Cathedral Square, Moscow

Cathedral Square or Sobornaya Square (Russian: Соборная площадь, or Sobornaya ploshchad) is the central square of the Moscow Kremlin where all of its streets used to converge in the 15th century.[1]

Cathedral Square in Moscow, a veduta by Quarenghi, 1797.

The square owes its name to the three cathedrals facing it – Cathedral of the Dormition, Cathedral of the Archangel, and Cathedral of the Annunciation. Apart from these, the Palace of Facets, the Church of the Deposition of the Robe and the Church of the Twelve Apostles are placed there. The tallest structure on the square (and formerly in all of Russia) is Ivan the Great Bell Tower,[2] which also separates Sobornaya Square from Ivanovskaya Square.

Cathedral Square was the site of the coronation and funeral processions of all the Russian tsars, patriarchs, and Grand Dukes of Moscow. It is now used in the inauguration ceremony of the President of Russia.[3]

Archaeological excavations

The Moscow Kremlin, where the square is located, has not been well studied by archaeologists because the state authorities are located there.[4] Nevertheless, archaeologists have managed to discover the first settlements on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin belonging to the Bronze Age (II millennium BC). A Finno-Ugric settlement of the early Iron Age (second half of the first millennium B.C.) was found near the modern Archangel Cathedral. At that time the population occupied the area of the modern Sobornaya Square.[4]

References
  1. "History of Moscow". Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  2. "Ivan the Great Bell Tower". Archived from the original on 2012-01-20. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  3. "Medvedev sworn in as Russian president". China Daily. Xinhua. 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  4. Колесниченко, Александр (2015-11-25). "Раскопки в Кремле. Какие сюрпризы ждут исследователей в сердце Москвы?". aif.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-09-30.

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