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Kremlin
(The). A gigantic pile of buildings in Moscow of every style of
architecture: Arabesque palaces, Gothic forts, Greek temples, Italian
steeples, Chinese pavilions, and Cyclopean walls. It contains palaces
and cathedrals, museums and barracks, arcades and shops, the Russian
treasury, government offices, the ancient palace of the patriarch, a
throne-room, churches, convents, etc. Built by two Italians, Marco and
Pietro Antonio, for Ivan III. in 1485. There had been previously a
wooden fortress on the spot. (Russian krem, a fortress.)
“Towers of every form, round, square, and with pointed roofs,
belfries, donjons, turrets, spires, sentry-boxes fixed on minarets,
steeples of every height, style, and colour: palaces, domes,
watch-towers, walls embattlemented and pierced with loop-holes,
ramparts, fortifications of every description, chiosks by the side of
cathedrals; monuments of pride and caprice, voluptnousness glory, and
piety.” —De Custine: Russia, chap. xxii.
Every city in Russia has its kremlin (citadel); but that of Moscow
is the most important.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Kremlin from Infoplease:
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