After you visit the Diamond Fund, you'll have the impression that you'll never forget the masterpieces of best juwellers of the world and Russia, rare samples of precious stones and nuggets of noble metals. In the museum there is the most precious krown in the world, decorated with about 5000 diamonds and 75 pearls, the crown of Ekaterina II. The most well-known precious stones of the world can be found here - diamond "Shah" - one of the most ancient indian diamonds with middle-age inscriptions on it, and incomparable to anything Columbian emerald.

The Armoury Chamber, a treasure-house, is a part of the Grand Kremlin Palace’s complex. It is situated in the building constructed in 1851 by architect Konstantin Ton. The museum collections were based on the precious items that had been preserved for centuries in the tsars’ treasury and the Patriarch’s vestry. Some of the exhibits were made in the Kremlin’s workshops, others were accepted as ambassadorial gifts. The museum was named after one of the oldest Kremlin’s treasury stores.
The Armoury Chamber preserves ancient state regalia, ceremonial tsar’s vestments and coronation dress, vestments of the Russian Orthodox Church’es hierarchs, the largest collection of gold and silverware by Russian craftsmen, West European artistic silver, ceremonial weapons and arms, carriages, horse ceremonial harness.
The State Armoury presents more than four thousands items of applied art of Russia, European and Eastern countries of IV-early XX centuries. The highest artistic level and particular historical and cultural value of the exhibits have made the State Armoury of the Moscow Kremlin a world-wide known museum.

The Patriarch’s Palace was built in 1653-1655 by Russian craftsmen for Patriarch Nikon. On the palace’s ground floor there were household services, the second floor housed living quarters of the Patriarch. The ceremonial chambers were located on the first floor. The main ceremonial room was the Cross (or Chrism) Chamber where the meetings of the Holy Council and tsar’s and ambassadorial feasts were held. In XVIII-XIX centuries, Moscow Synod Service was situated in the Patriarch’s Chambers.

Nowadays, it is an exposition presenting specific features of the Russian culture XVII century. The precious housewares, jewelry, tsars’ hunting equipment, ancient furniture and items of ecclesiastical embroidery presented here were created by masters of Russia, European and Eastern countries. The majority of items were made in national traditions by Russian masters of Moscow Kremlin Workshops and masters from Jaroslavl, Kostroma and other towns.
They represent one of the most important periods of the Russian history that was marked with changes in the outlook and way of living of the Russian people before Peter the Great’s reforms.
The gilded iconostasis of the XVII-XVIII centuries made of carved wood in the home church of Twelve Apostles is of particular interest. It is a wonderful example of carving.
A collection of icons showing the development of icon-painting in the XVII century is placed in the church. The works of the leading tsar’s isografs (icon-painters) Simon Ushakov and Feodor Zubov present the new tendencies in painting .
The museum’s exposition shows the new artistic taste of the Russian society in the XVII century and the singularity of the spiritual life of Rus on the edge of the modern history.

For more than one and a half century the Annunciation Cathedral had been the Moscow Great Princes’ and Tsars’ home church. It was a part of the Great Princes’ palace connected with its ceremonial and living quarters by a stair-passage. The usual name of the Annunciation Cathedral in documents and papers of XVI-XVII centuries was “on the Prince’s court”, “in the Anteroom”, i.e. at the entrance to the palace.
The cathedral was set for royal family ceremonies. As a rule, the Protopope of the Annunciation Cathedral was the the Great Prince’s confessor and the custodian of the Prince’s stamp. The home church was also a traditional storage of the Great Princes’ and Tsars’ treasury. From the middle of the XVI century, the northern Porch and the north-western gallery were used for festive entrances to the palace while ceremonial settings for reigning, receiving of foreign embassies, processions on the Holy Day of Entrance to Jerusalem, on Holy Friday the day before Easter etc.
Since 1993, every year on April, 7 (March, 25, according to the old calendar), at the Holy Day of Annunciation to Virgin Mary Patriarch of Moscow and Whole Russia Alexiy II holds church service at the Annunciation Cathedral.

The Ivan the Great Bell-Tower complex had been formed for two centuries. The Bell-Tower was erected in 1505-1508 by Italian architect Bon Friazin. A century later another one arcade for bells was added to the Bell-Tower so that its total height achieved 81 m. The memorial inscription under the dome includes this information, the year of 1600 and the names of Tsar Boris Godunov and his son Fyodor.
In 1532-1552, a new church was built near the Bell-Tower on the project of Italian architect Petrok Maliy. In late XVII century it was dismantled and transformed into a belfry named Uspenskaya (Assumption). In 1624, Bazhen Ogurtsov (Cucumber) added to the Uspenskaya another one belfry with a marquee-top - the Filaret’s Annex.
In 1812, while retreating from Moscow, the Napoleon’s Army blew up the Ivan the Great Bell-Tower ensemble. However, the pillar of the bell-tower survived. The Belfry and the Filaret’s Annex were completely destroyed and restored in original dimensions in 1814-1815. At present, 24 bells of XVI-XVII centuries are located on the bell-tower and belfry.
The ground floor of the Assumption Belfry houses an exhibition hall of Moscow Kremlin Museums. Artworks both from the Kremlin’s collections and those of other Russian and foreign museums are exhibited in the hall.

For six centuries the Assumption Cathedral had been the state and cultural center of Russia: Great Princes were set for reigning and local princes swore fealty, inaugurations of Tsars and coronations of Emperors took place here. Bishops, Metropolitans and Patriarchs were inaugurated, statements and ceremonial documents were publicly read, church services before military campaigns and in case of a victory were held at the Assumption Cathedral.
The first stone cathedral’s foundation was laid in 1326 by the first Moscow Metropolitan Peter and Prince Ivan Kalita (Money-bag). In late XV century, Great Prince Ivan III who had consolidated all Russian princedoms under the power of Moscow, began the construction of the new residence from rebuilding of the Assumption Cathedral. It was erected by a specially invited Italian architect in 1479.
Because of ceremonial functions, particular attention was paid to the cathedral’s interior. Its wall-paintings, icons and various secular utensils are artworks of international artistic value.
The murals of 1642-1943 and the grand iconostasis of 1653 create the present-day look of the cathedral. In front of the iconostasis you can see Tsar’s, Tsarina’s and Patriarch’s praying-seats. The Tsar’s one is of special interest. At the south-western corner higher its bronze marquee.
In XIV-XVII centuries, the Assumption Cathedral was the burial place of the Russian Orthodox Church heads - Metropolitans and Patriarchs.
After the Revolution of 1917, the Assumption Cathedral became a museum. Making the exposition, the staff tried to preserve the interior. Thanks to permanent restoration works practically all the icons and murals were open up. Since 1990, church services have been recommenced.

The history of the Archangel’s Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin dates back to the XIV century: in 1333, the first Great Moscow Prince Ivan Kalita (Money-bag) ordered to lay the foundation of a white-stone church devoted to St. Archangel Michael respected in Rus as a guardian of soldiers and Russian princes in their feats of arms. In 1505-1508, a new majestic cathedral was erected on the place of the old church. Venetian architect Aleviz Novy was especially invited by Great Prince to supervise the construction project.
Up to the XVIII century, the Archangel’s Cathedral had been a burial place of Moscow Princes and Tsars. The white-stone gravestones of Princes adorned with praying words and epitafhs stand under the cathedral’s vaults in strict order. The tombs of the Ryurikovich dynasty are located endlong the cathedral’s walls. The tombs of the Romanov dynasty are situated near the south-western and north-western pillars. The first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible and two his sons are buried in a special tsar’s shrine set in the altar part of the cathedral.
Among the most respected reliquaries of the Archangel’s Cathedral are the one with the relics of St. Prince Michael Chernigovcky murdered in the Golden Horde in 1254 and the one with the relics of Tsarevich Dmitry, the younger son of Ivan the Terrible. The remnants of Saints had never been covered with sod but placed in special reliquaries set up for belivers’ worship. The reliquary of Tsarevich Dmitry is placed at the south-western pillar under the stone carved marquee.
The cathedral was first adorned with wall-painting in the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The ancient murals have not survived except small fragments on pillars and several compositions of the altar and the tsars’ shrine. In 1652-1666, the cathedral was painted anew by a big team of Russian masters. The works were supervised by famous tsar’s isograf (icon-painter) Simon Ushakov. The program of the new wall-painting had the same idea of the one of Ivan the Terrible’s times. One of the main themes was the glorification of the Great Princes’ and Tsars’ power through the images of Saint Russian Princes. Among the Saints, painted on the cathedral’s pillars, there are Princess Olga, Great Prince Vladimir who had set up the Orthodoxy in Ancient Rus in 988, his martyred sons Boris and Gleb, Princes Alexander Bogolyubsky, Alexander Nevsky, Daniyl Moskovsky and others. The particular point of the cathedral’s wall-painting is the circle of tombstone portraits: the ideational portraits of Princes from the Ryurikovich dynasty are painted over their tombs in the lower tier. The “portrait” gallery of historical persons is opened with the image of Moscow Great Prince Ivan Kalita and ended with the image of George Vasilyevich, the younger brother of Ivan the Terrible.
The cathedral’s iconostasis crowned with the scene of Crucifixion was created in the reign of Tsar Feodor Alekseevich Romanov in 1679-1681.
All the icons were painted by masters of the Tsar’s Armoury Chamber. Only several ancient icons in the lower local row there have been saved. To the right of the King’s Gate there is the cathedral’s icon “Archangel Michael in gests”. According to a legend, the icon was painted on the order of nun Eudokia, the widow of Great Prince Dmitry Donskoi, to the memory of Great Prince and his victory in the Battle on the Kulikovo.