Ivan the Great Bell Tower Ensemble

About museum

The Ivan the Great Bell Tower ensemble, located between Cathedral and Ivanovskaya Squares in the Kremlin, was created over three centuries — from 1505 to 1815. It consists of three buildings of different heights: the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the Assumption (Uspensky) belfry, and the Filaret annex. The bell tower was built by the Italian architect Bon Fryazin in 1505–1508. Later an additional ringing tier was added, bringing its height to 81 meters. Between 1532 and 1552 a church was built next to the bell tower, later converted into the Assumption belfry, and in 1624 Bazhen Ogurtsov erected a tent-roofed belfry beside it — the Filaret annex. In 1812 the ensemble was blown up by Napoleon’s troops retreating from Moscow, but the main shaft of the Ivan the Great tower remained unscathed. The belfry and the Filaret annex were restored in 1814–1815. Today the bell tower and belfry hold 24 bells from the 16th–17th centuries. On the ground floor of the Assumption belfry there is an exhibition hall of the Moscow Kremlin Museums. A museum has opened in the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.