A country: Russia

City: Moscow

Nearest metro: Alexander Garden

Was passed: 1735

Caster: Ivan and Mikhail Motorin

Description

This is truly the Tsar Bell, the father of all bells ever created by man. The weight of the Tsar Bell reaches almost 202 tons, its height is more than 6 meters, and its diameter is almost 7 meters, so an entire room can easily fit inside the bell. The Tsar Bell is mounted on a massive pedestal designed by Auguste Montferraan. There is a memorial plaque on the pedestal: “This bell was cast in 1733 by order of the Empress Anna Ioannovna. He remained in the land for one hundred and three years and by the will of the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I was installed on August 4, 1836.”

Next to the bell is a broken piece weighing 11.5 tons. A large team of craftsmen was involved in the work of applying the ornament and decorating the bell. In addition to the beautiful ornament, the bell depicts Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Empress Anna Ioannovna and saints and angels. There is also a commemorative inscription on the bell about the history of the creation of the unique, largest bell in the world. The bell is crowned with a large gilded cross.

History of creation

On behalf of Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1730 and under the leadership of foundry master Ivan Motorin, work began on creating the largest bell in the world to replace the broken Grigoriev bell. Work on the bell took a long and difficult 5 years. Unfortunately, Ivan was unable to complete the work and died in 1835. His father's work was continued by his son Mikhail. During the liquidation of the fire in the Kremlin, the bell was flooded with water. As a result, a piece of the bell broke off. For a long time, the bell remained in the casting pit and only in 1836 was raised and installed in the Kremlin as a monument to Russian foundry masters.

How to get there

Arrive at the Alexandrovsky Sad metro station and get off at the Alexandrovsky Garden near the Kremlin walls. Here, near the metro, you will see ticket offices for the Kremlin. Having purchased a ticket, you immediately go up to the Kutafya Tower, crossing the bridge, through the Trinity Tower you enter the Kremlin territory. Then go straight to Senate Square and turn right and go to the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great. Walk past the Tsar Cannon and on the other side of the bell tower you will see a miracle of Russian foundry craftsmanship.

Decorates many monuments and culture. One of these is the Tsar Bell. The monument has not only outstanding dimensions, but also an interesting history. Work on the bell began in 1730, according to the instructions of the Russian Empress at that time. At first they wanted to entrust the casting of the bell to an overseas master. However, when they heard the supposed size of the bell, they only laughed in response: “What, gentlemen, are you kidding me?” As a result, bell master Ivan Fedorovich Motorin began work. His son Mikhail helped him. In 1731, Motorin presented a project for the future giant, and for clarity, he cast a small copy of it. The project was approved by the Moscow Senate office for three whole years.

Finally, when the project was approved, it was time to put it into practice.The place for casting the Tsar Bell was chosen between the Moscow bell tower of Ivan the Great and the Chudov Monastery. They chose a 10-meter hole, reinforced its walls with a frame, and lined it with bricks. Then the foundry furnaces and a mechanism for lifting the casing were built.

On November 26, 1734, a solemn service was held in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. After this, the craftsmen began to make their plans. The furnaces were flooded, old bells, metal, as well as tin and red copper were melted in them. Two days later, the furnaces broke down and metal began to leak onto the ground. I had to take action. As a result, an explosion occurred. All wooden structures burned down.

Ivan Motorin suddenly dies. Mikhail, Ivan’s son, will continue his father’s work. Three months will pass and everything will be ready for a new casting. 400 people were stationed around the stoves, who, if anything happened, had to put out the fire. However, everything went as planned. November 25, 1735 is the “birthday” of the Tsar Bell. The bell weighed almost 202 tons, its height was 6 meters 14 centimeters, its diameter was 6 meters 60 centimeters. The history of the monument does not end there.

The work on decorating the monument was coming to an end. But in May 1737 it caught fire. There was a terrible fire in the city. All building structures burned down. The bell became very hot. Muscovites came running to pour water on him. More than ten cracks formed in the body of the bell, and the main result of the fire was that a “piece” weighing 11.5 tons broke off from the bell. It is noteworthy that the bell was lifted from the foundry pit only in 1836, under the leadership of Montferrand, who knew a lot about lifting heavy structures. After all, it was the Frenchman who, until this day, lifted heavy granite columns to St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Let us note that, while in the foundry pit, the Tsar Bell was accessible to others. The foundry pit was covered with boards and a staircase was made in it. Many people came to look at the miracle bell, with the image

From time immemorial, Russia has been famous for its ringing of bells. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the main attractions of our country is the Tsar Bell.

The “voice” of the unique bell never sounded, which over time became one of the reasons for the appearance of an anecdote about a great country where there is a Tsar Cannon that does not fire, a Tsar Bell that does not ring, etc.

But, in fairness, it is worth saying that the bell was cast for very practical purposes, and its silence is the same coincidence of circumstances as the notorious tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

As a matter of fact, the Tsar Bell, which is now known to the whole world, is the successor of the entire “royal dynasty”. The first Russian “Tsar Bell” was cast at the beginning of the 17th century and faithfully served Muscovites for about 50 years. But as a result of a strong fire in Moscow, the 40-ton hulk fell to the ground and broke.

In 1654, a new Tsar Bell was cast, and the metal left over from its predecessor was also used to cast it. This “monarch,” weighing more than 130 tons, repeated the fate of its predecessor - after serving for half a century, during the next Moscow fire in 1701, it fell from the bell tower and was broken.

Peter the Great, who was more interested in guns and ships, had no time for the bell.

The main bell of Russia was supposed to be created by a Frenchman

The question of casting a new Tsar Bell in 1730 was raised by Empress Anna Ioannovna. This time the weight of the royal giant was supposed to reach 200 tons.

It was planned to entrust such a large-scale task to foreigners. In France, the Russian representative made a generous offer to the Parisian “royal goldsmith and member of the Academy of Sciences” Germain.

However, the foreign specialist, having learned what the Russians wanted from him, flatly refused. As a result, the task was assigned to famous Russian master Ivan Fedorovich Motorin And his son Mikhail Ivanovich Motorin.

Preparation of the project and its approval took three years. According to tradition, part of the metal used to make the new bell was taken from the fragments of its predecessor.

Considering the size of the Tsar Bell, it was decided to make it directly in the Kremlin. On Ivanovskaya Square, a 10 m deep hole was dug for molding the product. In order for the casing to withstand the pressure of the molten metal, the entire space between the bell shape and the walls of the casting pit was covered with earth, compacting it thoroughly.

Four foundry furnaces and a casing lifting device were built.

Finally, after all the preparatory work was completed, on November 26, 1734, a solemn service was held in the Assumption Cathedral and a church blessing was received. After this, metal smelting began.

Son for father

To say that the process was difficult is to say nothing. Within two days, two of the four furnaces failed. The repairs were in progress, and perhaps because of this a new disaster occurred - as a result of the explosion, almost all the wooden structures burned down, which put the project in serious jeopardy.

The process of casting a bell, especially one of this size, is quite slow. It was in full swing when Ivan Motorin suddenly died on August 19, 1735. The whole burden of work fell on the shoulders of his son Mikhail Motorin.

Finally, on November 25, 1735, the casting of the Tsar Bell was completed. The height of the finished product was 6.24 m, diameter 6.6 m, weight - about 200 tons.

When the metal cooled, chasing work began - decorative decorations and inscriptions were applied to the bell. All this time, the bell was in the hole, standing on an iron grate, which rested on 12 oak piles driven into the ground. A wooden ceiling was made over the pit.

In the spring of 1737, work on the decoration of the Tsar Bell was coming to an end, and soon its “voice” was to sound over Moscow.

Great Schism

But here the matter intervened... yes, of course, another Moscow fire. The Trinity, or Great Fire, in May 1737 caused a lot of trouble in Moscow, including changing the fate of the Tsar Bell.

The wooden structure above the pit in which the bell was located caught fire. Burning logs began to fall down. Muscovites who came running to the fire began to pour water on the bell, fearing that it would melt from the high temperature.

However, uneven and rapid cooling caused the formation of more than a dozen cracks, as a result of which a piece weighing 11 tons broke off from the bell.

There are two more versions of how the fragment was formed. According to one of them, the reason for this was the fall of the bell during ascent. According to another, the cracks were caused by technological errors during the casting of the bell, and then “written off” as a very opportune fire.

Be that as it may, interest in the split giant was lost, and it was left in the pit for a whole century.

Over time, excursions to the pit began to be organized for curious people who wanted to see the largest bell with their own eyes. Projects for raising the bell were put forward at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, but they were abandoned due to their complexity and cost. There was also a proposal to restore the bell by soldering, but it was rejected - the “restored” Tsar Bell would have a defective sound. And a false bell is much worse than a silent one.

Tourists visiting the Tsar Bell. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

In its place

Finally, in 1836, it was decided to raise the Tsar Bell from the pit and install it on a special pedestal in the Kremlin. The task was assigned French architect Auguste Montferrand, who erected the Alexander Column in St. Petersburg and rebuilt St. Isaac's Cathedral.

On August 17, 1836, the most difficult operation to raise the Tsar Bell was completed. The giant was installed on a pedestal designed by Montferrand.

From that very moment, the bell, which never rang, became one of the main Russian attractions that the whole world knows about.

The famous Tsar Bell was intended for the Ivanovo belfry. Its history begins from the time of Boris Godunov, who ordered to cast a bell weighing more than a thousand pounds and hang it on a wooden frame. However, during one of the Kremlin fires, the wooden belfry burned down, the bell fell and broke. Alexey Mikhailovich ordered it to be poured with a large addition of metal, bringing the weight to 8,000 pounds, and placed on Filaret’s extension. But the royal evangelist repeated the fate of its predecessor, crashing in a fire in 1701.

In 1730, Empress Anna Ioannovna, who had just ascended the throne, wished to pour the debris again. The new bell was supposed to weigh 13,000 poods (more than 200 tons). Casting a bell of this size presented an extremely difficult technical challenge. Master Ivan Motorin undertook to resolve it. In the summer of 1734, stoves began to be built right on the square. The first casting was unsuccessful: the furnace burst, and the metal went into the ground, and a fire almost started. Motorin began preparations for the second casting, but did not have time to complete the work. The business was successfully continued by his son Mikhail. When everything was ready for casting again, 400 firefighters were gathered in the square just in case, and Kolomna Archbishop Veniamin, after a prayer service, lit the first furnace with his own hands. On November 25, 1735, the casting was successfully completed.

In general, the decorative decoration of the Tsar Bell is an example of Baroque art, which reflected the trends of Russian fine art of the first half of the 18th century and the Italian training of the sculptor. The sculptor F. Medvedev, once sent by Peter I to study in Venice, decorated the foundry mold with many ornaments, inscriptions and relief figures of Alexei Mikhailovich and Anna Ioannovna, which had to be cleaned and minted. Therefore, the bell remained in the pit, on a lattice platform, until 1737, when the fire element once again raged in the Kremlin. The wooden roof above the casting pit caught fire, and when the fire was extinguished with water, the bell cooled unevenly and cracked. At first they thought about recasting it, but according to the estimate, the costs turned out to be more than they spent on the initial casting. Then a project arose (though hardly feasible) to solder the broken edge, but the author of the project, the architect Forstenberg, died of the plague in 1770. Meanwhile, the bell continued to remain in the pit. In 1821, by order of Alexander I, the pit was cleared and a ladder was lowered into it for the convenience of sightseeing enthusiasts. The Tsar Bell was brought to the surface of the earth only in 1836, placed on a pedestal and lug-brackets were welded on top, carrying the orb with the cross; The mechanisms for raising the bell were designed by the builder of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, architect and engineer O. Montferrand.

"Visitors to the Kremlin often ask about the possibility of restoring a unique bell so that it could sound. This problem was of interest back in the 18th century. First, there were proposals from foundry workers to recast the bell. Later, about the possible soldering of a fragment. The most interesting projects were those of the 1890s famous Russian engineers N. N. Benardos and N. G. Slavyanov. At the end of the 19th century, there was even a discussion in the press about the need to restore the bell. The current state of technology, of course, makes it possible to solder existing cracks and even return the fragment to its place. However, this is inevitable "The unique decor of the Tsar Bell will suffer. Moreover, it is impossible to recast it into a new sounding bell, since it is a monument of history, art and foundry." I.D. Kostina. Bells of the Moscow Kremlin. Moscow, 2007

November 25, 2015 marked the 280th anniversary of one of the most gigantic, but unfortunately silent bells in the world. The famous Tsar bell, standing on a pedestal in the Moscow Kremlin, has never rung like that even once in its history.

But, in fairness, it is worth saying that the bell was cast for very practical purposes, and its silence is the same coincidence of circumstances as the notorious tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

A silent giant with a tormented fate today serves as a unique monument to Russian foundry art of the 18th century. Grandfather, a long-liver, had an unenviable fate, and over the course of his almost three centuries he endured many trials.

MOST INTERESTING FACTS

Today it is known that this is one of the largest bells in the world. Due to his size and excess weight, he ranks second in the world rankings. Its mass is 203 tons, and it is second only to the Great Bell of Dhammazedi (Burma), which weighs 297 tons. But there is one interesting addition that allows our grandfather, the birthday boy, to rise to the first line of the rating.

The fact is that in 1608, during the internecine wars in Burma, the Portuguese mercenary Felipe de Brito e Nicote captured the Shwedagon Pagoda and stole the bell, intending to use it for cannons. However, when transported by water at the confluence of the Bago and Yangon rivers, the rafts on which the bell was located capsized and it sank.

The Great Bell is still in the same place under a layer of silt, but all attempts to bring it to the surface have so far been unsuccessful.

So, 203 tons of thunderous silence reigned. Its impressive size is due to the ambitions of Empress Anna Ioannovna, who ordered that a new giant be cast from pieces of a broken old bell. The fact is that our king-bell has a rich pedigree, with no less rich karma, unfortunately more sad than rich.

It itself was cast in 1730 “from what was there” - from the remains of a bell made in 1654 and weighing 128 tons. It took about a hundred people to ring it! The large Assumption Tsar Bell, unlike our Tsar Bell, stood for 24 years after casting before a craftsman was found who managed to lift it and hang it in the Assumption Belfry. This event happened in 1679. Even then, its voice was considered one of the loudest in the capital, drowning out the voices of all other bells.

However, on June 19, 1701, during a fire in the Kremlin, the bell fell and broke. It is noteworthy that the bell that broke in the fire was also cast from the remains of the bell, which was made in haste by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Its dimensions were more modest, and it itself rang only a few times, and on one of the first lord's holidays, during the bell, it split into many pieces. It is curious that the master died of the plague in the same year, after the incident. Coincidence.

It is noteworthy that this bell was cast from its predecessor. At the beginning of the 17th century. By order of Boris Godunov, a very large bell was cast, which was called the Tsar Bell. This was, as it were, the great-grandfather of the current Tsar Bell, which now stands in the Kremlin. In order to hang it, they cut down a turret made of oak logs next to “Ivan the Great”, where they placed the bell at a height of 4 m from the ground. It weighed “only” 35 tons and also crashed during a fire.

The Polish nobleman Samuil Maskevich, who saw how it was rung, says that two ropes were tied to the tongue of the bell, which 12 people each took hold of and pulled the tongue alternately in one direction or the other. There was a low, solemn hum.

As you and I found out, the pedigree is long, but the karma is bad.

So, in 1730, Empress Anna Ioannovna ordered a new one to be cast from the surviving pieces, with the addition of metal, and to increase the weight of the bell to 10 thousand pounds. The son of Field Marshal Minich was instructed to find a master in Paris for this work. Minich offered this work to the royal mechanic Germain, but he considered it a joke to cast a bell of such a size.

After all approvals, the bell was cast by Russian craftsmen Ivan Motorin and his son Mikhail Motorin in 1733-1735 at the Cannon Yard.

The bell was finally cast on November 25, 1735, after a year and a half of preparatory work. Unforeseen situations constantly arose during casting.

During casting on November 28, 1734, an accident occurred. Copper from the smelting furnaces not only flowed into the “bell sample”, but also spilled throughout the foundry, which led to a fire. It took Mikhail Motorin and his assistants a year to eliminate its consequences.

Ivan Motorin died before finishing the casting, and his work was completed by his son Mikhail.

On November 25, the final stage of casting the bell began. To prevent a recurrence of the fire, about 400 people with fire pipes were stationed at the foundry pit all the time. The metal, melted in four smelting furnaces over 36 hours, began to be poured into the mold. The casting itself took just 1 hour and 12 minutes.

The inscription on the bell says that it was cast in 1733 by Ivan Motorin, although in fact it was cast in 1735 by Mikhail Motorin.

The inaccuracy of the inscription indicates that the Tsar Bell was cast according to the original mold.

The calculated value of the mass of the bell is given in many reference books, but it is not entirely correct.

The true mass of this giant is 12,327 poods 19 pounds = 201 tons 924 kg = 200 tons, with an accuracy of ten tons, since the exact value of a pood is 16.380 kg, and a pound is 0.4095 kg.

Height - 6 meters 24 centimeters, diameter 6 meters 60 centimeters.

After the bell cooled down, the casing was removed from it, and the minters went down into the casting pit. They worked on the drawings on the surface of the bell, since after casting the images are not clear enough. This work took a year and a half and was not completed due to another fire.

On May 20, 1737, during the Trinity Fire in Moscow, a wooden building above the pit in which the bell stood caught fire. Burning logs began to fall into the pit. To prevent the bell from melting, the people who came running began to pour water on the hot metal. As a result of rapid and uneven cooling, the bell developed 10 longitudinal through cracks and a significant piece weighing about 700 pounds (11.5 tons) broke off from it. Therefore, the bell was left in the foundry pit, where it remained for about 100 years. According to another old version, he fell and broke.

However, modern research questions the fact that a bell made of ductile bell bronze could crack during a fire, and suggest that the cracks arose due to violations in technology (the bell, which cooled after casting, could have been left on the rod and cracked from -for hugging), and a fire could become a convenient excuse.

This version is supported by the fact that in 1736 Motorin received only 1,000 rubles for casting the Tsar Bell and the rank of foundry shopmaster “for his labors and for the sake of updating the bell factory,” which was damaged by a fire. And later, for casting bells for the Novodevichy Convent and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, he asks for 8,000 rubles per bell

The damage to the bell was so serious that work on finishing its decorations was stopped, and it lay in a foundry pit for about 100 years.

Only in 1836 was it lifted from there and installed on a pedestal near “Ivan the Great”.

In 1979, during the restoration of the bell, a piece of metal was taken from its crack and a chemical analysis was performed. Research has shown that the bell is cast from bronze, that is, an alloy of copper and tin, and alloying elements that are added to the alloy to give it certain properties.

According to an analysis carried out in the laboratory of the mine body, the alloy contains copper - 84.51%, tin - 13.21%, sulfur - 1.25%, gold - 0.036% (72 kg), silver - 0.25% (525 kg)

After the restoration of the bell, its relief decorations became clearly visible. You can see ceremonial portraits of Anna Ioannovna and Alexei Mikhailovich, images of saints, ornaments, and inscriptions. All these decorations were carved from wood by sculptor Fyodor Medvedev and then pressed onto the inner surface of the casing.

Vasily Kobelev, Pyotr Galkin, Pyotr Serebryakov, Pyotr Kokhtev, who studied pedestal and molding work abroad by order of Peter I, took part in the work on decorating the bell.

The Tsar Bell never rang - we already know that. Let us only add that a tongue was never even cast for him. And the one that lies on the pedestal was taken from another.

The largest bell of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is also called “Tsar”. The Tsar Bell, cast in 1748, weighed 4 thousand pounds (64 tons), but was destroyed in 1930. In 2004, a new “Tsar Bell” weighing 72 tons was raised to the bell tower of the Lavra.

The Tsar Bell is depicted on thousand-ruble White Guard banknotes issued by General Denikin in Crimea during the Civil War. The money, which depreciated almost instantly and had virtually no purchasing power, was popularly called “bells.”

In 1941, the communications center of the Kremlin regiment was located in the Tsar Bell, and it itself was repainted and covered with a protective net to protect it from air strikes.

From time to time there is renewed talk about soldering the bell, but experts say that in this case it will not have a clear sound.

Over time, the unique monument became one of the reasons for the appearance of an anecdote about a great country where there is a Tsar Cannon that does not fire, a Tsar Bell that does not ring, etc.

The Tsar Bell is a monument to the foundry art of Russian craftsmen, about which it is written “that bells of such size and such beauty cannot be found in any other kingdom in the whole world.”