Red Gate
Encyclopedia
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
was a triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...
built in an exuberantly baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
design. Gates or arches of this type were common in 18th century Moscow. However, the Red Gates were the only one that survived into 20th century. They were demolished in 1928; their name survives in an eponymous Moscow Metro station
Krasniye Vorota
Krasnye Vorota is a Moscow Metro station in the Krasnoselsky District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Sokolnicheskaya Line, between Chistye Prudy and Komsomolskaya stations.- History :...
.
National roots
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
. However, their specific Muscovite shape is a direct consequence of the Time of troubles
Time of troubles
Time of troubles can refer to:*a general period in Arnold Toynbee's model of the lifecycle of civilizations *Time of Troubles, a particular period in early 17th-century Russian history...
of the early 17th century. Civil war, foreign raiders and rampant crime of that period forced the landlords to fortify their town and country estates. In their simplest form, gates were cut through wooden palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
walls, and fortified with a small defensive platform perched above them. If money allowed, gates were fortified with a barbican
Barbican
A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from...
tower, again with a raised wooden platform.
In the 18th century, this platform transformed into a raised structure above the main arch. Thus early Russian triumphal arches have a triangular, tri-partite composition (two side pylons and a center piece, square or octagonal, raised above them). Contemporary 18th century engravings present different variations of the type (notably, Alexey Zubov
Alexey Zubov
Alexey Fyodorovich Zubov was a Russian etcher.Zubov and his brother Ivan were accepted as apprentices to their father Fyodor in the Kremlin icon shop at an early age...
's 1711 engraving showing troops marching through seven different gates). It is believed that these gates influenced traditional Moscow architects in favor of Petrine Baroque
Petrine Baroque
Petrine Baroque is a name applied by art historians to a style of Baroque architecture and decoration favoured by Peter the Great and employed to design buildings in the newly-founded Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, under this monarch and his immediate successors.Unlike contemporaneous Naryshkin...
, producing masterpices like the Church of St. John the Warrior
Church of St. John the Warrior
Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka Street is a Russian Orthodox church in Yakimanka District of Moscow erected in 1704-1717, during the reign of Peter the Great. It is attributed to architect Ivan Zarudny...
.
An extant example of private estate gates following the same layout belongs to the former Golitsyn
Golitsyn
-People:*Golitsyns noble family *Nicholas Galitzine, last Tsarist prime minister of Russia*Anatoliy Golitsyn, Soviet KGB defector*Georgy Golitsyn, Soviet physicist and writer on nuclear winter...
estate on Volkhonka street (adjacent to Pushkin Museum
Pushkin Museum
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour....
).
Petrine tradition
The first true triumphal gates in Russia were installed by Peter I of RussiaPeter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
, intended for his generals' and his own triumphant rides. The earliest are dated 1697 (Capture of Azov
Azov campaigns
Azov campaigns of 1695–96 , two Russian military campaigns during the Russo-Turkish War of 1686–1700, led by Peter the Great and aimed at capturing the Turkish fortress of Azov , which had been blocking Russia's access to the Azov Sea and the Black Sea...
) and 1703 (for the early victories of Boris Sheremetev, Anikita Repnin
Anikita Repnin
Prince Anikita Ivanovich Repnin was a prominent Russian general during the Great Northern War who superintended the taking of Riga in 1710 and served as the Governor of Livland from 1719 until his death....
and Jacob Bruce
Jacob Bruce
Jacob Daniel Bruce was a Russian statesman, military leader and scientist of self-claimed Scottish descent , one of the associates of Peter the Great. According to his own record, his ancestors had lived in Russia since 1649....
in Great Northern War
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...
). Three sets of gates were set in
- Kitai-gorodKitai-gorodKitay-gorod , earlier also known as Great Posad , is a business district within Moscow, Russia, encircled by mostly-reconstructed medieval walls. It is separated from the Moscow Kremlin by Red Square. It does not constitute a district , as there are no resident voters, thus, municipal elections...
near Zaikonospassky monasteryZaikonospassky monasteryThe Zaikonospassky monastery was a monastery in Kitai-gorod, Moscow, just one block away from the Kremlin.It was founded in 1600 by Boris Godunov... - Ilyinka Gates of Bely GorodBely GorodBely Gorod is the central core area of Moscow, Russia. The name comes from the color of its defensive wall, which was erected in 1585-1593 at the behest of tsar Feodor I and Boris Godunov by architect Fyodor Kon...
- Myasnitskaya Gates of Bely GorodBely GorodBely Gorod is the central core area of Moscow, Russia. The name comes from the color of its defensive wall, which was erected in 1585-1593 at the behest of tsar Feodor I and Boris Godunov by architect Fyodor Kon...
The second round of triumphal construction, commemorating the Battle of Poltava
Battle of Poltava
The Battle of Poltava on 27 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld in one of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is widely believed to have been the beginning of Sweden's decline as a Great Power; the...
in 1709, resulted in seven gates being built in Moscow, notably the barbican gate on Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge. The third occasion, the Battle of Gangut
Battle of Gangut
The Battle of Gangut took place on July 27Jul./ August 7, 1714Greg. during the Great Northern War , in the waters of Riilahti Bay, north of the Hanko Peninsula, near the site of the modern-day city of Hanko, Finland, between the Swedish Navy and Imperial Russian Navy...
of 1714, was celebrated in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
only. Finally, the Treaty of Nystadt was celebrated in both Saint Petersburg and Moscow. Peter's successors (Anna I of Russia, Elizabeth of Russia, Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
) had built various gates, but Red Gates in Moscow were the only ones that survived to 20th century.
History of Red Gates
Battle of Poltava
The Battle of Poltava on 27 June 1709 was the decisive victory of Peter I of Russia over the Swedish forces under Field Marshal Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld in one of the battles of the Great Northern War. It is widely believed to have been the beginning of Sweden's decline as a Great Power; the...
in 1709. Catherine I
Catherine I of Russia
Catherine I , the second wife of Peter the Great, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death.-Life as a peasant woman:The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm her origins. Born on...
replaced it with a new structure in order to commemorate her own coronation in 1724. This arch burnt down 8 years later and was restored in 1742, for Elizabeth's coronation procession, which proceeded from the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
to the Lefortovo Palace through the edifice.
In 1753, the wooden arch was demolished and replaced with a stone one. The design by Prince Dmitry Ukhtomsky
Dmitry Ukhtomsky
Prince Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky, Дмитрий Васильевич Ухтомский was the chief architect of Moscow, Russia during the reign of Empress Elizabeth.-Biography:...
faithfully followed that of Catherine I's architects. This was a refined specimen of baroque sensibility, with red-blood walls, snow-white reliefs, golden capitals, and 15 bright paintings representing "Tsardoms of the Russian Empire", coats of arms of Russian provinces, etc. A large portrait of Empress Elizabeth, surrounded by a lambent halo, was replaced with a double-headed eagle for Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
's coronation in 1825. The structure was crowned by a golden statue of trumpeting angel. Around the gates, a spacious square was laid out.
Demolition
The Red Gates were renovated in the spring of 1926. However, in December 1926, MossovetMossovet
Mossovet , an abbreviation of Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies, was the informal name of *parallel, shadow city administration of Moscow, Russia run by left-wing parties in 1917*city administration of Moscow in Soviet period...
approved demolition of the gates and other buildings, to make way for the Garden Ring
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring , is a circular avenue around the central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century....
expansion. The Red Gates were demolished June 3, 1927, despite protests from Ivan Fomin
Ivan Fomin
Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin was a Russian architect and educator. He began his career in 1899 in Moscow, working in the Art Nouveau style. After relocating to Saint Petersburg in 1905, he became an established master of the Neoclassical Revival movement...
, Petr Baranovsky
Petr Baranovsky
Pyotr Dmitrievich Baranovsky was a Russian architect, preservationist and restorator who reconstructed many ancient buildings on the territory of Soviet Union...
and other artists. A statue of an angel and other artifacts were preserved at the Museum of Moscow.
The square was still known as Krasnye Vorota (Red Gates), and in 1935 acquired Metro station of the same name
Krasniye Vorota
Krasnye Vorota is a Moscow Metro station in the Krasnoselsky District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is on the Sokolnicheskaya Line, between Chistye Prudy and Komsomolskaya stations.- History :...
, designed by Ivan Fomin (underground station) and Nikolai Ladovsky
Nikolai Ladovsky
Nikolai Alexandrovich Ladovsky was a Russian avant-garde architect and educator, leader of the rationalist movement in 1920s architecture, an approach emphasizing human perception of space and shape...
(surface vestibule). In 1953, one of the famous Stalin's
Seven Sisters (Moscow)
The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki , " high-rises"...
skyscrapers was erected on the square to a design by Alexey Dushkin
Alexey Dushkin
Alexey Nikolayevich Dushkin was a Soviet architect, best known for his 1930s designs of Kropotkinskaya and Mayakovskaya stations of Moscow Metro...
.
The square and station were renamed Lermontovskaya after Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov , a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", became the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Lermontov is considered the supreme poet of Russian literature alongside Pushkin and the greatest...
in 1962 and were renamed back to Krasniye Vorota in 1986. Proposals to rebuild the arch were rejected, citing traffic congestion and the disparity between the modest size of the arch compared to the present-day width of the Garden Ring. The Angel of Glory, painted black, commemorates the loss of the Red Gates on the official coat of arms of Krasnoselsky District
Krasnoselsky District, Moscow
Krasnoselsky District Most of the district's territory is occupied by railroads, rail yards, and the three rail terminals around Komsomolskaya Square. It also contains a narrow sector of central Moscow, extending north-east from Lubyanka Square within the boundaries of Myasnitskaya Square and...
of Moscow.