The Kremlin complex was the residence of Russian rulers from the beginning of its existence until this day, besides the time Peter the Great became the emperor and moved the capital to St. Petersburg until when the Soviet Union took the power. The kremlin also houses the President of the Russian Federation as well. Therefore, it’s not unusual to hold maximum security for this place. There are several military building built inside the Kremlin for that purpose in the past and even today. The most famous ones of them are the Arsenal and Armory, though it should be mentioned that the Armory is currently turned into one of the favorite museums of the Kremlin complex.
There were several granaries at the location of the Arsenal Building before the 18th century, but all of them burned down during a massive fire at the end of the 17th century. Peter the Great commissioned a team of Russian and German architects to build the largest building of Moscow at the time at the site of burned granaries. The construction of the Arsenal Building began in 1702, but as the Northern War approaching Russia, the construction temporary stopped due to the lack of funds. The Arsenal building completed in 1736 but burned in another massive fire which burned half of the Kremlin complex in 1737. The burned Arsenal Building went under reconstructing in 1756 and completed in 1796. The Arsenal building was occupied by the Grand Army of Napoleon and got its center blown up by the retreating French Army that made the building to go under reconstruction again between 1816 and 1828. It was after that reconstruction which the building got its neoclassical design, and painted white and yellow like most of the state buildings in Moscow.
The two-story large trapezoid building of the Kremlin’s Arsenal has a large courtyard inside it, and it was once considered the largest building in all Moscow. The 24-meter-high building has almost 300 meters’ length on its biggest side parallel to the Red Square. The Arsenal has two main entrances, but the building is out of reach for tourists. This building unlike the Armory which is now one of the favorite museums of Kremlin is still in military use and home of the Kremlin regiment that has to protect the Kremlin and does the security services for the president.
The original Armory which was the imperial workshop at the beginning and had to produce weaponry, produce and gather golds and jewelry and sewing clothes for the imperial family began its work in the 16th century. It was Peter the Great who laid down the first stones of Armory Museum, and Alexander I was the one who officially made the Armory an open museum at the beginning of the 19th century. The first armory building was built in 1809 near the Trinity Gate but because of the humidity and wrong conditions for a museum, the Armory moved to the newly constructed building in 1830. The new building was a part of the Grand Kremlin Palace complex which was designed by Konstantin Ton, one of the famous Italian architects. The original Armory was at first turned to barracks, but after the revolution, the Soviet officials destroyed it.
The new Amory was specifically designed to house a museum, and each one of the halls of this two-story building had different designs. For example, the golds' and jewels' hall had a red-themed design to give the exhibits a more suitable platform. The Italian architect designed the new Armory in a way that it matched with the Grand Kremlin Palace complex smoothly.
Though both Armory and Arsenal have several artifacts and exhibits to display, the Arsenal building is occupied by the Kremlin regiment and isn’t accessible by the tourists. There are around 875 cannons which were the Russian’s trophies from Napoleon’s Grand Army which are on display at the south side of the building. There are several different types of cannon made by various nations in this exhibition including French, Dutch, Italian, Neapolitan, Prussian, Bavarian, and Austrian. This exhibition would be more exciting for people who love the history of wars, especially Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow. There are several 16th and 17th centuries carriage-mounted cannons from the Russian military that added to the exhibition in 1960 and combined with the cannons that Russian took from the Grand Army as trophies in one collection. Other than this small open-door museum, other parts of the building are out of access by the tourists, unlike the Armory which became one of the favorite museums of Kremlin.
The Armory building is under supervision of the Kremlin Museum. This two-story building has nine different themed halls and more than 4000 exhibits in its collection. There are no other museums in the world like the Armory Museum, which make it one of the top targets of tourist attraction in Moscow.
This unique collection includes imperial carriages, imperial clothes for men and women, weaponry, armors, Fabergé eggs, imperial crowns, contributions from other governments to the tsars and rulers of Russia, religious icons, cannons, ancient and modern gold and jewelry, and Russian military trophies.
The Armory Museum’s collections are so unique that makes it one of the main targets for the Russia tour agencies. Remember to visit other attractions of the Kremlin and Red Square such as the attractions on the Cathedral Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral, Gum Mall, Lenin’s Mausoleum, and Resurrection Gate in your travel to Moscow.
