The Tsar Bell

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What is the Tsar Bell and where you can see it, almost everyone knows . However, very few people know the history of this very interesting Moscow sight . Today the Tsar Bell is on the territory of the Kremlin - touch it and any tourist can be photographed for the memory . And the story of the creation of this huge bell began with Tsar Ivan III . At that time the rulers of Russia behind the scenes competed among themselves who made the biggest bell, exceeding all previous by weight, size andsludge sound . When Ivan III was cast bell weighing 8 tons . When his son, Vasily III made the 16-ton bell .

famous French engineer Germain King declined the offer to make the Tsar Bell. He simply decided that it was a joke, because he did not know how to make a bell of such a huge size. As a result, the work of the Russian master Ivan Motorin took.

Ivan the Terrible went further and ordered the bell to be cast in 35 tons. Record for the time was a bell weighing 128 tons, made in 1654 by the decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. He became a decoration of the Ivan the Great's temple in the Kremlin. However, soon the heavy bell fell and crashed. Later, the Great Uspensky Bell was also made, which also crashed.

Tsar Bell

In 1730 the Empress Anna Ioanovna decided at all costs to make the largest bell and leave thereby the memory of her board . She ordered to remake the already existing Great Uspenskiy Bell in such a way that its weight was 160 tons . It should be noted that not all the masters agreed to such work . So, the famous French mechanic of the King Zhermen refused the offer . He simply- I decided that it was a joke, because not before How did you produce a bell of such a huge size . As a result, the work of the Russian master Ivan Motorin .

First he made a small 12-pood test model and sent all his drawings and the lifting scheme for approval to St. Petersburg . It took more than one and a half years for the preparation of the Tsar Bells . The bell itself was cast on November 25, 1735 . The dimensions of the Tsar Bells were really huge: height 6, 14 meters, bottom diameter 6, 6 meters . Master Ivan Motorin did not live up to the completion of the work, so his son Mikhail continued his work . By the way, in total, about 200 people worked on the creation of the Tsar Bell: blacksmiths, locksmiths, carpenters, sculptors, carvers and many others .

Alas, the bell could not be lifted - it remained in the foundry pit. Two years later a fire broke out, and the Tsar-Bell had to be rescued. That the unique product did not melt, it was watered. But in the end, the metal gave 11 cracks, an impressive piece weighing more than 11 tons fell off from the Tsar Bell

The bell was in the pit for a century, as no one dared to pick up such a machine. Only in 1834 the creator of St. Petersburg's sights: the Alexander Column and St. Isaac's Cathedral - Auguste Montferrand, with the help of complex adaptations, was able to pull this monument of Russian foundry art and install it on the pedestal. It is interesting that inside the pedestal language is kept from an unknown bell. To date, the Tsar Bell is a unique work of art. He has no equal in the whole world - this is the biggest bell by weight and size.

Caster Ivan Motorin was a real professional. He cast many bells that are in the Kremlin, including Nabatniy. For the Tsar Bell, he came up with a very beautiful ornament and sculptural ornaments.

Address: Kremlin.

Tsar Bell

Tsar Bell at Night