KUTAFIA TOWER
Early 16th century Architect Alevis Fryazin the Elder
13.5 metres high. A stone bridge, built on the site of an older one erected in 1516, links Trinity Tower with Kutafia Tower which served as a bridgehead. Like many other Kremlin towers it has had several other names (Boris and Gleb, Vladimir, Patriarchal Gates). Originally the tower was surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge. The notches for the drawbridge chains can still be seen at the side. In 1685 the bridge received an openwork crown. This is the only tower in the Moscow Kremlin without the traditional tent roof.
Here you can see the exuberant decor of that period: broken pediments in the form of a cock's comb, pinnacles and balusters. Two contrasting colours so typical of seventeenth-century architecture enhanced the tower's festive appearance. During restoration work in the 1870s the old side entrances were found and the tower's original colouring restored.
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