Kremlin

The Moscow Kremlin is the fortified citadel at the heart of Moscow, a triangular 28-hectare compound on the Moskva River that has served as the seat of princes, tsars, Soviet leaders and now the Russian president since the twelfth century. The current red-brick walls and twenty towers were built from 1485 by Italian masters from Milan, who fused Lombard military engineering with Russian sacred architecture. Inside stand the cathedrals of the Dormition, the Archangel and the Annunciation, where tsars were crowned and buried, alongside the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Tsar Cannon. Visitors can tour Cathedral Square and the Armoury Chamber with its Faberge eggs and coronation robes; sections remain closed as the working presidential residence. The Soviet government moved in under Lenin in 1918 and demolished parts of the monastic ensemble during the twentieth century.