The Tsar - Bell

Here already more than 150 years a unique monument of Russian art moulding of XVIII century - famous the Tsar Bell is kept at the b

ottom of a campanile of Ivan Velikogo in the Kremlin on a whitestoned pedestal.

As long ago as XVI-XVII centuries in Moscow bells of the big sizes which did not reach up to now had been casted on the Gun court yard. Sometimes they broke becausse of time, because of too strong blows, but more often they received damages during fires. So happened and with the Big Uspensky bell of master Alexander Grigoriev which weight, apparently, was about 8 thousand poods. During a strong fire in Moscow in 1701 it fell down and broke into set of pieces. It was decided to pour it in a new bell and increase thus quantity of metal to 10 thousand poods later. According to the decree of the empress of Anna Ivanovny from 1730, bell casting was assigned to the Moscow office of artillery and fortification. The job on designing and bell casting was entrusted to a conduct of Moscow master Ivan Fedorovich Motorin, the hereditary founder.

For arrangement of the form of the future giant a foundry hole of ten-metre depth was built. Job on manufacturing of the form and the bell casing proceeded from January, 1733 till November, 1734. Such masters as Vasily Kobelev, Peter Galkin, Peter Kohtev, Peter Serebrennikov, former Peter Lukovnikov and sculptor Feodor Medvedev were working over manufacturing of decorative ornaments and inscriptions.

The first attempt to cast a bell was terminated in failure. The foundry furnaces failed, the fire which had flashed in the Kremlin hurt wooden designs. Regenerative works proceeded till November, 1735 and Ivan Motorin died at this time. Now all jobs with preparation and bell casting were headed by his son - Michael Motorin.

At last, on November, 25th, 1735 the Tsar-Bell was ready. It was was required only 1 hour of 12 minutes for the whole process of casting. The Tsar-Bell dimensions are rather impressive: its weight - more than 200 tons, height - 6 m 14 sm, diameter - 6 metres 60 centimetres. Last researches during  restoration works (1979-1980) showed, that the Tsar-Bell was made from typical bell bronze with the maintenance of impurities and metals (gold and silver). Because of nonuniform cooling during a fire in May, 1737  the bell gave some cracks and the piece with a total weight of about 11,5 tons fell off.

More than 100 years the Tsar-Bell lay in a foundry hole. Its lifting and placing on a pedestal was carried out in 1836 by the architect and the engineer August Monferran.