Tsar-gun and king bell

Let's go close to Ivanovo Square. Here is the famous king gun. It is installed on the boat, and the kernel is lying near it. But, do not think, these cores and from this fauper, the king gun cannot shoot, and never could ever. Tsar Cannon - This is actually not a gun as such, but a bombard. Bombards shot large blocks of stones and were intended to break the walls of fortresses during their siege. The king cannon was also intended for shooting with stones weighing up to 800kg. To charge a similar bombard required for a day, and to shoot special walls to repay a rollback. What to shoot, too, had to be able to. It is not like in a movie when they bring the torch to the fastener opening of the guns - babes, and the kernel flew. No, everything is not so simple. It was necessary to take a cord impregnated with a special combustible makeup, carefully stick it into the stall, set fire and quickly run into the nearest trench. It happened that the bombarded exploded, taking with them to that light not very shumbling guns.

Tsar Cannon Was cast in 1586 by our master Chokhov Andrey. Its length is 5.35m., The diameter of the trunk is 120 cm., Caliber - 890mm., Weight - 39.31t. (2400 pounds). So why the gun called the king - a gun. There are two versions. The first is because of its large sizes, the second - due to the engraved image of the last king from Rurikovichi - Fedor Ivanovich riding a horse. Historians lean more to the second version, because There is a gun with dimensions and a caliber more than our - the Turks cast.
It has long been believed that the king gun never participated in the battles and did not shoot from it, because By the time it was cast, it was almost stopped using bombards. But in 1980, during repair in Serpukhov, they found out that at least once from the king gun shot. Therefore, when they say that in Russia there is a king bell, who never called and the king gun, which never shot, is deeply mistaken. At least one shot, but the king gun produced.

By the way, about the king bell. He is also here on Ivanovo Square near the king cannon. King Bell has a tragic story. I have never been ringing at him, because during a fire, a large piece fell off, weighing 11.5 tons. And even if it is now put in place and consolidate, then the ringing will not be like if he was originally solid.

I must say that this is not the first bell in Russia named King. First The Tsar Bell It was cast back in 1600. Weight was 2450 pounds (about 40 tons). But during the fire in the middle of the 17th century. He fell from the bell tower on which hung and crashed. In 1652, from the broken "king" cast a new bell weighing already 8,000 pounds, i.e. More than 130 tons. The bell was watered on a belftle near the bell tower of Ivan the Great. This bell existed to 1654 g. At Christmas, when they beat all the bells, the king of the bell broke. Looks like someone too hard to diligently called :-). In the next 1655, the king of the bell again overflow, and he added more in weight. The new king weighed about 10,000 pounds (more than 160 tons.). After 3 years (what did all this time do?) It was raised into a specially built ringing at the Cathedral Square. And again, the fate of the tsar-bell decided to fire. In the fire on June 19, 1701, most wooden buildings burned down. The king of the bell fell and crashed.

In 1730, the Empress Anna Ioannova was issued a decree on creating a new bell. 4 years was developed and approved the project of a new king bell. But when it came to casting, a fire began, and during restoration work died the main master - Ivan Motorin. All things on the casting of the bell handed it to his son Mikhail. And finally, in 1735 on November 25, the king of the bell was cast. So much time went to the preparatory work, and the casting itself, the king bell occupied only 1 hour and 12 minutes. After that, chased work began, but in 1737 the fire broke out in the Kremlin again. People, afraid that the bell melts from high temperatures, watered it with water. From a sharp change in temperature, the king bell was cracked and a piece of 11.5 tons fell off from it. It turned out only after the fire. The cracked and broken bell became nobody needed and forgot about it for 100 years. In 1819, after the war with the French during restoration work in the Kremlin, the king of the bell was finally raised and established for the pedestal. The height of the king bell is 6.24m., Diameter - 6.6m., Mass of nearly 200 tons. On the bell, the inscription that he was cast in 1733, although in fact it happened only in 1735. This is such a fate of the biggest bell in the world, all his troubles were connected mainly with fires. Now he stands on the pedestal next to the bell tower of Ivan the Great, to which we just go.