was left as the ringing, which sounded both 12 and 24 hours.
Since 1938, the melody of the chimes stopped sounding, leaving only hourly and quarterly short chimes. This decision was made by a special commission, which recognized the sound as unsatisfactory due to the wear of the mechanism.
In 1941, “The Internationale” was again played on the Spasskaya Tower using a special electro-mechanical drive. True, it did not last long.
In 1944, Stalin ordered the chimes to be set and the music of the new anthem to be set as a chime. Soviet Union, the author of which was Alexander Vasilievich Alexandrov. The work did not go well, and the chimes of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower fell silent for many years.
In 1974 they held major restoration with the clock stopped for 100 days. Then the entire clock mechanism was dismantled and restored, worn parts were replaced, an auto-lubrication system was installed, but the chimes never sounded - hands simply did not reach them.
In 1991, a decision was made at the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee to restore the Kremlin chimes, but the issue arose due to the lack of 3 bells necessary to play the USSR anthem.
The issue was returned to in 1995, but the Union had already collapsed, and the anthem new Russia became “Patriotic Song” by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka.
In 1996, on the day of the inauguration of Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, after 58 years of silence, the chimes sounded again. The missing bells for tone were replaced by metal beaters. Now at midnight and noon the anthem was performed, and every quarter - a fragment of the opera “A Life for the Tsar” by the same composer Glinka.
The last restoration to date took place in 1999. Besides restoration work The ringing of the previous anthem was changed to a new one, approved on December 8, 2000.
Interesting facts about the Kremlin chimes
And finally, a few words about the structure of the clock and chime mechanism on the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower.
- Total weight- 25 tons.
- The clock mechanism drive uses three weights weighing from 160 to 224 kilograms.
- A 32-kilogram pendulum with a length of 1.5 meters ensures the accuracy of the watch.
- The diameter of the four dials located on the four sides of the tower is 6.12 meters.
- The length of the minute and hour hands is 3.27 and 2.97 meters, respectively.
- The height of the numbers is 72 centimeters.
The movement, quarter strike and clock strike mechanisms are located on separate levels from the 7th to 9th floors. Above them, in an open area protected by a high tent, there are 9 bells for striking the quarter and a large bell for striking the hours. By the way, the clock was cast back in the mid-eighteenth century by master Semyon Mozhzhukhin.
Bells, due to the difference in size, can produce sounds ranging from low bass to treble. Weight - from 320 to 2160 kilograms. The ensemble of chimes contains bells dating back to both 1702 and 1628, cast in Amsterdam.
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower (Kremlin chimes) start twice a day - at noon and midnight. For these purposes, three electric motors are used - separately for each of the mechanisms (the system was introduced back in 1937). Translation of arrows is done only manually.
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The world-famous clock 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 installed for the first time not on the Kremlin tower, but were located near the Annunciation Cathedral, right in the royal courtyard of Vasily Dmitrievich himself. The name of the master who made them is forever imprinted in the chronicles of those years: “The clockmaker was conceived by the prince himself, the clock was installed by the Serbian monk Lazar.”
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: history
The word "chimes" with French translated as "current". We all know the Kremlin chimes from childhood, to the sound of which we meet New Year, have an amazing history. They are a tower clock, which, thanks to a set of tuned bells, produces a musical chime of a certain melody. This clock tower overlooks Red Square and has a passage front gate, which in all times, except for the revolutionary ones, was considered holy.
Only in 1658 did the Spasskaya Tower receive this name; before that it was called Florovskaya and was one of the 20 towers of the Kremlin; 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 a good salary per year and four arshins of cloth for clothes.
The clock became fully operational in 1585. The fact that they existed earlier is indicated by one more piece of evidence: it turns out that at three gates of the Kremlin tower structures - Spassky (Florovsky), Troitsky and Tainitsky - “hourkeepers” were in service. At the beginning of the 17th century, tents appeared over 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 mechanism. It is also known that the combat watch, which had become completely unusable, was sold in 1624 to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery by weight.
Christopher Gallway mechanism
The clock of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin was the most primitive at that time; in addition, it suffered greatly from frequent fires, and then the famous English watchmaker Christopher Gollway was invited to Moscow. Russian blacksmiths helped him - Zhdan, his son Shumila and grandson Alexey. In 1626, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower burned down and was restored again by Galloway.
The Russian artist Bazhen Ogurtsov created a magnificent tent for them in 1636, which became a decoration of the entire architectural ensemble of the Kremlin. Vologda peasants - father and son Viracheva - worked on the production of watches, and Galloway supervised this process. For the “re-hour,” foundry worker Kirill Samoilov cast 13 bells.
At that time, the annual salary of an English master 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 large salaries, and those who monitored the tower clock were especially valued. It was even created for workers special instructions, in which it was written that it was forbidden 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. Thanks to their beauty and design, they were famous all over the world, and their noble sound could be heard more than 10 miles away. The dial was painted blue. The main and central parts of his circle remained motionless, while outer side, reaching a width of 1 meter, rotated. The watch had letters from the Slavic alphabet; the watch weighed 3,400 kg.
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower measured day and night time, indicated by letters (copper, gold-plated), and played music. Instead of hands, there was a sun with a long ray attached to the top of the main large dial itself. The disk was divided into 17 equal parts, which was due to the maximum length of the day 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 Gollway, 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 (Western European silver coins) were allocated from the treasury for this matter. At this time, the entire country switches to a single daily clock. 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 and adjusted and started the mechanism in 20 days.
Master Fats
However, after some time, this clock also became dilapidated, 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 discovered in the For 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 master was discharged from abroad, at his will the song O du lieber Augustin (“Oh, my dear Augustine”) sounded over the Kremlin. This is the only time they 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 discovered that its clockwork mechanism did not work. Then master Yakov Lebedev, in February 1813, offered to repair it at his own expense. He was entrusted with this matter, but before that they signed a pledge that he would not completely disable the mechanism. And after 2 years the clock 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 was not possible. Then the company of the Butenop brothers was hired for a major overhaul. In 1850, the clock was dismantled, the mechanism was rebuilt, and parts that had become unusable were replaced. By this time, a new frame had been cast, its weight was 25 tons. For performing this work, the company received money in the amount of 12,000 rubles. As a result, in March 1852, all work was completed, and for the first time the chimes on the tower began to play the melodies “Preobrazhensky 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 for the chimes to play the melody “God Save the Tsar!”, but Emperor Nicholas I did not allow this, wanting any musical compositions to be played except the anthem. In 1913, for the anniversary of the House of Romanov, a full-scale restoration was carried out. The Butenop brothers company continued to service the mechanism.
Revolution
The turbulent times of the October Revolution came, and in 1917 a military shell hit the dial directly 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.
They looked for craftsmen for a long time, everyone was afraid to take on this work. Famous watch brands (Bure and Roginsky companies) requested huge sums, which the newly created state was unable to allocate at that time. And then the then Kremlin mechanic N.I. Behrens undertook to repair them. He knew how it worked complex mechanism, since his father 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 the score for 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. Restoration work was completed in September 1918. That was the first time Muscovites heard the clock on the Spasskaya Tower striking. 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, which cost about 28 kg of gold.
Stalin
On Stalin’s instructions, they tried to set the clock to the melody of the new USSR anthem by Alexandrov, but to no avail. In 1991, they again wanted to complete this task, but, as it turned out, there were not enough three bells 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 clock finally played the Russian anthem.
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower: photos 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 driven by three weights weighing approximately 160 to 224 kg. The musical mechanism consists of a set of bells (all of them are tuned based on a certain scale) and a so-called program cylinder, the diameter of which reaches two meters, which is rotated by a giant weight weighing 200 kilograms.
Cylinder pins drive the bells, each of which weighs 500 kg. The tenth floor is dedicated to the bells. By the way, on one of them it is written that it was made by Claudius Fremy in Amsterdam in the summer of 1628.
It’s hard to imagine the size of this entire device, because the dial alone has a diameter of 6.12 m. How long is the minute hand of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower then? And what are the dimensions of the sentry? Let's think about it. Based on the fact that the size of any of these elements should not exceed half the diameter of the dial, we can assume that the large hand will be approximately 3 meters. And the small one, accordingly, will be a little smaller. Now let's turn to the official data. So, the minute hand of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower is 30 cm shorter than the hour hand - 2.97 m. The clock is wound twice a day. With the help of an electric motor, weights are lifted; each shaft takes weights from cast iron ingots weighing up to 200 kg; in winter, their weight is increased.
Control and maintenance
Every day the clock mechanism is subjected to preventive examination and once a month - for details. The movement of the clock on Spasskaya is checked by the watchmaker on duty using a chronometer and controlled special devices. The entire mechanism is lubricated twice a week, and summer and winter lubrication are 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 clock was remade by the Butenop brothers in Moscow in 1851. At noon and midnight they play the Russian anthem, and in between - “Hail.”
Conclusion
Many people are interested in the question: “Which tower, besides Spasskaya, has a clock?” In the Moscow Kremlin, in addition to the chimes, there are also clocks at the Grand Kremlin Palace, Trinity and
The legendary chimes still measure the history of the great country; they have become the main symbol of the great and mighty Russia.
The clock that we see now on the Spasskaya Tower has existed since 1851. They were installed on the tower to replace the old ones by the Moscow owners of mechanical workshops, brothers N. and P. Butenop, and launched in 1852. On the frame of the clock mechanism there is an inscription: “The clock was remade in 1851 by the Butenop brothers in Moscow.” It is unknown where the old watch went.
The history of the ancient Spassky chimes goes back a long way and is inextricably linked with the history of the Kremlin. Back in 1404, as the chronicles tell, the first clock in Moscow was installed in the Kremlin at the grand ducal courtyard, next to the Annunciation Cathedral, “and the prince himself conceived the clock.” The setting of the clock was carried out by a Serbian monk named Lazar. The Moscow chronicler said very figuratively about the design of these clocks: “This clockmaker will be called the watchmaker; at every hour he strikes the bell with a hammer, measuring and calculating the hours of the night and the day; it is not the man who strikes, but human-like, self-resonant and self-moving, strangely molded, somehow created by human cunning, pre-imagined and subtly."
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower is believed to have been installed immediately after its construction in the 15th century. However, documentary information about the clock dates back only to 1585, when special clockmakers were in service at the Spassky, Tainitsky and Trinity gates, and later Nikolsky.
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower was considered the main one, and special attention was paid to it. Nevertheless, it was not possible to protect them from frequent fires, and they quickly became unusable. In 1624, for example, they were sold as scrap, by weight, to the Spassky Monastery in Yaroslavl for 48 rubles (they weighed 60 pounds).
In 1621, the “clockmaker of England”, Christopher Khristoforovich Galovey, was accepted into the royal service and was ordered to build a new clock. Under the leadership of Galovey, Russian blacksmiths and watchmakers, peasants Zhdan with their son and grandson, made a watch, and thirteen bells for the watch were cast by foundry worker Kirill Samoilov. To install a new clock on the ancient quadrangle of the Spasskaya Tower, under the leadership of Bazhen Ogurtsov, in 1625, an arched belt with white stone carved details and decorations was built from brick, and on the inner quadrangle a high hipped roof with arched bells was erected, on which the hour bells were hung. A year later, the tower and clock burned down, and everything had to be done again. For his work installing the first clock, Christopher Galovey received a large reward from the tsar: almost 100 rubles worth of all kinds of goods - an amount that was quite significant at that time.
In 1654, the tower burned down again along with the clock. Archbishop Pavel of Aleppo, who visited Moscow shortly after the fire, wrote in 1655: “Above the gate rises a huge tower, erected high on solid foundations, where there was a wonderful city iron clock, famous throughout the world for its beauty and structure and for the loud sound of its large bell, which was heard not only throughout the city, but also in the surrounding villages for more than 10 miles."
Soon the clock was restored, as evidenced by the notes of the ambassador of the Austrian Emperor Augustin Meyerberg, who visited Moscow in 1661. He wrote: “This clock shows the time from rising to sunset. During the summer solar turn, when the days are the longest, when night is at 7 o’clock, this machine shows and strikes 17 hours of the day. The fixed image of the sun, established above the hour board, shows with its ray the clock marked on the hour circle. This is the largest clock in Moscow."
The Spassky clock of that time was designed in a very interesting way. Their dial rotated, and a stationary hand in the form of a sun ray, placed above the dial, indicated the night and day hours. The numbers were Slavic, gilded. Inner circle, depicting the firmament, was covered with blue paint, dotted with gold and silver stars, and had images of the moon and sun. The dials were divided at 17 o'clock and were placed in the central keeled arch of the armature belt above the ancient quadrangle. Above them, right on the wall in a circle, the words of prayer were written and the signs of the zodiac, carved from iron, were located. Remnants of them are still preserved under the existing clock dials.
These watches were smaller than modern ones. The size of their dial was approximately 5 meters, the height of the numbers was 71 centimeters (1 arshin) and they weighed 25 poods (400 kilograms). The accuracy of the movement largely depended on the watchmaker who serviced them. Thus, the watchmaker of the Trinity Tower in his petition to the Tsar wrote: “Last 1688, the watchmaker of the Spasskaya Tower Andriyan Danilov passed away, and after his death his widow Ulita remained childless and rootless and she lives on that Spasskaya Tower and she keeps the clock without regulation, for many times “The clock interferes with the transmission of the hours of the day and night; sometimes she has one hour of prolongation against two hours, and at the present time it happens that in one hour two hours will speed up.”
When a watchmaker was appointed to the clock of the Spasskaya Tower, they took a guarantee from him so that “in the business at the Spasskaya Tower in the chapels not to drink and not to drink with the mob and not to play cards and not to trade in wine and tobacco, and I will not stay with thieves and come with thieves.” It’s not a knowledgeable person to drive a clock with any fear without interference and those clocks that on that tower there are buildings that need to be protected and not destroyed.”
IN early XVIII century, Peter I decided to replace the clock on the Spasskaya Tower with new ones. In 1704, he ordered a new clock in Amsterdam, which was delivered to Moscow on 30 carts and installed on the tower in 1706. “On the morning of December 9, 9 o’clock struck, and at 12 o’clock the music started playing and the clock began to strike.” Full installation The clock was completed only in 1709. The new watch already had a 12-hour dial. The installation of them on the tower and the alteration of the dial were supervised by Yakov Garnov, and the work was carried out by the blacksmith Nikifor Yakovlev and his comrades.
Soon the clock fell into disrepair and required repairs. In 1732, watchmaker Gabriel Panikadilytsikov reported this to his superiors, but to no avail. Two years later, he submitted a new petition, in which he wrote: “... the clock, due to lack of repair, has become increasingly dilapidated and surpasses all other clocks in dilapidation.” However, this request also remained unanswered.
The condition of the clock deteriorated further after the fire of 1737, when all the wooden parts of the Spasskaya Tower burned down. The tower has been repaired, but the clock is still for a long time remained faulty. “The chime shaft was damaged, and the bell music could not function,” says the inventory of the tower.
Having ascended the throne, Empress Catherine II visited Moscow and became interested in the Spassky chimes. They began to look for craftsmen to fix the watch, which by that time had already fallen into complete disrepair.
In 1763, in the Chamber of Facets, a “large English chime clock”, apparently still from Galovey, was found among various rubbish. By order of Catherine II, in 1767, apprentice Ivan Polyansky began installing them on the Spasskaya Tower, who completed this work in 1770.
In 1812, Muscovites saved the Spasskaya Tower from destruction French troops, but the clock stopped. Three years later, they were repaired by a group of craftsmen led by watchmaker Yakov Lebedev “with their own money, materials and working people,” for which he was awarded the honorary title of master of Spassky watches.
In the middle XIX century the clock stopped again. In 1850, the Kremlin watchmaker Korchagin reported that the watch was faulty and required major repairs. In 1851-1852, the Moscow owners of mechanical institutions, the Butekop brothers, set about correcting the Spassky chimes. This work was entrusted to skilled Russian craftsmen. They made new watches using parts from the old ones. A new cast-iron frame was cast under the clock, on which the entire mechanism was assembled, and new gilded dials were made on four sides of the tower. New ones, taken from other Kremlin towers, were added to the old clock bells. The playing shaft of the clock played the melody “How Glorious” and the warlike march of the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. New chimes played every three hours.
According to the drawings of the architect K. Thon, special metal ceilings were made to support the clock mechanism, pedestal and staircase to the clock. Subsequently, this clock was restored several times, and it has survived to this day.
The watch was damaged when the Kremlin was shelled during the October battles of 1917 and was not operational for almost a year. At the direction of V.I. Lenin, they were restored for the 1st anniversary of the Great October Revolution by Kremlin watchmaker II. V. Berens. Honored artist M. M. Cheremnykh played the melody of the “Internationale” on the playing shaft of the clock. In August 1918, the first strike of the hour bell rang out.
Last major renovation The watch was produced during the restoration of the Spasskaya Tower in 1974 by specialists from the Cauchio Research Institute of the Watch Industry and other organizations. At the same time, electronic clock control and automatic lubrication were made.
The clock on the tower occupies three floors - the 7th, 8th, and 9th and consists of three separate units: the movement mechanism, the quarter striking mechanism and the clock striking mechanism. Round black dials with gold-plated rims, numerals and hands extend to all four sides of the tower. The dials have a diameter of 6.12 meters, the height of the numbers is 72 centimeters, the length of the hour hand is 2.47 meters, the length of the minute hand is 3.28 meters. The total weight of the watch with all structures is approximately 25 tons.
The clock is powered by three weights suspended on steel cables. The weight of each of them is from 10 to 14 pounds (160-224 kilograms). The accuracy of the clock is achieved using a round pendulum weighing 2 pounds (32 kilograms). Previously, weights hung on hemp ropes and were lifted manually with a huge key. In 1937, the clock began to be wound using three electric motors, and the ropes were replaced with steel cables.
The clock striking mechanism, located under the tower tent in the open bell tier, consists of ten quarter bells and one bell that strikes the full hour. This bell is the largest. It weighs 135 poods (2160 kilograms) and is decorated with an ornament with the monogram of Catherine II and a double-headed eagle. The bell is surrounded by a three-tiered inscription: “...by the highest order of the All-August Empress Catherine the Great, the wise mother of the Fatherland, the All-Russian autocrat, this Spasskaya Tower was equipped with a clock with bell music in favor of the capital city of Moscow, and this bell was poured into it in the year of the birth of Christ 1769 year , May 27 days, weight 135 pounds 32 pounds, and master Semyon Mozhzhukhin."
The weight of one of the quarter bells is 20 pounds (320 kilograms). Previously, the clock used 48 bells taken from other Kremlin towers. All bells were cast in the 17th century. XVIII centuries and are interesting examples of the foundry art of the past. The dreams are decorated with geometric and floral patterns and inscriptions. Among them there is a bell that was still in operation in the Galovey clock. There are Dutch bells from 1698 and 1702, brought with the clock from Amsterdam.
The clock strikes as follows: a special hammer, connected by a cable to the clock mechanism, strikes the surface of the lower base of the bell.
Confirmation of the presence of the Kremlin clock can be found in documents from 1585. But, presumably, they appeared earlier: immediately after the completion of the construction of the Spasskaya Tower.
Probably, the countdown of time was different: then in Rus' the day was divided into “day” and “night” time periods. Consequently, the duration of the hourly intervals changed after two weeks. The watchmakers in the position reconfigured the mechanism according to specially issued tables on the length of day and night, and repaired it if it broke down.
The main tower clock was treated with special care. But fires that often occurred disabled the mechanism, and a strong fire that happened in 1624 turned the clock into scrap. Russian blacksmiths and watchmakers from the Zhdan family produced a new watch of impressive size. The work was supervised by a clock mechanic, the Englishman Christopher Galovey, and the Russian master Kirill Samoilov cast thirteen bells for this device. On the high tent top, erected under the direction of architect Bazhen Ogurtsov, bells for the chimes were hung, the chimes of which could be heard ten miles away. The accuracy of the mechanism invented by Galovey directly depended on the people serving it.
The clocks that appeared became the first Russian ones: according to the old Russian countdown of time intervals, they emitted a specially tuned melodic ringing. The Spasskys created by Galovey were restored several times after subsequent fires, but served for quite a long time.
Changing the timing
A unified 24-hour clock was established in Russia on the orders of Peter I. Under this tsar, the English mechanism of the main clock was replaced by a Dutch one, which had a twelve-hour dial. The new tower chimes were installed under the direction of the Russian watchmaker Ekim Garnov. A clock device borrowed from the Dutch, operated by foreigners, which caused “assembly dances” and “alarm”, constantly broke down. A severe fire in 1737 destroyed the wooden structures of the tower and damaged the chimes installed under Peter. The bell music died down. There was little interest in the Spassky clock; they were serviced carelessly when the capital was moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
The chimes on the Kremlin tower aroused the interest of Empress Catherine II, who ascended the Russian throne. On her orders, the tower clock, which had fallen into complete disrepair, was replaced with a large English one. For three years, Fatz and the Russian master Ivan Polyansky were engaged in installation. Due to the indifferent attitude of the authorities, from 1770, for a year, someone else’s melody about “dear Augustine” was played over Red Square, which pleased the German watchmaker who serviced the clock.
Residents of Moscow were able to save the Spasskaya Tower from destruction during the Napoleonic War, but the chimes fell silent. Three years later, a group of watchmakers led by Yakov Lebedev restored the operation of the main clock, which then worked uninterruptedly for many years.
The Danish brothers Butenops, together with the architect Konstantin Ton, examined the chimes in the mid-nineteenth century. Their condition was close to critical. Correction of all problems was entrusted to Russian watchmakers. The old parts served as the basis for the manufacture of new Kremlin watches. But skilled watchmakers carried out enormous labor-intensive work, including the replacement of many mechanisms with the selection of alloys that could withstand humidity and sudden changes temperature. Special attention The craftsmen paid special attention to the appearance of the new watch and completely changed the musical unit of the clock mechanism. Bells were added (now there are 48 of them) - the chimes became more melodic and more accurate.
Russian Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich ordered the chimes to be set to the melodies of D. Bortnyansky’s hymn “How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion” and the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment that existed under Peter I. With a break of three hours over main square These melodies sounded in Moscow until 1917.
Artillery shelling during the storming of the Kremlin during the October Revolution seriously damaged the Spassky Clock. They stopped moving for almost a year. They began to rebuild in 1918 on Lenin’s orders. Mechanic N. Behrens and his sons were able to quickly repair the state mechanism, which had become important. And the musical device was set up by musician M. Cheremnykh; he set revolutionary melodies to play. The morning over the capital's Red Square began every day with the Internationale.
Under I. Stalin, the dial of the Spassky chimes changed, and the sound of the funeral march was canceled. But due to the wear and tear of the mechanism, the musical device was stopped in 1938 - the chimes only struck quarters and hours.
The chimes, which had been silent for more than half a century, sounded again in 1996, thanks to a huge research work, making new bells. From the heights of the main Kremlin tower, the melodies of “Glory” and the official anthem of Russia until 2000, “Patriotic Song” by M. Glinka, flowed.
In 1999, the historical appearance of the upper tented tiers of the Spasskaya Tower was restored, and many works and control over the movement of the clock mechanism were improved. And with the striking of the Kremlin chimes, the anthem of our state sounded.
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower now represents a huge complex device. Hammer blows acting on the bell mechanisms cause the clock to strike. The melodies of the Russian anthem and the choir from M. Glinka’s opera “Glory” are sung by the bells on the high Kremlin belfry under the influence of a drum, forcing other mechanisms to work.
...Whereas, in fact, a new hour, day and year begin with the start of the chimes, that is, 20 seconds before the first strike of the bell.
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower - clock-chimes installed on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin
Modern chimes
Modern chimes were made in 1851-52. at the Russian factory of the Danish nationals of the brothers Johann (Ivan) and Nikolai Butenopov, whose company was known for installing the tower clock in the dome of the Grand Kremlin Palace.
A. Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0The Butenop brothers began work in December 1850. They created new watches using some old parts and all the developments in watchmaking of that time. A colossal amount of work has been done.
The old oak body was replaced with a cast iron one. The craftsmen replaced the wheels and gears and selected special alloys that could withstand significant temperature changes and high humidity.
The chimes received a Gragam stroke and a pendulum with a thermal compensation system designed by Harrison.
Appearance
The appearance of the Kremlin watch did not go unnoticed. The Butenopians installed new iron dials, facing four sides, not forgetting the hands, numbers and hour divisions. Specially cast copper numerals and minute and five-minute divisions were plated with red gold.
unknown, Public Domain The iron hands are wrapped in copper and plated with gold. The work was completed in March 1852. Ivan Tolstoy, who was the court watchmaker, reported that “the mechanism of the said clock was remade again with due clarity and, due to its correct movement and fidelity, deserves full approval.”
Chime melody
The famous melody of the chimes, which marks the onset of each hour and quarter, widely known throughout the world, was not specially composed: it is determined solely by the design of the belfry of the Spasskaya Tower.
unknown, Public Domain The chimes performed a certain melody on the playing shaft, which was a drum with holes and pins connected by ropes to the bells under the tower's tent. For a more melodic ringing and accurate execution of the melody, 24 bells were removed from the Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers and installed on Spasskaya, bringing total quantity up to 48.
Restoration of the tower
At the same time, restoration of the tower itself was carried out under the leadership of architect Gerasimov. The metal ceilings, stairs and their pedestal were made according to the drawings of the talented Russian architect Konstantin Ton, who created the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Melody
Soon the question arose about choosing a melody for the chimes to play. Composer Verstovsky and conductor of Moscow theaters Stutsman helped select the sixteen melodies most familiar to Muscovites.
Nicholas I ordered to leave two, “so that the clock chimes would play in the morning - the Preobrazhensky March of Peter’s times, used for a quiet step, and in the evening - the prayer “How glorious is our Lord in Zion,” usually played by musicians, if both pieces can be adapted to the mechanism of hourly music "
From that time on, the chimes played the “March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment” at 12 and 6 o’clock, and at 3 and 9 o’clock the hymn “How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion” by Dmitry Bortnyansky, which sounded over Red Square until 1917. Initially, they wanted to put the anthem on the playing shaft of the chimes Russian Empire“God Save the Tsar!”, however, Nicholas I did not allow this, stating that “the chimes can play any songs except the anthem.” In 1913, for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, a full-scale restoration was carried out appearance chimes. The Butenop Brothers company continued to support the watch movement.
Destruction and restoration 1918
On November 2, 1917, during the storming of the Kremlin by the Bolsheviks, a shell hit the clock, breaking one of the hands and damaging the mechanism for rotating the hands. The clock stopped for almost a year.
In 1918, on the instructions of V.I. Lenin (“We need these clocks to speak our language”), it was decided to restore the Kremlin chimes. At first, the Bolsheviks turned to the company of Pavel Bure and Sergei Roginsky, but they, assessing the scale of the destruction, asked for 240 thousand in gold.
After this, the authorities turned to Nikolai Behrens, a mechanic who worked in the Kremlin. Behrens knew the structure of the chimes well, as he was the son of a master from the Butenop Brothers company, who took part in their reconstruction. In the conditions of the situation in Soviet Russia in 1918, a new pendulum weighing 32 kilograms was made with great difficulty, to replace the lost old one, which was lead and gold-plated, the mechanism for rotating the hands was repaired, and the hole in the dial was repaired.
By July 1918, with the help of his sons Vladimir and Vasily, Nikolai Behrens was able to launch the chimes. However, the Behrens did not understand the musical structure of the Spassky clock.
New ringtones
At the direction of the new government, the artist and musician Mikhail Cheremnykh figured out the structure of the bells, the score of the chimes and, in accordance with Lenin’s wishes, scored revolutionary melodies on the playing shaft of the chimes.
The clock began to play “Internationale” at 12 o’clock, and “You have fallen a victim...” at 24 o’clock. In August 1918, the Mossovet commission accepted the work after listening to each melody three times from Lobnoye Mesto on Red Square.
kremlin.ru, CC BY-SA 3.0 On August 18, 1918, the “Bulletin” of the press bureau of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee reported that the Kremlin chimes had been repaired and were now playing revolutionary anthems. The “Internationale” sounded first at 6 a.m., at 9 a.m. and at 3 p.m. the funeral march “You have fallen a victim...” (in honor of those buried on Red Square).
kremlin.ru, CC BY-SA 3.0 After some time, they reconfigured and the chimes began to play the “Internationale” melody at 12 o’clock, and “You have fallen a victim...” at 24 o’clock.
Period of difficulties
Repairs were carried out in 1932 appearance hours. A new dial was made - exact copy old and newly gilded rims, numbers and hands, using 28 kilograms of gold. In addition, only "Internationale" was retained as the melody.
A special commission found the sound of the chimes' musical device unsatisfactory. The worn-out chiming mechanism, as well as frost, greatly distorted the sound. The Butenop brothers warned about this back in 1850:
“the wires by which the bell hammers are supposed to be driven, being too long, swing; and in winter, due to the influence of frost, they shrink; from which the expression of musical sounds is not pure and incorrect.”
Due to the distortion of the melody, already in 1938 the chimes fell silent, and began to chime the hours and quarters with their chimes and chimes. In 1941, an electro-mechanical drive was installed specifically for the performance of the Internationale, which was subsequently dismantled.
In 1944, on the instructions of I.V. Stalin, they tried to set the chimes to play the already adopted anthem to the music of Alexandrov. But the work was not crowned with success.
A major restoration of the chimes and the entire clock mechanism with its stop for 100 days was carried out in 1974. The mechanism was completely disassembled and restored with the replacement of old parts.
Since 1974, a system of automatic lubrication of parts has been in operation, which was previously carried out manually. However, the musical mechanism of the chimes remained untouched by the restoration.
In 1991, the Plenum of the Central Committee decided to resume the operation of the Kremlin chimes, but it turned out that three bells were missing to play the USSR anthem. They returned to this task in 1995. They planned to approve M. I. Glinka’s “Patriotic Song” as the new anthem of the Russian Federation.
After 58 years of silence
In 1996, during the inauguration of B. N. Yeltsin, the chimes, after the traditional chiming and striking of the clock, began to play again after 58 years of silence. However, over the past years, only 10 bells remained on the belfry of the Spasskaya Tower. In the absence of several bells needed to sing the anthem, metal beaters were installed in addition to the bells.
At noon and midnight, 6 am and 6 pm, the chimes began to play the “Patriotic Song”, and every 3 and 9 o’clock in the morning and evening - the melody of the choir “Glory” from the opera “A Life for the Tsar” (Ivan Susanin) also by M. I. Glinka .
The last major restoration was carried out in 1999. The work was planned for six months. The hands and numbers were again gilded. The historical appearance of the upper tiers was restored. By the end of the year, the final adjustment of the chimes was carried out.
Instead of the "Patriotic Song" the chimes began to play National anthem Russian Federation, officially approved in 2000. The chimes began to play the Russian national anthem.
Photo gallery
Useful information
Clock on the Spasskaya Tower
Old clock
The existence of clocks back in the 16th century. indicates that in 1585, at the three gates of the Kremlin, at Spassky, Tainitsky and Troitsky, chapels were in service.
In 1613–14 The chapels at the Nikolsky Gate are also mentioned. At the Frolov Gate in 1614, Nikiforka Nikitin was the chapelmaster.
In September 1624, the old combat watch was sold by weight to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery. Instead, in 1625, a clock was installed on the Spasskaya Tower under the guidance of the English mechanic and watchmaker Christopher Galovey by Russian blacksmiths and watchmakers Zhdan, his son Shumila Zhdanov and grandson Alexei Shumilov. 13 bells were cast for them by foundry worker Kirill Samoilov. During a fire in 1626, the clock burned down and was restored by Galovey. In 1668 the clock was repaired. Using special mechanisms, they “played music” and also measured the time of day and night, indicated by letters and numbers.
The dial was called the index word circle, the recognized circle. The numbers were denoted by Slavic letters - the letters were copper, covered with gold, the size of an arshin. The role of the arrow was played by an image of the sun with a long ray, fixedly fixed in the upper part of the dial. His disk was divided into 17 equal parts. This was due to the maximum day length in summer time.
“Russian clocks divided the day into daytime hours and nighttime hours, monitoring the rise and course of the sun, so that at the minute of rising the Russian clock struck the first hour of the day, and at sunset - the first hour of the night, so almost every two weeks the number of daytime hours , as well as night ones, gradually changed..."
The middle of the dial was covered with blue azure; gold and silver stars, images of the sun and moon were scattered across the blue field. There were two dials: one towards the Kremlin, the other towards Kitai-Gorod.
The unusual design of the clock gave rise to Samuel Collins, to an English doctor in Russian service, he sarcastically remarked in a letter to his friend Robert Boyle:
On our watches the hand moves towards the number, but in Russia it’s the other way around - the numbers move towards the hand. A certain Mr. Galovey - a very inventive man - came up with a dial of this kind. He explains this as follows: “Since Russians do not act like all other people, then what they produce must be arranged accordingly.”
XVIII - XIX centuries
In 1705, by decree of Peter I, a new clock was installed in the Kremlin. Purchased by Peter I in Holland, they were transported from Amsterdam to Moscow on 30 carts. The clock was remade in the German style with a dial at 12 o'clock. The watch was installed by watchmaker Ekim Garnov (Garnault). It is unknown what melody these chimes played. However, the Dutch clock did not please Muscovites for long with its chime. Peter's clock often broke down, and after the great fire of 1737 it completely fell into disrepair. The capital was moved to St. Petersburg and there was no hurry to repair the main clock of the Mother See.
In 1763, a large English chime clock was discovered in the building of the Chamber of Facets. The German master Fatz (Fats) was specially invited to install them on the Spasskaya Tower in 1767. IN within three years, with the help of the Russian master Ivan Polyansky, the clock was installed.
By the will of a foreign master, in 1770 the Kremlin chimes began to play the German song “Ah, my dear Augustine” and for some time this melody sounded over Red Square. This was the only time the chimes played a foreign melody. During the famous fires of 1812 they were damaged. After the expulsion of the French from Moscow, the chimes were examined.
In February 1813, watchmaker Yakov Lebedev wrote in his report that the clock mechanism was destroyed and offered to repair it with his own work and materials. Having received permission to carry out the work on the condition that he would not damage the mechanism, Lebedev began restoration. In 1815, the clock was launched, and Yakov Lebedev received the honorary title of watchmaker of the Spassky clock. However, time has not been kind to these Kremlin chimes. The report of the Butenop Brothers company and the architect Ton dated 1851 states:
“The Spassky tower clock is currently in a state of close to complete disarray: the iron wheels and gears are so worn out from long-term use that they will soon become completely unusable, the dials have fallen into great disrepair, the wooden floors have sagged, the staircases require indispensable reworking,... the oak foundation rotted under the clock from long periods of time.”
Technical data
The chimes occupy the 8th-10th tiers of the Spasskaya Tower. The main mechanism is located on the 9th floor in a special room and consists of 4 winding shafts: one for running the hands, another for striking the clock, a third for calling the quarters and another for playing the chimes. The minute hand guide shaft passes through the floor to the 8th tier, where the rotation is distributed over 4 dials. Behind each dial there are separate mechanisms that transmit rotation from the minute hand to the hour hand.
The chime dials, 6.12 m in diameter, extend onto four sides of the tower. The height of the Roman numerals is 0.72 m, the length of the hour hand is 2.97 m, the length of the minute hand is 3.27 m. Kremlin clock unique in their own way, being completely mechanical.
The total weight of the chimes is 25 tons. The mechanism is driven by 3 weights weighing from 160 to 224 kilograms (thus, according to the principle of operation, the Kremlin chimes are huge walkers).
Winding the watch (lifting weights) is done 2 times a day. Initially, the weights were lifted manually, but since 1937 they have been lifted using three electric motors. Accuracy is achieved thanks to a pendulum weighing 32 kilograms.
Switching the hands to winter or summer time is done only manually. The clock mechanism is connected to a musical unit, which is located under the tower canopy in the open 10th tier of bells and consists of 9 quarter bells and one bell that strikes the full hour.
The weight of quarter bells is about 320 kg, and that of hour bells is 2160 kg. The clock strikes using a hammer connected to the mechanism and each bell. Every 15, 30, 45 minutes of the hour the chime is played 1, 2 and 3 times respectively. At the beginning of each hour, the chimes are rung 4 times, and then a large bell chimes the hours.
The musical mechanism of the chimes consists of a programmed copper cylinder with a diameter of about two meters, which is rotated by a weight weighing more than 200 kg. It is dotted with holes and pins in accordance with the typed tunes. When the drum rotates, the pins press the keys, from which the cables connected to the bells on the belfry stretch. The rhythm of the melody played by the bells lags far behind the original, so recognizing the melodies can be problematic. At noon and midnight, 6 and 18 o'clock the anthem of the Russian Federation is performed, at 3, 9, 15 and 21 o'clock - the melody of the choir "Glory" from Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar". The melodies themselves differ in the rhythm of execution, so in the first case, one first line from Alexandrov’s anthem is performed, in the second, two lines from the chorus “Glory”.
Interestingly, the vast majority of Russians believe that the New Year begins with the first or last strike of the bell. Whereas in fact, a new hour, day and year begin with the start of the chimes, that is, 20 seconds before the first strike of the bell. And with the 12th stroke of the bell, exactly one minute of the New Year has already passed.
Other clocks in the Kremlin
In addition to the clock on the Spasskaya Tower, the Kremlin also has clocks on the Trinity Tower and on the Grand Kremlin Palace.
