The Moscow Kremlin and Red Square: Kremin Guide

Corner Arsenal Tower

      60.2 metres high. This was Sola-rio's last building and it completed the Kremlin's line of defence on the Red Square side. It was originally called the Sobakin Tower after the residence of the Sobakin boyar family nearby. Its present na'me appeared after the erection of the Arsenal in 1737. The most powerful of all the corner towers, the Arsenal Tower has sixteen facets, which give it a special austere expressiveness. The broad base creates an impression of massive strength. The upper section of the tower is encircled with numerous machicolations which form a kind of frieze. The walls are up to four metres thick. The tower contains a well fed by a spring.
      In 1707, fearing an attack on Moscow by King Charles XII of Sweden, Peter the Great ordered loopholes to be made for cannons.
      The tower's interesting decorative upper section of octagons, a truncated tent roof and an octagonal turret topped by a metal flag was added in the seventeenth century. In 1812 the tower was badly damaged when the Arsenal and neighbouring St. Nicholas Tower were blown up.