The chimes on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin are known not only in Russia, but all over the world. In its current state, the Kremlin appeared at the end of the 15th century. Before that, wooden and later white stone buildings were located on Borovitsky Hill.

In the 21st century The Kremlin is the largest functioning castle in Europe. But no less famous are its unique towers, among which Spasskaya stands out due to its majestic appearance and dials installed on its walls.

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Help from the past

Image taken during the USSR period

Located on the eastern wall of the Kremlin, it is almost the highest in height, second only to Troitskaya by 9 meters. Together with the star, the size of the building reaches 71 meters; it was built under Ivan III.

Its architect is the Italian Antonio Solari. At first, the building was called Frolovskaya, because of the church of the same name, past which the only road to the main passage passed. The current name appeared later, almost a hundred years later.

The name was transferred to the gate from two icons of the Savior (Not Made by Hands and Smolensk), hung on top of the passage on both sides. However, the entire structure was later renamed. Important: only the icon of the Savior of Smolensk has been preserved, the second was lost during the USSR.

Less than a quarter of a century after the construction, a wooden bridge was stretched across the moat. After that, the Englishman Galoway completed the upper floors and the hipped roof, which significantly "stretched" the appearance. Nude sculptures were installed as decorative elements - however, they were covered almost immediately by sewing special caftans. A few years later, they were badly damaged in a fire, they had to be completely removed.

In the next century, the tent was crowned with the image of a double-headed eagle - it survived until the period of the USSR, periodically updated. It was replaced by a Soviet star with five rays.

View inside

Quite quickly, the star had to be changed: the first version became very dim due to precipitation, and the dimensions turned out to be too large. Instead, the so-called "ruby" stars appeared, the size of which does not even reach 4 meters.

They have a frame made of stainless steel, flat edges are made of two-layer glass. Inside them, lamps with autonomous action work, and there is a ventilation system. The stars standing on the “crown” are not the first: they have already been changed before.

This design has always occupied a special place in the life of Muscovites, being the main one among its “sisters”. Horses did not enter through its gates, and men on foot took off (later it was fixed by decree) their hats and bowed. This was done by all those passing by, regardless of religion, otherwise they would be punished.

Local legend confirms the sanctity of the main gate: when Emperor Bonaparte was riding through the passage, an unexpected wind tore off his cocked hat. During the retreat, the French wanted to blow up the tower, a miracle happened - the wicks were extinguished, no harm was caused to the building.

Criminals were led through the described building to the Execution Ground for execution, who prayed before the icons of the Savior. Also, kings and emperors followed through it on the way to the place of coronation, religious processions followed. Russians are accustomed to seeing the Spasskaya Tower during the president's speech, they also give a countdown.

Appearance

The chimes are located on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors - the latter is located directly under the upper tent.

The discs are over 6 meters high. The size of the numbers is 72 cm, the hand has a length of 2.97 meters, the minute hand is 3.3 m. The whole structure has a rather impressive weight - 25 tons.

The principle of operation is the same as that of ordinary walkers: winding occurs by lifting three weights, the move is carried out by the movement of the pendulum. Inside it consists of 4 shafts, it is located on the ninth floor.

The shaft responsible for minutes descends to the eighth floor, the musical component - to the tenth. The latter consists of a hammer and a dozen bells: the largest is responsible for beating when the arrow points to 12, the rest - when the arrow points to 3, 6 and 9.

It is important to know: one of the main features is that the device is completely mechanical.

Melodies are played using a copper cylinder with a diameter of 2 meters and a weight of 2 centners. The action is similar to music boxes: notches and bulges are applied to the surface of the cylinder. During rotation, they press the keys, from which the cables stretch to the bells and the applied melody is played.

However, due to a significant lag behind the desired tempo, the melodies are not always recognizable. Now the anthem of Russia is played there (it beats every 6 hours, starting at 12 o'clock) and "Glory" from Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar (played every 6 hours, starting at 3 o'clock).

It is curious to note that the onset of a new calendar period in the life of people and the country does not occur with the last chimes, but with the first chime. By the time the ringing ends, a whole minute has passed.

Story

Surprisingly, the chimes were installed back in the 16th century. Even then, the watchmaker's position existed in the Kremlin: their service took place at the Spassky, Troitsky and Tainitsky gates, later Nikolsky gates were added to them.

At the beginning of the 17th century, after less than 40 years of service, the first device from the Frolovsky (at that time) gate was sold to the monastery in Yaroslavl. Already 24 months later, a new device for determining the time appeared in their place. The Englishman Galloway (Galovey) and the family of Russian blacksmiths Zhdanov and Shumilov worked on it. The first ones were equipped with 13 bells made by Samoilov.

However, the structures were not destined to stand for a long time: having worked a little, they died in a fire, but were quickly remade by the same master Galoway.

In the 70s of the same century, the device underwent a major overhaul. Now he could play music, the disk was covered with blue azure, images of celestial bodies were applied to it. Instead of the usual movable arrow at the very top of the dial, they attached an image of the sun, from which a long beam descended. The disk itself was divided into 17 compartments to make it convenient to designate a long summer day.

The main feature was the mechanism: it was not the hands that moved, showing the exact time, but the dial: sunrise was the first daytime phenomenon, sunset was the last. Thus, the disk either moved in the direction of the arrow, or against it. To ensure that the readings did not lag behind the movement of the sun, the device was corrected every 2 weeks.

Note: on this occasion, an English doctor who worked in the capital described Moscow to his friend and wrote that the actions of the Russians are completely incomprehensible - even in their watches, the arrow does not run after the numbers, but vice versa.

We owe the appearance of new watches to Peter the Great

At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I decided to transform the tower in a European way and purchased a new instrument in Holland. It already had the usual dial with 12 digits. The watchmaker Garnov (Garno) was engaged in the installation. But this mechanism turned out to be extremely unreliable and constantly broke down until, after a fire in 1737, it completely failed.

However, this upset few people: the capital moved to St. Petersburg, and the arrangement was delayed. I had to wait more than a quarter of a century until a clock of English work was found in the Faceted Chamber - it was the German Fatz who installed them on the tower. The installation lasted about 3 years, and in 1770, over Red Square, the chimes played the words of the German song "Ah, my dear Augustine" - for the first time in its existence. A few days later, the melody was changed to the usual one.

The described device was not destined to stand for a long time. During the famous Moscow fire that happened during the offensive of Napoleon, he suffered. When the watchmaker Lebedev checked them, he spent a long time restoring them. After the repair work was completed, he was awarded.

Modern version

However, they again did not live long. When a specialist examined them in the middle of the 19th century, he came to a deplorable conclusion: the condition of the Kremlin chimes leaves much to be desired.

Iron parts are worn out, wooden stairs, floors and foundations will soon crumble. The creation of a new mechanism immediately began: the Danish firm of the Butenopov brothers, whose factory was located in Russia, took up the drawing. They already had experience in creating watch "giants": a couple of years ago they installed a clock mechanism in the Kremlin's palace dome.

Completely updated with a special durable alloy, they look like a modern version, a pendulum was installed inside. The craftsmen replaced the dial, numbers, divisions, covered them with copper and gilded them. At the same time, the tower building was reconstructed. The work was supervised by the architect Ton.

At the same time, the clock melody was changed. By decree of Nicholas I, the clock performed the "March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment" and the prayer "How glorious is our Lord in Zion." Curiously, the emperor himself rejected the proposal to choose the national anthem.

In honor of the tercentenary of the ruling house, the mechanism was restored. All this time he was followed by the masters of the firm of the Butenop brothers.

Watch repair and cleaning

In 1917, during the revolution, the Kremlin suffered from an attack by revolutionaries, a shell hit the clock. He damaged the arrows and the "insides" of the tower. Repairs were not able to start immediately, but only after Lenin's personal instructions.

The cost of repairs, put forward by specialists from the firm, amounted to 240 thousand gold. It was too much money, and it was decided to turn to the carpenter, the son of one of the Butenop Brothers specialists, who had previously participated in the repair.

The musician Cheremnykh was responsible for the music: they performed the "Internationale" once and twice - the funeral march. The latter was the memory of all the revolutionaries buried in front of the Kremlin on Red Square. Later, one performance was "taken away" from the funeral march.

A few years later, the authorities were able to carry out cosmetic repairs externally: the dial, hands, and numbers were updated. The funeral march was removed altogether: now only the "Internationale" sounded. A few years after the repair, a special commission decided that the music was badly recorded and needed to be rewritten. In 1938, the mechanism lost its "voice" - only the chime remained.

The first reports of serious wear date back to the middle of the 19th century: the wires stretching from the cylinder to the bells were constantly shortened due to frost, which did not reflect well on the sound.

Interesting fact: surprisingly, the Kremlin clock mechanism survived the war quite well: together with all the walls and outbuildings, they were disguised as residential buildings, trying to deceive the bombers. There is no evidence of any damage, which suggests that the structure was not damaged at all.

Setting the clock on the Spasskaya Tower

After almost 30 years, the mechanism was stopped again - already for quite a considerable period. It was dismantled, reassembled, replacing all worn pieces, and installed an automatic lubrication system. But the machine was still silent.

In 91 of the twentieth century, it was decided to return the “voice” to the clock, but it turned out that this was impossible: several bells were lost. They were replaced by a bila in 1995.

The melody played again in 97 of the 20th century: this time they performed the Patriotic Song and Glory from the opera A Life for the Tsar twice each. By this time, the silence had lasted for almost 60 years.

The last global restoration took place in 1999: the external gilding was renewed, the upper tiers were restored to their historical appearance, and the work of the chimes was carefully adjusted. A new melody also appeared - the anthem of Russia, approved at the same time.

Spassky chimes are considered one of the main attractions of Moscow and all of Russia. Having lived for more than 4 centuries and frequent renovations, they still work great. They are easy to find in many photos with the sights of the capital and souvenirs, you can read brief information on Wikipedia.

How the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower are arranged, see interesting information in the following video:

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower is a hallmark of the Moscow Kremlin. This tower has a gate to Red Square, the gate was considered holy, and the tower was called "Spasskaya", because it had an icon of the Savior of Smolensk. The hipped top of the tower is the authorship of master Bazhen Ogurtsov. Chimes are installed there - a tower clock with a set of tuned bells.

The history of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower

Presumably, the clock was installed in the tower after it was built in 1491 by the architect Pietro Antonio Solario at the behest of Ivan III. And in 1585 official watchmakers "passed" according to the documents.

The ancient "Byzantine time" chimes had one hand and showed "day" and "night" hours.

In 1624, after a fire, the clock had to be replaced. Under the supervision of the English mechanic and watchmaker Christopher Galovey, the Russian blacksmith-watchmakers Zhdan made larger clocks. 13 bells were cast for them by the Russian caster Kirill Samoilov. To accommodate the bells and mechanisms, the tower had to be built on. Strictly speaking, it was these watches that were the first chimes, since it was they who began to "call" the melody at certain points in time. The mechanism was made of oak. Only the time for them was again ... "Old Russian. Foreigners wrote:

In our watches, the arrow moves towards the number, in Russia, on the contrary, the numbers move towards the arrow. A certain Mr. Galloway - a very inventive person - came up with a dial of this kind. He explains this as follows: "Since the Russians do not act like all other people, then what they produce should be arranged accordingly"

Click to reveal...

Of course, Peter I replaced them with Dutch ones - with a 12-hour dial. The clock chimed every quarter of an hour. The overseas thing often broke down, and in 1737 it burned down altogether. They were in no hurry to restore them - the capital was then transferred.

In 1767, a new clock was found - now English - and installed by master Fatz. Their song was "Ah, my dear Augustine" - the only time in the history of a foreign tune.

In 1851, the familiar clock was made and installed. It was a fundamentally new mechanism. Oak parts were replaced with cast iron, special alloys reacted minimally to temperature changes.

A modern pendulum, a more accurate move, a melody - everything was fundamentally new. The watches were made at the Russian factory of the Danish subjects of the Butenop brothers. The musical part of the mechanism was improved, 48 bells were involved, some of which were transferred from other towers of the Kremlin, where there was once a clock. hammers struck the bells.

Melodies were "programmed" with the help of a special rotating drum. In tsarist times, "How glorious is our Lord in Zion" and the march of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment of Petrovsky times were played.

In 1917, a shell hit the tower, and for a year the clock stood out of order. At the direction of Lenin, the clock was repaired, and other melodies were dialed - the Internationale and "You fell a victim ..."

But by the forties of the 20th century, the worn-out mechanism required a serious restoration. And the melodies were not played cleanly. This restoration took place only in 1974 - the clock was stopped for 100 days. The last major overhaul dates back to 1999.

Until 1996, the chimes were silent for 58 years, and at the inauguration of President Yeltsin they performed the melody "Glory" by Glinka, which at that time was performed as the anthem of Russia. Here is a modern drum responsible for "music"

Bell music has its own rhythm, so it is difficult to guess that at noon, midnight, 6 and 18 o'clock the Russian anthem is performed, at 3, 9, 15 and 21 o'clock - the melody of the choir "Slavsya".

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower is not the most accurate, but the most important. Four of their dials have a diameter of 6.12 meters, the height of the numbers is 0.72 meters, the length of the hour hand is 2.97 m, the minute hand is 3.27 m. The total weight of the chimes is 25 tons. This is a fully mechanical watch, and therefore - the watch is unique. They are subjected to regular lubrication (separate winter and summer lubricant composition), upgrades - they are "on a pencil" in scientific institutes.

An important question: when does the New Year come? With the first or last hit? So, the chiming clock has nothing to do with it. The new goal comes earlier, with the beginning of the chime!

How to Read Facades: A Cheat Sheet on Architectural Elements

At first, the tower was called Frolovskaya - after the church of Frol and Lavr on, to which the road led from the tower. The church has not survived. The prison where the participants of the salt and copper riots languished was not preserved either.

The increase in the tax on salt put the "black people" of the settlements in a difficult position. Under pressure from the population, the government canceled the tax, but decided to collect arrears immediately for 3 years. The abuses of persons close to the tsar aggravated the situation, and on June 1, 1648, Alexei Mikhailovich, on the way from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, was surrounded by a crowd demanding to punish extortionists.
The next day, the king was again surrounded: people demanded the extradition of the villains and even began to smash the boyars' houses. The tsar decided to give Pleshcheev to the executioner, but the crowd dragged him to Red Square and tore him to pieces. Then Alexei Mikhailovich promised to expel the hated boyars from Moscow. And then the fire started. According to rumors, those close to the king were guilty. In response, the people destroyed Morozov's mansions, the court of the merchant Vasily Shorin, killed the clerk Chisty and the boyar Trakhaniotov. The uprising fizzled out.

Soon, new reasons for discontent were added to the old ones: the protracted war against Poland and the depreciation of copper money. Trying to get out of the financial crisis, the government issued copper money, making it equal in price to silver. Because of this, prices have risen, and many fakes have appeared. On the night of July 25, 1662, "thieves' lists" appeared in crowded places in Moscow, accusing the tsar's relatives. The sounds of the alarm floated over the city, and the crowd rushed to the village of Kolomenskoye to Alexei Mikhailovich.
The king had already persuaded the people to disperse, but reinforcements were added to the rebels. Then the "quietest" king ordered to deal with the rebels. Many people suffered, but copper money was abolished.

Reminiscent of that time are the treasures found by Soviet archaeologists on. One of them contained 33,000 silver coins from the time of Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich.

The name of the Spasskaya Tower was given by the over-gate icon of the Savior of Smolensk.

What is what in the church

To the left and right of the Spassky Gate until 1925 there were chapels - the chapel of the Great Council Revelation (Smolenskaya), and the chapel of the Great Council Angel (Spasskaya). From the gates of the Spasskaya Tower, regiments went to battle, and foreign ambassadors were met here. All processions from the cross went through these gates, all the rulers of Russia, starting with Mikhail Fedorovich, passed through them before the coronation. Therefore, the Spassky Gate was also called the Royal or Holy.

In the 17th century, the icon of the table was in a special icon case, and it was strictly forbidden to pass through the gates of the Spasskaya Tower in a headdress or ride a horse. For "forgetfulness" they were beaten with batogs or forced to make 50 bows to the earth. At the same time, when Napoleon was passing through the Spassky Gates, a gust of wind tore off his cocked hat. And when the French in 1812 tried to steal the precious salary from the icon of the Savior of Smolensk, a miracle happened: the attached ladder fell, and the shrine remained unharmed.

But in Soviet times, the icon disappeared from the Spasskaya Tower and was considered lost until May 11, 2010. In its place was a plastered white rectangle. And during the restoration of the tower, it became clear that the icon of the Savior of Smolensk was not lost, but hidden. The architect Konstantin Apollonov, following the order to destroy the painting, hid the image under a chain-link mesh and a layer of concrete. So they saved the icon, and the safety of the image was 80%.

Now the icon of the Savior of Smolensk is again over the gates of the Spasskaya Tower. And from the diaries of N.D. Vinogradov, it becomes clear that the commandant of the Kremlin himself allowed the icons to be hidden in any way, so long as they were not visible.

In the 16th century, figures of lions, bears and peacocks were installed on the Spasskaya Tower. Now it is believed that these were symbols of royal power (lions and unicorns). They survived, although they suffered in 1917.

And in the 16th century, figures of naked people appeared on the Spasskaya Tower. And the church in Russia did not even allow ordinary curly images! True, under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, their nakedness was bashfully covered with specially tailored clothes. But we cannot see this curiosity - time and fires did not spare him. The statues themselves were used as foundation stones.

And during the time of Peter the Great, near the Spasskaya Tower on Red Square, mannequins with model clothes of French and Hungarian cut appeared. The guards stood nearby and, in the absence of proper clothing, cut the floors and beards with scissors.

The first watch in Russia appeared on the Spasskaya Tower in the 15th century. And at the end of the 16th century, there were clocks on two more towers of the Kremlin - Troitskaya and Taynitskaya.

In 1585, watchmakers were in the service of all these towers. In 1613-1614, watchmakers were also mentioned at. This work was very responsible and required compliance with the rules: do not drink alcohol, do not play cards, do not sell wine and tobacco, do not communicate with thieves.

At that time, watch faces were huge so that everyone who did not have a personal watch could tell the time from them. That is, the flow of time in the city depended on the clock on the Kremlin towers. There was no minute hand on the clock, but they could still be in a hurry or behind by a couple of hours - this depended on the haste of the watchmaker, who manually translated the hands every hour. The countdown was even more interesting: the day was divided not in half, but into day and night. In summer, the day began at 3 o'clock in the morning and ended at 8 o'clock in the evening, and therefore the dial was calculated at 17 o'clock.

The first mechanical clock for the Spasskaya Tower was created by Galloway. They weighed 400 kg. Along the contour of the dial painted "under the sky" there were Arabic numerals and Church Slavonic letters, denoting numbers in pre-Petrine Russia. At the same time, the dial rotated, and the arrow looked straight up.

In our watches, the arrow moves towards the number, in Russia, on the contrary, the numbers move towards the arrow. A certain Mr. Galloway - a very inventive person - came up with a dial of this kind. He explains this as follows: "Since the Russians do not act like all other people, then what they produce should be arranged accordingly."

Sometimes watchmakers set up a business right next to the tower. So on the Spasskaya Tower, the watchmaker built himself a hut, planted a garden and raised chickens. And this caused great displeasure of the authorities and residents of the city.

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower served faithfully until it was sold to Yaroslavl. In 1705, by decree of Peter I, they installed a new clock with a 12-hour dial, ordered from Amsterdam. What melody these chimes played is unknown. And for a short time they pleased the Muscovites with a chime: the clock often broke, and after the fire of 1737 they fell into disrepair. And since the capital was moved to St. Petersburg, they were in no hurry to repair it.

In 1763, large English chimes were found in the Faceted Chamber and the German master Fatz was invited to install them. And in 1770, the Kremlin chimes began to play the German song "Ah, my dear Augustine."

During the fire of 1812, this clock was damaged. A year later, watchmaker Yakov Lebedev offered to repair the chimes, and in 1815 the clock was started again. Yet time has not been kind to them.

The Spassky tower clock is currently in a state close to complete disorder: the iron wheels and gears are so worn out from longevity that they will soon become completely unusable, the dials have become very dilapidated, the wooden floors have settled, the stairs require indispensable alteration, ... the oak foundation under rotted away for hours.

New chimes were made in 1851-1852 at the Russian factory of the Butenop brothers. Some old parts and all the watchmaking developments of that time were used.

The performance of the melody was laid on a playing shaft - a drum with holes and pins connected by ropes with bells under the tent of the tower. To do this, 24 bells had to be removed from the Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers and installed on Spasskaya, bringing the total number to 48.

The choice of music was not an easy one. Composer Verstovsky and bandmaster of Moscow theaters Stutsman selected 16 melodies most familiar to Muscovites, but Nicholas I left only two - the Transfiguration March of Peter the Great and the prayer "Glorious be our Lord in Zion." They wanted to play the anthem of the Russian Empire “God Save the Tsar!” on the playing shaft, but the emperor forbade it, saying that the chimes could play any song except the anthem.

In 1913, for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower were restored.

But on November 2, 1917, during the storming of the Kremlin, a shell hit the clock. He damaged the mechanism, and the clock stood up for almost a year. Only in 1918, at the direction of V.I. Lenin's chimes were restored.

First, for the repair of the chimes, they turned to the company of Bure and Roginsky, but they requested 240 thousand gold. Then the authorities turned to the Kremlin locksmith Nikolai Berens, who knew the device of the chimes (he was the son of a master from the Butenop Brothers company). By July 1918, Behrens started the chimes again. But since he did not understand the musical device of the watch, the ringing was assigned to the artist and musician Mikhail Cheremnykh. Of course, preference was given to revolutionary melodies, so the chimes began to be played at 12 o'clock "The Internationale", at 24 o'clock - "You fell a victim ...". In August 1918, the commission of the Moscow City Council accepted the work, having listened to each melody from the Execution Ground three times.

But in the 1930s, the commission recognized the sound of the chimes as unsatisfactory: the worn-out mechanism of the battle and frost greatly distorted the sound. Therefore, in 1938, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower fell silent again.

In 1941, an electromechanical drive was mounted specifically for the performance of the Internationale, but it did not save the musical system. In 1944, at the direction of I.V. Stalin tried to set the clock on the Spasskaya Tower to perform a new anthem to the music of Alexandrov, but this also failed.

A major restoration of the chiming mechanism with a stop for 100 days took place in 1974, but even then the musical mechanism was not touched.

The history of the Kremlin stars

In 1991, the Plenum of the Central Committee decided to resume the work of the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower, but it turned out that 3 bells were not enough to play the USSR anthem. They returned to the task in 1995.

Then they planned to approve the “Patriotic Song” by M.I. as a new anthem. Glinka, and in 1996 during the inauguration of B.N. Yeltsin's chimes on the Spasskaya Tower, after the traditional chime and striking the clock, began to play again after 58 years of silence! And although only 10 bells out of 48 remained on the belfry, the missing ones were replaced with metal beaters. At noon and midnight, 6 am and 6 pm, the chimes began to perform the "Patriotic Song", and at 3 and 9 am and pm - the melody of the choir "Glory" from the opera "Life for the Tsar" by M.I. Glinka. After the restoration in 1999, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower began to play the national anthem of the Russian Federation instead of the Patriotic Song.

The chimes on the Spasskaya Tower are unique and completely mechanical.

The dial diameter is 6.12 meters. The dial is so huge that a Moscow metro train can pass through it! The height of the Roman numerals is 0.72 meters, the length of the hour hand is 2.97 meters, the length of the minute hand is 3.27 meters. The entire clock mechanism occupies 3 of the 10 floors of the tower.

The weight of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower is 25 tons, and it is driven by 3 weights weighing from 160 to 224 kg. Now they are lifted with the help of an electric motor twice a day. The accuracy of the movement is achieved thanks to the pendulum weighing 32 kilograms. At the same time, the arrows were switched to winter and summer time only manually (to transfer the hour back, the chimes were simply stopped for 1 hour). And although the accuracy of the movement is practically impeccable, the Astronomical Institute on Sparrow Hills still watches over the clock.

The clock strike mechanism consists of 9 quarter bells (about 320 kg) and 1 bell that strikes a full hour (2,160 kg). Every 15, 30, 45 minutes of the hour, the chime is played 1, 2 and 3 times, respectively. And at the beginning of each hour, the Kremlin chimes are called 4 times, and then a large bell strikes the clock.

The musical mechanism of the chimes consists of a program copper cylinder with a diameter of about 2 meters, which rotates a weight of more than 200 kg. It is littered with holes and pins in accordance with the typed melodies. The drum during rotation causes the pins to press the keys, from which the cables stretch to the bells on the belfry. The rhythm is far behind the original, so it is not easy to recognize the melodies. At noon and midnight, 6 and 18 hours, the anthem of the Russian Federation is performed, at 3, 9, 15 and 21 hours - the melody of the choir "Glory" from M. Glinka's opera "Life for the Tsar".

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower has become not only a symbol of Moscow, but also a symbol of all of Russia.
By the way, the first newspaper in Russia was also called Chimes. It began to be issued in the 17th century and was a long handwritten scroll. It was glued together from sheets on which the most interesting information collected by the Ambassadorial Order was recorded - they were reported by Russian envoys in other states.

Mini guide to the Kremlin walls and towers

They say that...... when a merchant in old Moscow went to the doctor complaining of a headache, the following dialogue usually took place: “Where do you trade? In the Kremlin? And through which gates do you go, through Borovitsky or Spassky? So, you have to go through others. And this helped, because a revered icon hung over the Spassky Gates, and at the entrance it was necessary to remove the headdress. Head and supercooled ... .
... when the French army retreated from Moscow, the Spasskaya Tower was ordered to be blown up. But the Don Cossacks who came to the rescue put out the already lit fuses.
... they built the Spasskaya Tower to protect the chimes from the rain. But there were also clocks on other towers of the Kremlin. In fact, this Jerusalem tower (leading to Moscow Jerusalem - the temple) tried to give a special look.
...The New Year begins with the first or last chime of the Kremlin chimes. But in fact, the change of year occurs with the beginning of the chime of the clock - 20 seconds before the first strike of the bell. And the 12th beat ends the first minute of the New Year.

Spasskaya Tower in photographs of different years:

Would you like to add something to the story about the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin?

Everyone who has ever visited the capital of Russia, Moscow and in its very center - on Red Square, admired the famous Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin.

From the history of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

In 1491, under Prince Ivan III, the Spasskaya Tower was built to strengthen the northeastern part of the city. The construction was carried out by the architect Pietro Antonio Solari. At first it was called Frolovskaya, after the church in the name of the Holy Martyrs Frol and Laurus, located nearby. The structure was two times lower than it is now. The multi-tiered top and stone dome in the Gothic style were built much later - in 1624-1625. English architect Christopher Galovey and Russian master Bazhen Ogurtsov. By decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich on April 16, 1658, the tower was renamed Spasskaya. It received this name because the road to the Spaso-Smolensk Church went through it. It is believed that it received its name in honor of the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, placed above the gate from the side of Red Square.

The Spassky Gate is the most important of the Kremlin Gates. Men took off their hats in front of the image of the Savior from the side of Red Square. It was impossible to ride through them. According to legend, when Napoleon passed through this gate, the wind tore off his cocked hat. All the kings before the coronation passed through this gate. Warriors left here for decisive battles. For many years, the Spassky Gates were opened very rarely, only in exceptional cases, for example, for the passage of the presidential cortege. Since August 2014, through the gate you can go to Red Square. The only way to get to the Kremlin is through the Kutafya Tower.

The Spasskaya Tower is square at the base and has 10 floors. Its height is 71 meters. In the middle of the 17th century, a figure of a double-headed eagle, the coat of arms of Russia, was placed on it. Experts believed that the image of the Savior over its gates was irretrievably lost. Presumably in 1937, the year of the anniversary of the revolution, the icon of the Savior, like other images on the gates, was immured. But recently it has been found. On the initiative of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, on June 29, 2010, specialists began its restoration. The icon is well preserved. Its plot is dedicated to the deliverance of Moscow from the invasion of Khan Mehmet Giray. Then, in 1521, Saints Sergius and Varlaam asked the Mother of God for intercession before God. And Mehmet Giray retreated. The icon also suffered from fire and during the war with Napoleon. After restoration, it will be restored.

Clock and chimes on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

The first clock on the Spasskaya Tower was installed in 1491. In the future, they were repeatedly changed and restored. So, in 1625, under the guidance of the English master Christopher Galoway, new ones were made that played music. In 1705, at the direction of Peter I, the clock was remade according to the German model with a dial at 12 o'clock. In 1851-1852. on tiers 8-10, chimes were installed, performing alternately the “March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment” and the anthem “How glorious is our Lord in Zion” by Dmitry Bortnyansky. These melodies sounded until 1917. In 1920, the melody of the Internationale was picked up on the chimes.

In 1999, the hands and numbers were gilded. The chimes began to play the national anthem of Russia. The height of the Roman numerals of the clock is 0.72 meters. The length of the hour hand is 2.97 m, the minute hand is 3.27 m. The watch is wound up with the help of three electric motors. The fight of the clock is carried out with the help of a hammer connected to the mechanism and the bell. The dials have a diameter of 6.12 m and come out on four sides.

Star on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

In 1935, the Tsar's Eagle on the Spasskaya Tower was replaced by the first five-pointed star, a symbol of the Soviet era. It was copper, covered with gold and Ural gems. After 2 years, she was replaced by a ruby ​​star. The first star now crowns the spire of the Northern River Station. The wingspan of the new star is 3.75 meters. This is slightly less than the first. Inside the star, a 5000-watt lamp burns around the clock.

The chimes on the Spasskaya Tower in the minds of many generations are a symbol not only of the Moscow Kremlin, but of all of Russia. Clocks are checked by them, every new year begins with their fight. The famous Kremlin chimes have been decorating the Kremlin for many centuries and are inextricably linked with the history of Russia, with its glorious and sometimes dramatic pages.

There is a lot of documentary evidence about the long history of chimes. These are the decrees and orders of the grand dukes, tsars, emperors, senior officials of the Russian state concerning the Spasskaya Tower and its clock; reports on the creation and adjustment of chimes, inventories of repair work, reports, reports of the Kremlin commandants, architects, watchmakers, craftsmen who were and are engaged in maintaining their proper condition. There are several major stages in the process of construction and reconstruction of the main clock of the country, which fall on the most significant eras of Russian history.

Each tower of the Moscow Kremlin is unique, has its own history, purpose, all of them have their own names from the moment they were built. The famous chimes are located on the Spasskaya Tower, which from ancient times was the main and especially revered Kremlin tower.

The Spasskaya Tower was erected in 1491 by the architect Peter Antonio Solario, who, along with other Italian architects, was invited to build the Kremlin by Grand Duke Ivan III. Many significant events for Russia took place during the years of his reign: the final overthrow of the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the almost completion of the long process of unification of Russian lands with the capital in Moscow. After the fall of Byzantium in 1453, Russia, which adopted Orthodoxy from it, declares itself its successor, and Moscow claims to be the new capital of the Orthodox world. It was at this time that the theory of "Moscow - the third Rome" was taking shape and the concept of autocratic state power was born, which would be further developed under the grandson of Ivan III - Ivan IV the Terrible. Therefore, the grandiose restructuring of the ancient Kremlin was due to political and ideological reasons. The oldest part of the Kremlin was associated with the name of Grand Duke Ivan Kalita, who in the first half of the 14th century, when Russia was under the Tatar-Mongol yoke, began the process of gathering Russian lands and promoting the Moscow principality as the center of the political and spiritual life of the country. The second famous builder was the Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy, whose victory on the Kulikovo field in 1380 marked the beginning of the liberation of Russia from the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

The Spasskaya Tower was built on the site of the white-stone gates of the Kremlin of the era of Dmitry Donskoy, which existed from 1367 to 1491, and was originally called Frolovskaya in honor of the church of Saints Frol and Laurus, to which the path went through these gates of the Kremlin. These gates were also called Jerusalem, because through them the patriarchal procession was made to Moscow Jerusalem - St. Basil's Cathedral.

In 1658, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich issued a decree on renaming all the towers of the Kremlin, and it began to be called Spasskaya in honor of two icons: the Savior of Smolensk, placed above the gate of the tower from the side of Red Square, and the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, located above the gate from the side of the Kremlin. Throughout its history, the gates of the Spasskaya Tower have been the main front gates of the Kremlin. They were always especially revered by the people and were called "saints". It was forbidden to pass through them on horseback and to pass with a covered head. Regiments marching on a military campaign entered and exited through them, they served for the entry and exit of kings, solemn exits of the patriarch, religious processions, meetings of foreign embassies arriving for an audience with the Grand Duke or Tsar.

For the first time, the clock-chimes in the Moscow Kremlin appeared on the gate tower under Grand Duke Vasily I in 1404. They were installed at the entrance to the courtyard of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, son of Dmitry Donskoy, next to the modern Trinity Tower. It is known that this clock was made and installed by the Serbian monk Lazar from the Athos monastery. The clock was a huge dial that rotated, and the arrow pointing down was fixed motionless: “The Russian clock divided the day into daytime hours and night hours, following the rise and course of the sun, so that at the minute of ascent the first hour on the Russian clock struck day, and at sunset - the first hour of the night ... ”It is worth bearing in mind that only seventeen hours were marked on the dial of the chimes. The fact is that at night, without artificial illumination, the dial was not visible, and as unnecessary, the numbers were absent.

On the fortress towers of the Moscow Kremlin, clocks or chimes appear in the second half of the 16th century in connection with “the spread of the city and especially the large settlement, later Kitai-Gorod, where trade and all kinds of industry were concentrated and where, therefore, knowing the time for everyone was a necessity, - it was necessary to arrange hours for the benefit of all the townsfolk. The exact date of the appearance of the chiming clock on the Frolovskaya Tower is currently unknown. But it is most likely that for the first time this happened shortly after its construction and they were located above the gate alignment. It is obvious that it was on the Spasskaya Tower that they appeared in the first place, “since the Kremlin was built in a triangle, it was very convenient to open the time indication to the city from the other two sides, especially since the palace of the sovereigns, who appointed the hour and time for everything, was in great need of it. when to gather in a thought, to go out, for lunch, for fun, etc. In addition, the tower clock located in this way showed the time for all services and positions of the vast palace with great convenience.

By 1585, they already existed, as evidenced by documentary references to the watchmakers of the Frolovsky, Taynitsky (Water) and Trinity (Rizpolozhensky) gates. At the beginning of the 17th century, there are references to the clock and over the gates of the Nikolskaya Tower. Apparently, the chiming clock was a fairly simple device - Russian, with a division into daytime hours, from sunrise to sunset, and night.

In 1625, during the reign of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, they were replaced by more advanced ones. The old clock from the Spassky Gates was sold "by weight to the Spassky Yaroslavl Monastery." The new clock was made and installed by the English master Christopher Galloway (Halloway). Especially for them, a beautiful carved white stone tent pommel was built to protect expensive watches from terrible Moscow fires. The mechanism of their action was traditional for that era. It was not the hands that rotated, but the dial itself, guiding the numerals past the fixed beam of the sun, nailed to the wall above the dial. The figures, measured in arshins, were gilded; the middle of the circle, covered with azure paint and dotted with gold and silver stars, with the moon and the sun, depicted the vault of heaven. The clock readings changed depending on the height of the solstice. In the longest days and hours, they reached the number 17, the number of daylight hours.
The dials were placed a floor lower than at present; in the same place where they are now, the words of the prayer and the signs of the zodiac were arranged in a regular circle. The clock was 3 arshins long, 2¾ arshins high, 1½ arshins wide, dials ¼ arshins in diameter. According to experts, they were not a very perfect device, the correctness of their course largely depended on the skill of the watchmaker who was watching them. The chimes had a musical mechanism; in 1624, master Kirill Samoilov specially cast thirteen bells for them.

Galoway's clock stood on the Spasskaya Tower for a long time, but the tower repeatedly suffered from fires; very severe destruction was caused by a fire in 1654. Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo's review of the impression the described misfortune made on Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich when he returned to Moscow after the Polish campaign has been preserved. This testimony is also important because it allows us to understand the significance of the Spasskaya Tower and its chimes among the Kremlin monuments. “Above the gate rises a tower, highly erected 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 big bell, which was heard not only in the whole city, but also in the surrounding villages, more than 10 miles. “On the holiday of this Christmas (this is a mistake - the fire was on October 5 - approx. Authors), due to the envy of the devil, the beams inside the clock caught fire, and the entire tower was engulfed in flames along with the clock, bells and all their accessories, which, when falling, destroyed with its weight, two vaults of bricks and stones, and this amazing rare thing ... was damaged. And when the eyes of the king fell from afar on this beautiful burnt tower, with which decorations and weathervanes were disfigured, and various statues carved from stone collapsed, he shed copious tears. The tower and clock have been restored. In 1668, their next repair took place.

By the beginning of the 18th century, they were very worn out and outdated in terms of their technical characteristics. And in 1701, after another cruel fire in the Kremlin, the clock burned down along with other buildings. Peter the Great ordered from Holland a clock for the Spasskaya Tower with bells and dancing (chimes). In 1704, the watch was delivered to Moscow from Amsterdam on 30 wagons to the Embassy Court on Ilyinka, and they entered the Armory Chamber. Their cost was 42,474 rubles. In 1705, their installation began, which was partially completed in 1706, but finally only by 1709. Put them in place and collected Yakim Garnov, Garnel (Gamault). The new watch had a traditional look of the dial, divided into 12 hours. The appearance of the watch was reminiscent of Galoway's, as the dials were studded with stars. But Peter's clock often broke down and by the beginning of the 1730s fell into disrepair, although it finally died during the strongest Trinity fire of 1737.

Frequent reports of watchmakers and architects about the sad state of the clock remained unanswered. Restoration of the clock began under Catherine II. It should be noted that Ekaterina Alekseevna had a good attitude towards Moscow and the Kremlin, she came there quite often, and lived for a long time in the 1760s. At the direction of the Empress, V.I. Bazhenov developed a grandiose project for the reconstruction of the entire Kremlin, which was never implemented.

An attempt to restore the Peter's clock was not successful. In 1763, in the premises under the Palace of the Facets, the archival files of the former Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky orders were being dismantled, when a “large English chiming clock” was found (perhaps once removed from one of the towers). By personal decree of Empress Catherine II in 1767, this clock was ordered to be placed on the Spasskaya Tower, for which the watchmaker Faciy was invited. In 1770 it was announced to the Senate that the work was done. Since that time, for 250 years now, it is these watches that keep track of time, decorating the Moscow Kremlin.

The clock installed under Catherine II worked successfully without significant repairs until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1812, during the stay of Napoleon's army in the Kremlin, the clock was damaged. After the expulsion of the French, the clock was examined, as evidenced by the petition of the mechanic Yakob Lebedev to the Expedition of the Kremlin Building, dated February 10, 1813. In 1815 the clock was corrected.

After that, for several decades, there were no significant changes with the clock on the Spasskaya Tower. However, during the reign of Nicholas I, the clock needed serious repairs. On November 27, 1850, watch student Korchagin made a report to the Palace Office that “the tower clock with its accessories ... must not only be cleaned from dust and grease accumulated in them for many years, but corrected on the occasion of their long-term existence in action with 1769…” In the same year, after Korchagin’s report, the watch was slightly repaired by the Butenop brothers, but there was no guarantee that the watch could work flawlessly for a long time. On February 28, 1851, the president of the Moscow Palace Office wrote to the Minister of the Imperial Palace about the state of these watches as follows: longevity has rotted." After that, a decision is made on the complete reconstruction of the clock, which was carried out in 1851-1852 by the Butenop brothers.

In 1878, watchmaker V. Freimut reported a malfunction of the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower, in which the iron parts were noticeably rusted, as a result of which the entire mechanism needed to be repaired. Repair work was carried out the following year.

In this form, the clock worked until the beginning of the twentieth century. The last time in pre-revolutionary times they were restored in 1911 by watchmaker M. V. Volynsky.

The next stage in the history of the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower is associated with dramatic events. During the October-November revolutionary events of 1917 in Moscow, the Spasskaya Tower, as well as the entire Kremlin, was seriously damaged. On November 2, 1917, during the shelling and storming of the Moscow Kremlin by the Red Guards, a shell hit the chimes, broke the clock hand, as a result of which the mechanism for rotating the hands failed and the clock stopped. True, for a short time. In 1918, at the direction of the new head of state, V.I. Lenin, restoration work was carried out, which was carried out by N.V. Berens. A new pendulum about one and a half meters long and weighing 32 kg was made for the chimes.

In 1937, the question of clock repair arose again. From time to time, the clock face was in poor condition, which was made of iron and gilded with gold leaf. In some places, it was heavily rusted, had many holes from bullets left over from 1917, and the gilding fell off the rim of the dial. The numbers, signs and hands were copper with gilding and also needed to be updated. As a result of the repair, the old dial was replaced with a new one. It was also made of iron, the thickness of which was 3 mm, the rims were made of red copper, which was silver plated and electrolytically gilded. Numbers, signs and arrows were used old, but they were again silvered and gilded. The thickness of the gold coating was about 3 microns, 26 kg of gold was used to cover the watch rims and numbers. The dials were made and installed on the Spasskaya Tower by the Parostroy plant; L. Ya. Karpova. The watch mechanism was repaired by the Karacharovsky Mechanical Plant of the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR. It was completely dismantled, cleaned and painted, partial replacements of individual parts were made. In particular, they replaced all the tripods that were made with rotating pins, put in a new escape wheel, bushings, sorted out all the bearings, replaced the hemp rope with a steel cable, cast a new weight for the pendulum, installed four electric motors for winding the clock, which was previously done manually, made platform and ladder - for inspection and lubrication of the transmission gears. The painting of the dial of the chimes was made by the Moscow office of Lakokraskopokrytiye. The dial was hot-painted first with red lead and then with black lacquer, and the dials were additionally tinted in place with black matte lacquer.

The last repair work on the Kremlin clock before the start of the Great Patriotic War took place in 1940, when the old escape wheel bracket with five teeth was replaced with a new bracket with seven teeth, which made the watch easier to run. In addition, the old shoulder strap of the pendulum, made of copper and iron rods, was replaced with a wooden one to reduce the effect of temperature on the course of the clock and to increase the accuracy of the movement. In 1941, an electromechanical drive was mounted, but the onset of the war prevented it from being accepted by a government commission and installed in its place.

In 1974, the Scientific Research Institute of the Watch Industry (NIIChasprom) received an order to restore the mechanism of the country's main clock, one of the largest restorations of the mechanism in the Soviet years was carried out. The clock has stopped for 100 days. Their mechanism was completely dismantled and more than a thousand unique parts were replaced with new ones. During the restoration, the latest automatic installations were used, in particular, for lubricating the surfaces of more than 120 rubbing parts, which until that time was carried out manually.

In 1995, a comprehensive restoration of the chimes was carried out. The dials and hands were dismantled, x-rayed, primed and gilded. This work was carried out by restoration artists on the spot, that is, on the Spasskaya Tower (middle tier), where four dials, eight hands and 48 numbers were carefully processed. Then everything was installed in its place, the mechanism was adjusted and started again.

The last major clock restoration in the 20th century took place in 1999. Together with the renovation of the clock, in particular, the hands and numbers were gilded, the battle was set up, etc., the historical appearance of the upper tiers of the Spasskaya Tower was restored.

In the new twenty-first century, the chimes were also restored. In 2005, the watch dial was restored. In 2014-2015, during the complex restoration of the walls and towers of the Moscow Kremlin, the facade fragments of the chimes were updated: dials, numbers and arrows. All of them were dismantled, and under special conditions, restoration and conservative work was carried out with them, while the chiming mechanisms remained in working condition, that is, they beat quarters every hour and performed the melody of the Anthem of Russia.

Clock mechanism on the Spasskaya Tower

The Kremlin chimes are placed in the tent completion of the Spasskaya Tower, they occupy three floors (tiers) - 8th, 9th and 10th. In total, the tower has 10 floors, five in the lower and upper parts. The first floor is occupied by a passage, which is painted with frescoes of the 17th century. There are 4 recesses for icons in its walls, which is not found in other gates of the Kremlin. There are two doors in the southern wall of the passage, one leading to a passage for clock weights, the other, with a stone staircase, to the inside of the tower.

The lower, main massif of the tower has double walls. The space between them is occupied from the side of the Kremlin by a stone staircase; and from the other three - by corridors, the vaults of which divide it into floors, from the second to the fifth. The central part of the tower is a room with a cylindrical vault, very high, since the wooden platforms of the tiers were dismantled at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries. Therefore, in its walls at different heights there are windows and traces of blocked exits. At the top, this room narrows, which makes the corridors around it correspondingly wider. The upper part of the tower is smaller than the lower one and does not have double walls.

The clock consists of three separate components: the movement mechanism, the clock striker mechanism and the musical mechanism. Each mechanism is driven by three weights, pulling cables, weighing from 160 to 224 kg. The accuracy of the clock is achieved by means of a pendulum weighing 32 kg and 1.5 m long. The clock mechanism is wound twice a day. The clock has 4 dials with a diameter of 6.12 m, they are placed at the level of the 8th tier and go out on four sides of the tower.

A wide rim is located along the edge of the field of dials. The signs defining the hours are marked with Roman numerals - from I to XII. The height of the digits is 0.72 m, the length of the minute hand is 3.27 m, the length of the hour hand is 2.98 m. The dial is riveted from 3 mm steel sheets and coated with black matte paint. The weight of the chimes is 25 tons.

In the room of the 8th tier there is a distribution mechanism for controlling the hands, which, by means of the rotation of the shafts from the main mechanism, ensures the movement of the minute hands on all four dials. The hour hands are moved by gears from the rotation of the minute hands.

The main clock mechanism is located on the 9th tier. It consists of three separate mechanisms mounted on one frame: a clock movement mechanism for keeping the hands, a mechanism for calling quarters of an hour, a clock striking mechanism. Overall dimensions of the main mechanism are: length 3.56 m, width 3.12 m, height 2.96 m. Each individual mechanism is driven by individual kettlebell engines. The weight of the weights for the mechanisms is different and is: for the movement of the clock 280 kg, for the strike of quarters 280 kg and for the strike of the clock 220 kg. The maximum stroke height of the weights is 22 m, which ensures the duration of the watch without winding, equal to 28 hours.

The watch uses a Broco escapement regulator, which includes a pendulum and a wheel escapement system that converts the pendulum oscillations into time intervals of the actuator.

The pendulum consists of a wooden rod - in order to reduce the dependence of the watch's accuracy on the ambient temperature - and a gold-plated lead disk. The watch has an auxiliary winding to ensure the functioning of the watch during the lifting of weights, since during the winding the torque on the drum changes direction. To keep the watch running, temporary traction is provided using an auxiliary weight.

The main part of the quarter-hour mechanism is a steel drum driven by an individual kettlebell engine. On the surface of the drum, in a certain sequence, there are pins that set the program (melody) for nine bells, calling the quarters of an hour. The fight of the clock is carried out with the help of special hammers striking the surface of the lower base of the bell.

The opening of the battle of quarters of an hour is carried out automatically, by means of the action of levers, kinematically connected with the mechanism of the clock. After the opening of the battle of quarters of an hour, the program drum begins to rotate. At the same time, the pins located on it cling to the levers that pull the cables that set in motion the hammers on the quarter-hour bells. The chime of the first quarter of the hour is made in the position of the minute hand, corresponding to 15 minutes, and is played once, the second quarter of the hour, corresponding to 30 minutes, - twice, the third quarter of the hour, corresponding to 45 minutes, - three times, the fourth quarter of the hour, before the clock strikes - four times.

The musical mechanism consists of a drum, the length of which is 1425 mm. In the middle of the drum, along its generatrix, a gear wheel is fixed. Parallel to the axis of the musical drum, there is an axis for 30 levers of the hammer cocking mechanism, which ensures the sound of bells located in the uppermost tier of the Spasskaya Tower.

On the topmost, 10th tier of the Spasskaya Tower, which is a spacious room with a dome and open openings, there are 10 bells. The bells hang in the openings on thick transverse beams, and thin steel cables stretch to each of them from the switchgear of the strike of hours and "quarters" of the hour. The largest bell is hung in the center under the dome. The relief inscription on it reads: “According to the highest All-August Empress Catherine the Great, the wise mother of the fatherland, the autocrat of the All-Russian command in favor of the capital city of Moscow, this Spasskaya Tower is equipped with a clock with bell music as it pours out this bell in the summer of the year of the birth of May 1267 May 1269 Master Semyon Mozhzhukhin weighed 135 pounds. This bell is designed to play the striking of the clock. The remaining 9 smaller bells are designed to call the quarters of the hour. All bells, unlike church bells, do not have tongues. They sound from the impact of hammers acting when the cables are pulled.

The work of the clock mechanism is constantly monitored. Watches are serviced by watch mechanics, whose duties include technical inspection of watches on site, daily winding of watch mechanisms and adjusting the accuracy of their movement, weekly replacement of grease in dial wheels, filling twice a month with special oil into the pumps of the automatic lubrication system of watch mechanisms. The accuracy of the clock of the Spasskaya Tower is monitored 3 times a day by the exact time signals transmitted by radio or by the time of a special chronometer installed in the watch service room. Time verification is performed by the first sound of the bell calling the quarters of the hour. The average daily accuracy of the clock is allowed ± 10 seconds.

Correction of the clock is carried out by changing the length of the pendulum. For remote control of clock operation, the watch service has installed an electrical equivalent of these clocks, which is connected by a wire line to electrical sensors located on the clock pendulum in the tower.

Prior to the abolition of the seasonal clock change in 2011, the duties of watch mechanics also included the task of transferring the Kremlin clocks to summer and winter time. The transfer of clocks one hour forward from winter to summer time was carried out by accelerating the movement of the hands by ensuring their free rotation under the action of a load of weights. And from summer to winter time - by stopping them for one hour at 2 am. The last time such a transfer took place on October 26, 2014, when, under the new law "On the calculation of time", winter time was established as a constant in the Russian Federation.

The history of the bell ringing of the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower

As noted above, for the first time a clock with music was installed on the Spasskaya Tower as early as 1624. At the beginning of the 17th century, 13 bells were specially cast for the clock on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin. However, it is not known what kind of music the bells on the Spasskaya Tower played at that time. History only mentions that in the winter of 1704, bells rang over snow-covered Moscow and music began to play in a European manner.

There are references that in 1770, after the restoration carried out by the German master Faciy, the Kremlin chimes played the German song "Ah, my dear Augustine." This was the only time that the chimes played a foreign tune.

During the reconstruction of the middle of the 19th century, carried out by the brothers Butenop, at the direction of Emperor Nicholas II, musical melodies were typed for the first time.

The clock chime itself consists of a set of bells tuned in one tone in a certain scale. The bells of the chiming clock of the Spassky Clock made up a chromatic scale of two octaves in pitch. The mechanism of the chimes is connected with the mechanism of the clock, on which the frequency of musical performance depends. The chimes of the tower were turned on for the performance of melodies at 12, 15, 18, 21 hours, that is, every three hours.

For the musical tuning of the bells of the chimes, as well as for the striking of hours and quarters, 45 bells were removed from the Kremlin towers. The selection of bells by sound was carried out not only for chimes, but also for striking hours and quarters of an hour. 35 "tone-matching" bells were used in the clock, and the unused 10 bells were returned. The selection of bells according to the sound for the chimes and the tuning of the musical bell game for the performance of these plays was led by the conductor of the Moscow theaters Stutsman. On the program shaft of the chiming mechanism, divisions are placed around the circumference by means of pins for one hundred and forty-four full measures, which is 288 half-measures, or 576 quarter notes.

The choice of melodies for chimes has always had an important ideological significance. Emperor Nicholas I set a condition - not to type the anthem "God Save the Tsar." As a result, the hymn “How glorious is our Lord in Zion”, written in 1794 by the composer D.S. Bortnyansky to the verses of M.M. Kheraskov, and the ancient Transfiguration March, which is a symbol of the military glory of the Russian army, were chosen for performance. The Kremlin chimes played these melodies until 1917.

In March 1918, the Soviet government moved to Moscow, which again regained the status of the official capital. Naturally, the new government did not disregard the "musical abilities" of the watch. As the famous artist and musician M. M. Cheremnykh recalled, when the architect N. D. Vinogradov, who in 1918 held the position of Deputy People's Commissar of Property of the Republic, gave him the order to put new music on the Kremlin chimes, he said so: “Vladimir Ilyich wants so that the Spasskaya Tower engages in agitation."

The choice fell on two melodies: the international proletarian anthem "The Internationale", which became the official anthem of Soviet Russia, and the funeral march "You fell a victim in the fatal struggle" (the author of the poems is the poet A. Arkhangelsky (real name - Amosov)).

M. M. Cheremnykh recalled: “I took up this business, got acquainted with the musical mechanism, understood its simple mechanics, and within 10 days (August 5-15, 18), having removed the “Preobrazhensky March” and “Kol is glorious” from the shaft of the chimes ”, staged the Internationale and the Funeral March. Two people worked - me and a locksmith (I don’t remember my last name), who, at my direction, screwed the pegs on the drum.

I remember that the Commission sat at the Execution Ground so that the clatter of carts and the horns of cars would not drown out the bells. I spoke with them from the Spasskaya Tower with signs. After listening to the International and the Funeral March three times, the Commission accepted the job and I received seven seven thousand rubles from the cash desk of the Moscow City Council.

However, difficulties soon arose. Immediately after the completion of the installation of new musical works on the chimes, Cheremnykh left Moscow, and when he returned, he found out that "the chimes were silent." It turned out that V. I. Lenin expressed the wish that the chimes should play not only in the daytime, but also at night. The factory of the chimes was designed for 12 hours, and watchmakers began to look for a solution to the problem. Then Cheremnykh, together with the watchmaker N.V. Berens, who was repairing the clock mechanism after the shelling in 1917, found a solution by proposing to wind it twice a day.

Until the early 1930s, the Kremlin chimes played the "Internationale" and the funeral march "You fell a victim in the fatal struggle" daily at 12 and 24 hours. But already by the 15th anniversary of the revolution in 1932, at the direction of I.V. Stalin, the execution of the funeral mourning march was canceled. In general, the performance of the latter over the Kremlin and Red Square created a peculiar, far from positive atmosphere, especially since not always knowledgeable people were involved in the tuning. Here is how M. M. Cheremnykh recalled this: “Many years have passed. Once, walking along Red Square at night, I stopped to listen to the chimes. I was terrified of the bell raving, which was heard from the height of the Spasskaya Tower. Then they told me that after me some crazy musician had transcribed the music of the chimes. I can't vouch for the authenticity, but it looks like it.

By the 15th anniversary of October, I considered myself obliged to correct the chimes and I was allowed to. At the request of the Commandant of the Kremlin, I removed the Funeral March and replaced it with the International, so that only the International is played at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock.

In February 1938, the performance of the Internationale also ceased. Back in 1937, when the clock was being restored, a special commission consisting of Professor N. S. Golovanov, N. A. Garbuzov, and Kapellmeister Agankin recognized the performance of the Internationale by the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower as unsatisfactory for two reasons. Firstly, due to the wear and tear of the musical mechanism, which has been continuously working for twenty years. Secondly, it was recognized that the bells of the Spasskaya Tower were not quite suitable in tonality for the performance of the Internationale, and the melody was distorted at a distance. In this regard, a decision is made to stop the musical drum of the main clock of the country.

At the same time, the specialists of the Moscow State Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky was instructed to develop the design and manufacture an electromechanical drive for the performance of the Internationale. In December 1938, a project for a device for the performance of the "Internationale" on the bells from the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin was ready. In 1941, the electromechanical drive was mounted and presented for delivery, but the onset of the war prevented its acceptance. Thus, this attempt to set up a chime chimes failed.

In 1944, a new anthem of the USSR was adopted to the music of A. V. Aleksandrov and verses by S. V. Mikhalkov and G. G. El-Registan. In this regard, an attempt was made to adjust the chimes for the performance of a new anthem, but it was also unsuccessful.

In 1970, on the basis of the 1938 project, an attempt was made to develop a unique HYMN complex. We developed technical documentation and created a plant model. But this system was not implemented either.

Characteristic is the fact that both developed systems for playing the bells ("The Internationale" in 1938 and the USSR anthem in 1970) had to be with an electromagnetic drive. They refused to use the mechanical chiming mechanism of the clock of the Spasskaya Tower, while the mechanism itself, having worked for decades, required only a major overhaul.

Thus, the chimes fell silent for many decades, marking every hour and every quarter of their course with their fight.

The task of reviving the melodic sound was set in the mid-1990s, already in new historical conditions. The USSR has already ceased to exist, the Russian Federation has embarked on the path of democratic reforms. In 1995, the task was to return the musical sound to the chimes by the time B. N. Yeltsin took office for a new term.

As a first step in the revival of the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, a mechanical model of the chimes was created on a scale of 1:10. Bila (“flat bells”) were used here instead of bells. They were made of bell bronze. Acoustic measurements of the beaters were carried out. The same principles were used as in measuring the acoustic characteristics of bells. The beats made for playing melodies together with the model of the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin have been successfully tested. Two works by M. I. Glinka were chosen for performance: "Glory" from the opera "Life for the Tsar" and "Patriotic Song", which from 1993 to December 2000 was the official anthem of the Russian Federation.

In 1996, at the inauguration ceremony for President Boris N. Yeltsin for the second presidential term, after more than half a century of silence, the Kremlin chimes began to play again.

However, in 1998, specialists from NIIChasprom carried out a technical examination of the device for playing melodies with chimes. This examination revealed that the use of beats, firstly, violated the principle of restoring and recreating unique clocks, since only bells have always been historically used on the Spasskaya Tower. Secondly, the further use of beaters entails catastrophic wear of almost all watch components, since it implies an increase in the load on the mechanism, which is several times (up to 10 times) higher than the calculated one. In particular, already at the time of the survey, the destruction of the pegs of the musical drum, the wear of the seats and the axis, etc. were recorded. As a result, a disappointing forecast was made about the complete stop of the mechanism in 3-4 years.

In this regard, in the spring of 1999, the specialists of NIIChasprom began to perform work on the reconstruction of the musical mechanism of the chimes of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in full, with the reconstruction of the system for playing melodies on the bells.

At the beginning, in order to achieve the task, it was proposed to remove all the bells from the belfry of the Spasskaya Tower and replace them with new ones. The head of the Presidential Orchestra in those years, P. B. Ovsyannikov, proposed for consideration two combinations of a set of bells. However, after analyzing the weight characteristics of the proposed combinations of bells, it turned out that both sets would be unsuitable in terms of weight for installation on the belfry of the Spasskaya Tower. On the other hand, the dependence of the sound intensity on the weight of the bell was absolutely obvious. Light small bells simply will not be heard from the height of the Spasskaya Tower. In addition, the idea of ​​ordering a new set of bells had to be abandoned due to their high price. As a result, a special commission decided to use the existing bells of the Spasskaya Tower for the performance of "Glory" and the anthem of Russia, adding new additional bells to their number.

The next step was to determine which (by tone) bells needed to be made in order to eventually get a set of bells capable of playing the given musical phrases.

First, they recorded the chime of the bells preserved on the Spasskaya Tower, now there are 13 of them, but at different times, as historical studies have shown, up to 35 bells were located here. Later, as a result of computer processing, the specialists of NIIChasprom obtained a sonogram of the recording. By identifying the root tone of each of the nine bells, they determined the tones of the missing bells. It turned out that three more bells were not enough to perform the selected melodies.

Then, in order to make these three bells as close as possible to the existing ones in terms of a number of sound parameters, it was necessary to make an audio recording of each bell separately, on the basis of which the specialists compiled a spectral characteristic of all the bells. Based on the spectral analysis of the bells, the frequencies of the main spectral maxima were established, and the main tones of the bells were determined from them. According to a special spectral recording of the sound of each, the missing three bells were ordered in Holland. By the way, this was in line with the historical tradition, since even Peter I bought the entire “bell set” for the Spasskaya Tower in this country.

Thus, the implementation of this project required a unique research work carried out by specialists from the Research Institute of the Watch Industry (NIIchasprom).

In 2000, the updated Kremlin chimes sounded again. Instead of the "Patriotic Song" they played the anthem of Russia, adopted in 2000, in a new musical version (music by A. V. Aleksandrov, lyrics by S. V. Mikhalkov). Since then, every three hours, the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower regularly delight Muscovites and guests of the capital with the chime of their bells.

The Kremlin chimes have long been one of the most recognizable monuments of the Moscow Kremlin, and the Spasskaya clock tower is perceived all over the world as a symbol of Russia. The ancient chimes on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin continue, as in past centuries, to count the course of Russian history.