Menshikov Tower

A Russian Orthodox baroque church in Moscow's Basmanny district whose slim red-brick tower is the oldest surviving example of Petrine Baroque in the city. Alexander Menshikov, Peter the Great's confidant, funded the build from 1704, intending to top Ivan the Great's belltower in the Kremlin: at 81 metres the new spire edged it by two. A lightning strike in 1723 destroyed the original wooden upper storey and its fifty bells. Today consecrated to the Archangel Gabriel, the tower stands as a slender survivor among Soviet ministries, and the stucco-rich interior makes plain how European Peter wanted his Russia to look.