Covering 280 square metres, it has a groined vault with pendentives and no support in the middle (as Paul of Aleppo points out). This ceremonial chamber, which ranked in importance with the Tsar's Chamber of Facets, was used for meetings of church councils and receptions of high-ranking church dignitaries. Here, too, after the abolition of the patriarchate in 1700, chrism, aromatic oil used in certain religious rites, was made once every three years. For this reason the palace became known as the chrism-making palace. A special stove installed here in 1763 with a carved wooden canopy has survived to the present day.
      The facades of the Cross Chamber have windows decorated with surrounds typical of the seventeenth century. Opposite the north door of the Assumption Cathedral are traces of the huge portal at the main entrance into the palace, through which the Tsar, foreign ambassadors and other high-ranking guests came to the Patriarch during festivals and ceremonial receptions.

Museum of Seventeenth-Century Aplied Art and Domestic Life.

      Apart from the four-storey palace, the complex of the patriarch's court includes the Church of the Twelve Apostles. It stands on a high semibasement with two asymmetrical arched passageways which were discovered by Soviet restorers. Its proximity to the Assumption Cathedral explains why the semicircular terminations are all the same size. To stress the resemblance in the decor of these two buildings, the architects placed a band of blind arcading along the south wall facing the cathedral, which is identical in design to the one by Fioravanti. The church's drums with windows have much in common with the Archangel Cathedral opposite.
      The decorative entrance portal over the arched passage-way creates a somewhat strange impression. This is yet further proof of the numerous alterations to which some of the Kremlin architectural monuments were subjected.
      The church's north facade is adjoined by a covered gallery on an arched foundation. It connected the church to the patriarch's living quarters.
      The interior of the church contains an interesting floor of diamond-shaped bricks. Note the iconostasis. It was made of wood in the style of Russian baroque in 1721 for one of the churches of the Ascension Convent in the Kremlin. When the convent was demolished in the 1930s the iconostasis was transferred to the Church of the Twelve Apostles. It has the most exquisite carving, particularly on the arch over the Royal Doors and the lower tier. The columns made of a single piece of wood and carved in the shape of twining bunches of grapes are most impressive. The icons are the work of unknown masters and date back roughly to the same period as the iconostasis itself.

Select Place Tsar Bell Tsar Cannon Patriarchal Cambers and Church of The Twelve Apostles Cross Chamber