Tobolsk Kremlin

The Tobolsk Kremlin (Russian Тобольский кремль ) is a native of the late 17th century, this former citadel in Russia. It is located in the western Siberian city of Tobolsk and represents the only Old Russian Kremlin in the Asian part of Russia also dar. the Tobolsk Kremlin was built later than all the other Kremlin.

History

The city of Tobolsk belonged at the time to the first Siberian regions that were conquered and colonized by the tsarist Russia. For this reason the city was founded in 1587 had practically from the beginning fortifications, which should protect the newly developed areas and were initially built of wood. A cathedral was built already in 1621 within the fort for the first time. During the 17th century occurred in Tobolsk several major fires, in which the fortification equipment were always destroyed and restored shortly thereafter. As part of the new buildings, the fortress area was enlarged several times; the protective walls reached the end of the 1670s - years, a length of 550 meters.

Since the stone architecture until the end of the 17th century became widespread in the Tobolsk region, the fortifications were wooden and up to this time. The first stone building in the city, the Bishop's Palace, was completed in 1679, seven years later, the first stone church was - built by Moscow architects and to this day preserved Sophia Cathedral - inaugurated. Was then started with the construction of a stone fortification, and already in 1699 some 620 meters wall with nine towers were finished. The Kremlin of stone was built on the orders of Peter the Great by Swedish prisoners of war, which is why the building was referred to as Sweden 's palace. In many ways, the new citadel was similar to the Moscow Kremlin and should be particularly powerful and stable, taking into account the specific geographical location and also the then considerable wealth from Tobolsk. Until the beginning of the 18th century, intensive building of the Kremlin grounds with both sacred and profane buildings continued, with the well-known Tobolsk cartographer Semyon Remezov was involved in the then development plans.

However, since subsided, the military significance of the Tobolsk Kremlin very quickly after its completion, some of the projects for the ensemble, including one of the entrance gates of the fortress were not completed. After 1718, when then- Siberian governor Matvei Gagarin was deprived of his office, the construction activities in the Tobolsk Kremlin came to a virtual standstill. It was not until the mid to late 18th century, emerged on the Kremlin grounds again some smaller buildings, some of which were unable to harmonize with the original ensemble.

Also on existing buildings of the Tobolsk Kremlin conversions in the 18th and 19th centuries made ​​that were necessary partly due to difficult natural conditions: So Sophia Cathedral had to be provided with special support structures to mitigate the danger of collapse due to frequent landslides in the area of the Kremlin. In the 1970s, major construction work in the Tobolsk Kremlin have been adjusted again; some of the watchtowers until then were so damaged that they had to be virtually rebuilt.

Architecture

The resulting ensemble of Tobolsk until today Citadel consists in part of the former Fortifikationsmauer with seven guard towers and in part of historic buildings within the former fortress.

The oldest preserved building of the Kremlin and also the oldest religious building stone of Siberia is the St. Sophia Cathedral (Russian Софийский собор ). It was built in 1686 and completed in the early 19th century by a 75 -meter-high bell tower. The cathedral itself has a height of 47 meters and is closed at the top by a traditional Russian five-domed structure. The domes themselves were redesigned in 1726 and remember since then in form of Ukrainian Orthodox church buildings. Until the October Revolution of 1917, the Tobolsk Sophia Cathedral served as the burial place of local bishops and other clerics. After closing in 1920, the building was used for years as a warehouse in 1961 it received museum status and since the 1990s, Church services are held here again.

In addition to the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Tobolsk Kremlin exist two other religious buildings: the protection of the Intercession Cathedral ( Покровский собор ) and the church of Sergius of Radonezh ( Храм Сергия Радонежского ). The protection of the Intercession Cathedral was built between 1743-1746 and has stylistic elements of the typical for that time on Baroque. The small church of Sergius of Radonezh was built between the two cathedrals in 2007; the original church of that name in the Tobolsk Kremlin was demolished in mid -18th century.

As an important monument of secular architecture in Tobolsk, the former bishop's house is worth mentioning ( Архиерейский дом ). It was built 1775 on the site of its previous building dating from 1679, the first stone building of the city. Today, the building is the home of the Museum of Tobolsk.