KOLYMAZHNIYE (GERBOVIYE) GATES

During the construction of the stone palace for Grand Prince Ivan III, architect Aleviz Fryazin built a brick wall from the palace to the Borovitskaya Tower, which additionally protected the princely court from the embankment side. A similar wall and gate separated the Royal Forecourt from the west. The ‘Kremlenagrad’ plan from the early 1600s shows the west wall with two archways – a large one for riding and a smaller one for walking. The gate tower was probably built in the 1630s, at the same time as the Terem Palace was being built. The gates were called Kolymazhniye after the Kolymazhnaya (Coach) Chamber, which was a part of the Stables Office, situated to the north of the Borovitskiye Gates.

The tiled marquee had two levels of skylights with intricate ornamental framing. Some of the tiles depict the coat of arms of the state, which is why the gate was called Armorial at the end of the 18th century.

In 1801, according to the orders of the Head of the Court Department P.S. Valuev, reconstruction work began in the Kremlin territory with the aim of demolishing old, dilapidated buildings, that had lost their functional necessity. In the process, this original monument of the 17th-century Russian architecture was dismantled.