Gate images of the Moscow Kremlin towers

State Research Museum of Architecture named after A.V. Shchusev and the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation are presenting an exhibition project dedicated to the history, loss and modern restoration of gate icons on the passage towers of the Moscow Kremlin.

The placement of icons on travel gates is an established, centuries-old tradition in Russian architecture. Gate images have always been an important semantic symbol and an integral part of the facade decoration of any fortress. Their placement was associated with special veneration of saints or important events. The dedication of some of the icons located on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin reflects significant milestones in Russian history. For example, the image of the Savior of Smolensk on the Spasskaya Tower is associated with the return of Smolensk to the Moscow state in 1514, and the image of the Pechersk icon with Saints Alexei and Peter is associated with the end of the siege of Moscow by the Tatars in 1521. Other images - St. Nicholas on the Nikolskaya Tower, John the Baptist on Borovitskaya, Trinity on Trinity - are associated with ancient monasteries and churches in the center of Moscow.

The gate images were made using fresco technique or painted on boards placed in icon cases. Their renewal, and sometimes complete replacement, occurred with each repair or reconstruction of the towers. Despite regular interventions, some icons retained original fragments of 17th-century painting and their original dedication and composition into the 20th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, gate images existed on the passage towers of the Kremlin: Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Kutafya and Borovitskaya. The most ancient icons were recognized as ancient monuments and were under the supervision of the Moscow Archaeological Society. In the 1920s, the monuments were lost or hidden, and the memory of them was practically lost.