Borovitskaya tower of the Kremlin

At the foot of one of the seven hills on which Moscow stands, there is a tower, which differs from others in its stepped shape. This is the Borovitskaya Tower. Its name comes from the ancient pine forest that once covered the entire hill. The Borovitskaya Tower was built by the Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solari in 1490. The Borovitskaya Tower has a very peculiar shape. A similar stepped pirmede can be seen in Kazan - at the tower of Queen Syuyumbeki. The strong, square base continues with three tetrahedrons decreasing upward. The whole structure ends with an open octagon (a part of the building that has an octagonal shape in the plan) with a high stone tent. The strelnitsa in this tower is not located in front, as in other Kremlin towers, but from the side, taking into account the turn of the wall. Here you can see the hole through which the chains of the drawbridge, disassembled in 1821, passed, and in the gateway there are vertical grooves for the protective grill. Unlike the front Spassky and Troitsky gates, the Borovitsky gates had a purely utilitarian purpose: they drove through them to the outbuildings - Zhitny and Konyushenny courtyards. In 1812, during an explosion by retreating French troops of the neighboring Vodozvodnaya Tower, the Borovitskaya Tower was also damaged - the top of its tent fell. In 1816-1819, the tower was repaired under the direction of O.I. Bove. In 1848, the throne of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist near Bor was transferred to the Borovitskaya Tower.