The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

MOSCOW. 395that " Moscow is celebrated especially for its bell which never rings, and its gunwhich never fires."The Kitai'-Gorod quarter is mainly occupied with such curious monuments asthe house of the Romanovs, and old monasteries, besides the Vasiliy Blajenniy, orChurch of the Intercession, jjrobably the most interesting structure in all Moscow.It stands on the Red Square, just outside the Kremlin, and was built in anabsolutely unique style, under Ivan the Terrible, by an Italian architect in themiddle of the sixteenth century. It was evidently inspired by the same haughtyMuscovite spirit which raised the tower of Ivan Velikiy, cast the "queen ofbells," and planted the " king of guns " in front of the Arsenal. In its details itadheres to the conventional Byzantine style, as required by religious traditions,but in other respects it is essentially Muscovite. Its builder obeyed the exigenciesof science in the disposition of the stonework, the resistance of the materials, thepitch of the vaults ; but he at the same time contrived to reconcile all this withthe symbolism of the Russian architects, and this eccentric structure, though builtby a foreigner, remains pre-eminently the Orthodox Greek edifice. The outergalleries and porticos, more recent than the naves and towers, no doubtbetray Italian influences, although greatly disfigured by pyramidal belfries. Butabove this peristyle the old structure is seen in all its strange originality. Theturrets, all of different design, spring each from a mass of carving resemblingimbricated leaves, the cone of the pine, or budding petals. The cupolas,siirmounted with crosses and small gilded chains, are all remarkable for their size,outlines, carvings, and colours.One seems traced with arabesques of the lozengepattern, another cut diamond fashion, a third shaped like a pine-apple, othersscored with waving or zigzag lines, while above all rises the pyramidal centraltower, springing from an intricate mass of smaller domes, and crowned by a sortof lantern. Then the whole is profusely embellished with porcelain, and paintedin all the colours of the rainbow. At first sight it is impossible to follow themain outlines of the structure in the midst ofall this entanglement of gables andpaintings, resembling some monstrous vegetable growth rather than an edificedesigned by man, " this impossible church making reason mistrust the evidence ofthe eyes." *Yet the gaze is riveted by this Russian pagoda, whose very strangenessseems to fascinate the observer. Near this church, and facing the Saviour'sGate, stands the bronze group erected to Minin and Prince Pojarski, whodelivered Moscow from the Poles in 1613. Here also is the Gostiitiy Dcor, orCentral Market, with its thousands of stalls.Beyond the Kremlin and the Kitai'-Gorod the monuments become rarer as werecede from the centre. But nearly all the scientific establishments are groupedin the "White Town. Here is the University, founded in 1755, with a valuablelibrary and collections, and with a larger number of students than any other inthe state. To it are attached an observatory, a zoological and a botanic garden,and this institution exercised a considerable influence on the philosophic andliterary movement, especially between 1830 and 1848, before it was brought under* Tbeophile Gautier, "Voyage en Russe."