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Moscow History
Middle ages
The main cathedral - the Cathedral of Dormition in the case of Moscow Kremlin - had a massive and clear-cut silhouette. Next to it on the southeast side was the vertical of a bell tower, or a church performing the same function, and on the southwest side was the Prince's palace. The part facing the cathedral was intended for ceremonies and official solemnities and inevitably had a Red Porch (grand entrance). Accordingly, the south door of the cathedral was the Prince's door and the one on the west the Metropolitan's door, since the chambers of the hierarchy was located nearby.
The square in front of the cathedral was town's main square and thus it became the center of public life. From the cathedral square streets fanned out radically towards the town gates just as they did in the Kremlin, changing into major thoroughfares beyond its walls. In Moscow the traditional names of a number of streets such as Tverskaya Street, Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street (now Pushkinskaya Street), Kaluzhskaya Street (now Leninsky Prospekt), Bolshaya Serpuhovskaya Street and other remind one of this fact. The plans for its reconstruction developed at the time of incorporated every technical innovation of the day, from the new building material, bricks to the latest inventions of West European engineers. And, since specialists from Northern Italy were reputed to be the best, it was they who were invited to Moscow in the 1480s.
It was decided once more to build the new Kremlin without demolishing the old walls. The new walls went up much further out and thus the area covered by the fortress was once more increased. As estimated by archeologists the 12th century citadel had covered an area of some 3 hectares, now the walls enclosed an area of 28 hectares and were 2235 meter long. The Kremlin with its technician features and architectural treatment became a model for Russian builders, wherever they had to work for many decades to come. This influence was all the more significant as after the unification of the Russian lands into a single Moscow state in the 16th century. It was now Moscow itself and not local lie princes that had to take care of the construction of fortification throughout the territory.
At the time when reconstruction of the Kremlin, supervisor by the Italian engineer Alevisio Stary (Old) was being completed, a highly sophisticated system of water-development works was built making it possible to divert the waters of the Neglinnaya River from the Kremlin wall and the structures it enclosed. The Moscow State maintained far-flung diplomatic relations and numerous foreigners lived on its lands. By the mid of the 17th century the population of Moscow reached 200 000, including 28 000 foreigners. Among them were specialists of every kind ranging from medical doctors to fortifiers, from engineers to musicians and from merchants to wigmakers. The right to enter Moscow was granted only to representatives of the trades needed by the state.
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