MOSCOW. 395 



that " Moscow is celebrated especially for its bell which never rings, and its gun 

 which never fires." 



The Kitaï-Gorod quarter is mainly occupied with such curious monuments as 

 the house of the Romanovs, and old monasteries, besides the Yasiliy Blajenniy, or 

 Church of the Intercession, probably the most interesting structure in all Moscow. 

 It stands on the Red Square, just outside the Kremlin, and was built in an 

 absolutely unique style, under Ivan the Terrible, by an Italian architect in the 

 middle of the sixteenth century. It was evidently inspired by the same haughty 

 Muscovite spirit which raised the tower of Ivan Velikiy, cast the "queen of 

 bells," and planted the " king of guns " in front of the Arsenal. In its details it 

 adheres to the conventional Byzantine style, as required by religious traditions, 

 but in other respects it is essentially Muscovite. Its builder obeyed the exigencies 

 of science in the disposition of the stonework, the resistance of the materials, the 

 pitch of the vaults ; but he at the same time contrived to reconcile all this with 

 the symbolism of the Russian architects, and this eccentric structure, though built 

 by a foreigner, remains pre-eminently the Orthodox Greek edifice. The outer 

 galleries and porticos, more recent than the naves and towers, no doubt 

 betray Italian influences, although greatly disfigured by pyramidal belfries. But 

 above this peristyle the old structure is seen in all its strange originality. The 

 turrets, all of different design, spring each from a mass of carving resembling 

 imbricated leaves, the cone of the pine, or budding petals. The cupolas, 

 surmounted with crosses and small gilded chains, are all remarkable for their size, 

 outlines, carvings, and colours. One seems traced with arabesques of the lozenge 

 pattern, another cut diamond fashion, a third shaped like a pine-apple, others 

 scored with waving or zigzag lines, while above all rises the pyramidal central 

 tower, springing from an intricate mass of smaller domes, and crowned by a sort 

 of lantern. Then the whole is profusely embellished with porcelain, and painted 

 in all the colours of the rainbow. At first sight it is impossible to follow the 

 main outlines of the structure in the midst of all this entanglement of gables and 

 paintings, resembling some monstrous vegetable growth rather than an edifice 

 designed by man, " this impossible church making reason mistrust the evidence of 

 the eyes.'' * Yet the gaze is riveted by this Russian pagoda, whose very strange- 

 ness seems to fascinate the observer. !Near this church, and facing the Saviour's 

 Gate, stands the bronze group erected to Minin and Prince Pojarski, who 

 delivered Moscow from the Poles in 1613. Here also is the Godiniy Dior, or 

 Central Market, with its thousands of stalls. 



Beyond the Kremlin and the Kita'i-Gorod the monuments become rarer as we 

 recede from the centre. But nearly all the scientific establishments are grouped 

 in the White Town. Here is the University, founded in 1755, with a valuable 

 library and collections, and with a larger number of students than any other in 

 the state. To it are attached an observatory, a zoological and a botanic garden, 

 and this institution exercised a considerable influence on the philosophic and 

 literary movement, especially between 1830 and 1848, before it was brought under 



* Ti éophile Guulier, " Voyage en liuase." 



