BOROVITSKAYA TOWER

The Borovitskaya (literally 'hill') Tower is located on the southwestern slope of Borovitsky Hill. Its name comes from the ancient coniferous forest that once covered this part of the hill. The tower was built in 1490 by Pietro Antonio Solari and used to be a passage to the housekeeping part of the royal estate separated from its formal part with a stone wall erected in 1499.

Interestingly, by the decree of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich in 1658, the Borovitskaya Tower was renamed Predtechenskaya after the nearby Church of St John the Precursor by the Coniferous Forest. However, the old name of the tower still survived to this day.

Originally the tower represented a powerful quadrangle covered with a wooden hipped roof. In the 1680s, three four-sided blocks decreasing upwards were erected, as well as an open octagon and a stone roof, which gave the tower a pyramidal and tier form. At the same time, a diverted fighting platform, located to the side of the construction, was built. The entrance gates with iron bars and lifting bridge over the Neglinnaya River were built in it. In the 18th century, when the tower was reconstructed, it was decorated with pseudo-Gothic details. In 1812, when the Vodovoznaya Tower next to it was blown up, the top of the hipped roof of the Borovitskaya Tower fell. In 1816-1819 the tower was repaired under the supervision of O. I. Bove.

In 1848 the altar of the Church of St John the Precursor by the Coniferous Forest was relocated into the Borovitskaya Tower and the pseudo-Gothic décor was removed.

The main quadrangle of the building is divided into two tiers covered by cylindrical vaults. The octagon is open into the depth of the hipped roof with dormers, while all tiers are interconnected by the system of the stairs, located in the thickness of the walls. The vertical grooves for the herse remained in the gateway of the diverted fighting platform.

The height of the tower until the star is 50.7 metres, with the star - 54.05 metres.