Викторина на английском языке по теме «Москва», для учащихся 8-9 классов

Kremlin Bells

The ringing of bells accompanied the whole life of Moscow in ancient days. Bells rang for invasions and during the frequent fires, in cases of popular up­risings, and to announce victories or holiday celebrations.

Even today bells ring from the Kremlin's Spassky Tower.

At present there are 29 ancient bells in the Moscow Kremlin. Some of them hang in the Belfry of "Ivan the Great" and in its surrounding buildings.

The biggest bell weighing 65 tons 320 kg can be seen in the embrasure of the "Filaret building" which rises next to the Belfry under a golden dome. The bell is called the Assumption Day Bell. It was cast by Yakov Zavyalov with metal taken from an even older bell which used to hang in the building and was broken when the Bell Tower blew up in 1812.

The most famous of all bells, the Tsar Bell, stands on the ground at the foot of the Belfry of "Ivan the Great", and is surrounded by people from morning till night. Its history, in brief outline, is the following. In 1730 Empress Anna Ivanovna ordered that a bell weighing 9,000 poods (126 tons) should be cast. Germain, the casting master of the French king, thought it was a joke. Ivan Motorin, the most famous casting master in Moscow in those days, dec­lared that it was possible.

A special casting pit was dug in Ivanovskaya Square in the Kremlin. The pit was 10 metres deep. Much copper, tin and sulphur, as well as 72 kg of gold and more than 500 kg of silver were used.

Ivan Motorin failed to finish the casting, and it was completed by his son Mikhail. Apart from all kinds of ornaments found on the bell, there is the follo­wing inscription: "This bell was cast by Russian craftsman Ivan Motorin, the son of Fyodor Motorin, and his son Mikhail Motorin."

The casting was successful and finally the bell stood ready for lifting on an iron grating. During a very bad fire that raged in the Kremlin on May 29, 1737, the wooden building above the pit caught fire. People ran to extinguish the fla­mes and poured water onto the burning log that had fallen into the pit. Due to uneven and fast cooling, the metal cracked and a fragment weighing 11.5 tons fell out.

The bell remained in the pit for a hundred years. In the 19th century it was hoisted onto a white stone pedestal for public observation.

Here are a few figures about the dimensions and weight of the giant. It is 6 metres 14 cm tall, has a diameter of 6 metres 60 cm, and weighs 202 tons 924 kg. Hence its name -the Tsar Bell.