SENATSKAYA TOWER

The Senatskaya (Senate's) Tower belongs to the type of intermediate tower. It fulfilled purely defensive functions — protecting the Kremlin from the side of Red Square. Presumably, it was built in the 1490s. Its forms are closest to those of Nabatnaya, Commendantskaya and Oruzheinaya Towers.

The monolithic slender quadrangle tower finished with machicolations and parapet was crowned with a four-sided hipped roof in the 1680s, ending with a through quadrangle with a small marquee above it and a weather-vane. The tower became one of the essential components of the Red Square ensemble after the construction of the Senate (from which it got its name) in the Kremlin in 1787 by M. Kazakov and building up the Lenin’s Mausoleum.

There are three tiers of vaulted rooms inside the main volume of the tower, which is square in plan.

In 1918 a plaque made by sculptor S. Konenkov "To the fallen in the struggle for peace and brotherhood of peoples" was mounted there. During the building renovation in 1950, the plaque was removed and transferred to the Museum of the Revolution.

The height of the tower is 34.3 metres.