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Moscow History
Peter the Great period
Peter the Great rise to power at the end of 17th century initially meant acceleration in construction work in Moscow. The great fire of 1701, which destroyed most buildings in the Kremlin, also played a part. Peter the Great gave orders that most of the new buildings erected on the vacant plots were to be secular. The most remarkable example is the Arsenal an imposing structure towering above the Kremlin walls. Originally intended as a place for storing weapons it subsequently became the first museum of Russian military trophies. However, after the foundation of St. Petersburg in 1703 and the transferal of the capital there in 1712, construction work in Moscow was not only reduced but also outright suspended. The city on the Neva River was in dire need of builders and building materials for the czar's new projects and as a result, between 1714 and 1728 all constructions of stone buildings was prohibited in Moscow. Yet even after the ban was lifted it took some time for things to return to normal. Although Moscow did not actually become a provincial town, it did take advantage of this opportunity to preserve and develop its 17th-century characteristics. Square was founded by Dmitry Donskoy in 1380 has been rebuilt many times, yet fragments of the masonry of the original church have survived in its foundations. In 1386, the Rozhdestvensky (Nativity) Convent, founded by the mother of Vladimir Khrabry, a hero of the battle of Kulikovo, was built in commemoration of the event. The street takes its name from this convent where the bereaved mothers and windows of the fallen participants of the Mamai Slaughter found shelter. In 1393, Princess Evdokia, the widow of Dmitry Donskoy, who had died an early death, ordered a white-stone Church of St.Lazarus to St. Lazarus to be built in the Kremlin in place of an older wooden structure. Later on, it was renamed the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord. Today this church, which was eventually incorporated into the walls of the palatial Church of the Nativity is the only one among the Kremlin structures that provides an idea of the 14th-century Russian architecture.
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