Beneath Ivanovskaya Square: the Night the Tsar Bell Was Cast

Today, the Tsar Bell stands on an octagonal granite pedestal in Ivanovskaya Square. Its detached fragment is displayed beside it: the ornament continues across its face, while the jagged edge reveals the thickness of the bronze. The casting site lies about twenty metres away. Beneath the present-day paving is the spot where the craftsmen constructed a circular casting pit.

The bell bears the names of Ivan Fyodorovich Motorin and his son Mikhail. Its inscription gives the year as 1733, although archival documents date the casting to the night of 25 November 1735. The museum cites both dates without explaining the discrepancy. Between them lies the whole story: the construction of the enormous mould, the failed first smelting, the death of the senior craftsman and the second attempt, completed on the same site.

The Square Is Excavated

In 1730, Empress Anna Ioannovna ordered the recasting of Alexander Grigoryev's Great Assumption Bell. It weighed eight thousand poods and had been damaged in the Kremlin fire of 1701. The Empress ordered more metal to be added so that the new bell would weigh ten thousand poods. The commission was awarded to Ivan Motorin and Mikhail, who was already working as his father's assistant.

The casting took place in Ivanovskaya Square within the Moscow Kremlin — behind the walls encircled by the ‘Heart of the Capital’ tour route. Neither the square itself nor the Tsar Bell is included in the advertised tour programme. In the early 1730s, a temporary works arose here, dedicated to a single object and a single pour.

Workers dug a pit about ten metres deep and the same distance across. An oak framework held back the earth, while brickwork reinforced the walls. Four smelting furnaces were erected around it, and a wooden shelter was built over the pit to protect it from the weather. According to N. I. Olovyanishnikov, around one hundred masons, stove-builders, blacksmiths, carpenters and other craftsmen took part in the preparations.

The bell did not yet exist, but its dimensions already dictated the layout of the site. In the pit, the craftsmen assembled the core and the mould's outer casing; the space between them was to be filled with bronze. Channels ran from the furnaces to the mould, and reserve pits for the molten metal were prepared nearby. The brick, timber and compacted earth had to withstand the pressure of metal flowing in from all four furnaces at once.

At the same time, the exterior decoration was being created. The future body of the bell was adorned with figures of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Empress Anna Ioannovna, images of saints, plant ornament and large inscriptions. The catalogue of the Moscow Kremlin Museums names Ivan and Mikhail Motorin as the master craftsmen, with Gavrila Lukyanov Smirny and Andrei Fyodorov Molyarov among the founders. The museum gives the name of the sculptor, Fyodor Medvedev, with a question mark.

Work in the Kremlin began in January 1733 and continued until the autumn of 1734. The entire structure was built for the sake of the few hours during which the molten metal would flow through the channels. If the pour were interrupted, the partly solidified metal would make it impossible to resume casting from the same point.

The First Attempt

On 26 November 1734, after a prayer service, the workers fired the furnaces. By nightfall, the copper had melted; tin and fresh copper were added to the furnaces. During the night of 28–29 November, the molten metal escaped beneath the hearths of two furnaces at first, and then beneath the others. Motorin diverted the metal into the reserve pits. With the permission of Count Saltykov, the commander-in-chief of Moscow, old bells, copper and tin were added to the furnaces in an effort to make up the loss.

Then the wooden structure above the mould caught fire. The workers extinguished the flames, but it was no longer possible to cast the bell. Two years of preparation had failed to produce the finished work. The craftsmen now had to restore the damaged site and repeat the smelting.

Ivan Motorin began preparing for a second casting, but did not live to see it: the master died on 19 August 1735. According to the Orthodox Encyclopedia, Mikhail was entrusted with completing the work. The son had been involved in the commission from the outset and had assisted his father. He was now responsible for the site and the second smelting.

Prince Ivan Baryatinsky was appointed to supervise the casting. By November, the craftsmen had once again prepared the mould and furnaces. The site was ready once more for the brief operation for which it had been dug up and built over.

A Night Beneath the Wooden Roof

The second smelting was scheduled for 23 November 1735. Following the previous year's fire, the police sent four hundred men equipped with fire hoses. After the liturgy in the Assumption Cathedral, Archbishop Veniamin of Kolomna led a procession around the buildings, conducted a prayer service and lit the first furnace. The founders then took charge of the site, tending the furnaces and preparing the outlets.

During the night of 25 November, the craftsmen opened the outlets. Molten bronze flowed through the channels towards the mould concealed in the ground. The future bell could not be seen from above: beneath their feet lay the casing, the core and the empty space between them. The metal filled the mould in one hour and twelve minutes.

Citing a register of the Artillery and Fortification Office and an archival file, Olovyanishnikov wrote that the second casting was completed successfully. The furnaces went out, the channels emptied, and the wooden roof remained above the pit. The principal result lay beneath the square and had to cool slowly.

When the bell was released from the mould, the names of both Motorins became visible beneath the image of Anna Ioannovna. The casting required about 202 tonnes of bronze. The metal preserved the joint signature of father and son, although Ivan had not lived to see the successful attempt.

The craftsmen continued chasing the unfinished decorations. The bell remained in the pit on an iron grid supported by twelve oak piles. A wooden shed stood above ground; beneath it, workers finished the surface of the enormous body.

Fire Above the Pit

On 29 May 1737, the Trinity Fire swept through the Kremlin buildings. The wooden shelter on Ivanovskaya Square also caught fire, and burning timbers fell into the pit. Olovyanishnikov and the Orthodox Encyclopedia relate the traditional account of what followed: people poured water over the heated bell, the metal cracked from the sudden cooling, and a large piece broke away from its rim.

The damage was discovered when the pit was cleared. Work on the decorations ceased, and the bell was left where it had been cast. The successful night of 1735 had produced an enormous bronze body; after the fire, the casting pit became its place of storage.

By the end of the eighteenth century, visitors were already descending to see the bell. The Kremlin bell-ringers led them down a specially built staircase. There, they saw the immense bronze body below the level of the square, within the former workshop, rather than as a monument on a pedestal. This continued for ninety-nine years after the fire.

In 1836, Auguste de Montferrand oversaw the raising of the Tsar Bell. The operation took 42 minutes and 33 seconds and involved five hundred enlisted men of the Borodino Jaeger Regiment. The bell was moved onto a purpose-built pedestal. The museum catalogue dates the crowning feature to 1835 and the installation to 1836. The bronze body was placed above the paving, about twenty metres from the casting site.

Ivanovskaya Square today unites these two settings without any visible boundary. On the surface stands the bell with its breach and detached fragment; beneath the stone lies the site of the ten-metre pit. The finished work is displayed on its pedestal, only a few dozen paces from the vanished workshop.

The Motorins' names can be read beneath the figure of the Empress. According to archival records, Ivan oversaw the construction of the works and the first attempt, while Mikhail completed the second. The bell was made below ground level, where it was later damaged by fire, and it remained in the pit for almost a century. In 1836, the bronze body was moved just a few dozen paces. The cast object was brought into view, while the site of both attempts remained beneath the paving.

Sources

1. Moscow Kremlin Museums. Kremlin Monuments: Ten Facts About the Tsar Bell
2. Moscow Kremlin Museums. Collections Online: The Tsar Bell
3. Orthodox Encyclopedia. Bell
4. N. I. Olovyanishnikov. The History of Bells and the Art of Bell Founding