Tsar Cannon

The Tsar Cannon is one of the most recognizable works of 16th-century Russian foundry art, installed on Ivanovskaya Square in the Moscow Kremlin next to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. The bronze gun impresses with its size: its bore has a caliber of 890 millimeters, making the Tsar Cannon the largest gun of its caliber ever created in the world. The monument is among the main symbols of the Kremlin and remains an integral part of the collection of historic artillery displayed in the open air on the fortress grounds.

The gun was cast in 1586 at the Moscow Cannon Yard; the master founder was Andrey Chokhov, one of the most renowned foundrymen of his time. The order to create the cannon came from Tsar Feodor Ivanovich, while his brother-in-law Boris Godunov, who effectively ruled the state at the time, is considered to have initiated the project. The work was carried out against the backdrop of the threat of raids by the Crimean Khanate, and the gigantic gun was meant to demonstrate the military might of the Russian state. No reliable evidence of its combat use has survived.

The barrel of the cannon is cast in bronze and weighs 39,312 kilograms, with a length of about five meters and thirty-four centimeters. The diameter of the muzzle opening reaches 1,200 millimeters, and that of the decorative band at the muzzle — 1,340 millimeters. In terms of the ratio of caliber to barrel length, the gun corresponds to the modern definition of a mortar, although mortars of the 16th–17th centuries had noticeably shorter barrels. The barrel bears ornamental bands, eight lugs for ropes used in moving it, and a relief image of Tsar Feodor Ivanovich on horseback, accompanied by an inscription bearing the sovereign's name and the date of casting.

Originally the gun had no carriage — it was intended to be placed on a special mount at a set elevation angle, and the decorative cast-iron cannonballs beside the cannon were cast much later, in 1859; they were never intended for firing. In the 18th century the cannon was moved to the Kremlin grounds and placed in the courtyard of the Arsenal; the fire of 1812, which swept through the city as Napoleon's army entered, destroyed the wooden carriages of nearby guns but did not damage the cannon itself. The present cast-iron carriage with ornamentation was made in 1835 to a design by the architect Alexander Bryullov.

In 1843 the gun was moved closer to the Armoury Chamber building, and in 1960, during the construction of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, it was transported by truck platform to its current location at the foot of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. Today the Tsar Cannon remains the largest-caliber artillery piece in the world and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It forms part of the ensemble of historic artillery on Ivanovskaya Square alongside other 16th–17th-century guns.

The Tsar Cannon long ago ceased to be perceived solely as a weapon of war — for visitors to the Kremlin it has become a symbol of the might and craftsmanship of Russian gunsmiths of the pre-Petrine era. A scaled-down copy of the monument at a 1:2 scale has been installed outside Moscow, confirming the significance of the original as a recognizable symbol of Russian foundry art.