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Smolensk Fortress

100 million bricks, hundreds of thousands of slugs of band-iron and lots of other construction materials were used to build the Smolensk Kremlin. Such a tremendous construction volume was realized only through the construction effort, centralized at the national level. All the Russian land participated in construction of the Smolensk Kremlin (it is described in the chronicle as “all towns of the state of Moscow built it”). Walls of the Smolensk's fortress surrounded the town, which is located on the high hills on the left bank of the Dnepr. In conjunction with all other buildings these walls created outstandingly beautiful architectural ensemble.

Smolensk has always had very significant defensive value - that's why Russian rulers always tried to strengthen it. Very high wooden fortress was built in the spring of 1554 according to the edict of Ivan the Terrible. At this time wooden fortresses were not considered as impregnable due to development of artillery. Therefore at the end of the XVI'th century it was decided to build new stone fortress instead of wooden one. In December of 1595 preparatory works immediately began according to the official edict. Fyodor Savelyevich Kon - outstanding Russian architect, creator of Bely Gorod in Moscow, - was assigned responsible for the construction. Nechai Porfiriev was his assistant. Fyodor decided to use well-tried methods in the constructing of the walls: rag work, moulded plinth walling, arcs to the inside of the wall, swallow-tailed enclosure of the passage, design of corner and intermediate towers, white-stone inclusions and so on. However Fyodor Kon used lots of new ideas: he decided to build a tower, which would be much higher than previous ones (previous towers had two tiers, while new tower was decided to have three tiers). Fyodor also decided to build much more towers, than there were in other fortresses. Besides the wall itself, Fyodor constructed water-filled trenches, embankments and ravelins where it was possible.

Fortress wall had three-tiers combat system. Low tier was constructed in rectangular casemates (cameras with canons and arquebuses inside). Middle tier was located in trench-like arched cameras in the middle of the wall with canons inside. Shooters got to them via portable wooden ladders. Upper tier was located in the upper combat ground, shielded with merlons. Combat and solid merlons were interlaced. There were low brick ceilings between the merlons to protect soldiers, who shot from kneeling position out from them. Combat ground was covered by double-pitch timber roof, which protected canons from rain and snow. There were passages for internal traffic, rooms for ammunition and other stuff inside walls. Secret passages against digging were located underground. Walls of the Smolensk Kremlin were whitewashed as the walls of Moscow's Bely Gorod at first. The walls had exceptionally precious finishing of the architectural details, some of them were colored. It speaks for high artistic level of the fortress facilities, constructed by Fyodor Kon and his assistants, who could masterfully combine constructive and practical requirements with high artistic expression.

Towers have a special place in the fortress – supervision, raking fire of the walls and its approaches, defense of the gates, cover for the troops, defensive pivots. But along with that there were no identical towers in the Smolensk Kremlin. As usual, shape and height of the towers depend on the relief. There were passable gates in nine towers. Main passable tower was Frolovskaya (Dneprovskaya) - it covered the route to the Russian capital. Second most important tower was Molokhoiskaya – road led to Kyiv, Krasny, Roslavl. Seven additional gate towers (Lazarevskaya, Kryloshevskaya, Avraamievskaya, Nikolskaya, Kopytenskaya, Pyatnitskaya and Voskresenskaya) were simpler and not as important as the other two. Thirteen non-passable towers had rectangular shape. They were interlaced with sixteen-sided (seven) and round (nine) towers.

When Boris Godunov got familiar with Fyodor Kon’s plans, he wrote to Russian Tzar Fyodor: "The Smolensk wall will be the necklace of Russia… grudge for enemies and pride for the Moscow State”. Actually, Smolensk fortress helped Russian state greatly not once, taking the first strike and blocking the way to Moscow for enemy forces.

Small (Old) Cathedral of Our Lady of Don

Малый (старый) Собор Иконы Божией Матери Донская; Донский собор

Church of the Life-giving Trinity "in Khoroshevo"

Церковь Троицы Живоначальной в Хорошево; Троицкая церковь в Хорошеве

White City

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