Palace of Facets

The Palace of Facets is a ceremonial building in the Moscow Kremlin, one of the oldest surviving civil structures in the capital. It was built in 1487–1491 on the orders of Ivan III by the Italian architects Marco Ruffo and Pietro Antonio Solari. The palace served as a hall for state receptions, feasts, and ceremonies connected with the coronation of Russian sovereigns, and it takes its name from the faceted white-stone rustication of its main facade, styled after Italian Renaissance palaces.

The building was erected on the site of the former hall ("gridnitsa") of the grand princely palace; the work was begun by the architect Marco Ruffo and completed by Pietro Antonio Solari in 1491. The eastern facade, facing Cathedral Square, was finished with diamond-pointed rustication, while the side and rear facades remained brick-red, and the tall four-pitched roof was gilded. Pointed windows with Gothic surrounds combined with the Russian tradition of a tall roof and an open porch. At the time of its construction, the palace's central hall was the largest in Moscow; it hosted sessions of the Boyar Duma and gatherings of the Zemsky Sobor, including the last such assembly in 1653, after which Ukraine joined the Russian state.

The hall of the palace was used to celebrate the country's most important military and diplomatic achievements — the conquest of Kazan, the victory at Poltava, the conclusion of the Peace of Nystad; it was also here, in 1682, that the famous debate between the Old Believers, led by Nikita Pustosvyat, and representatives of the official church took place, later depicted in a painting by Vasily Perov. A major reconstruction of the decor and windows was carried out in 1684 under the architect Osip Startsev: the Gothic openings were widened, the roof was replaced with iron sheeting, and the entrance was decorated with a carved portal bearing a double-headed eagle.

The fire of 1737 destroyed the palace's roof and damaged the white-stone carving, and during the construction of the Grand Kremlin Palace in 1838–1849 the building was incorporated into the new palace complex, connected to the Holy Vestibule and the Vladimir Hall. The last coronation banquet in history was held here in 1896 in honor of Nicholas II. By that time the palace had already been restored several times: extensive work in 1882 brought the interior close to its original appearance, restoring the fresco paintings with the help of a team of icon painters from Palekh.

The upper floor houses a square throne hall of almost five hundred square meters, its vault supported by a single central pillar, while the lower tier is occupied by a semi-basement. The Red Porch, facing Cathedral Square and dismantled in 1934 to make way for a Soviet-era staff canteen, was recreated in the 1990s in its mid-18th-century appearance. In 2011–2012, a large-scale restoration of the roof, interiors, and utility systems was carried out, and the accompanying excavations yielded about three thousand archaeological finds.

Today the Palace of Facets is part of the government residence — the Grand Kremlin Palace — and is used for official meetings of heads of state and ceremonies of national significance, remaining one of the main symbols of continuity in Russian statehood.