The Nicholas gate, although not so privileged as the Spass Vorota, has also a wonder-working picture ; that of St. Nicholas, over its entrance. It was near the entrance of this gate that Napoleon's powder waggons exploded and destroyed a large part of the arsenal and other buildings. The gate escaped with a rent which spHt the tower in the middle, as far as the frame of the picture, which stopped its farther progress. Not even the glass of the picture, or that of the lamp suspended before it, was injured. So says the inscription on the gate, and the remarkable rent is eternahzcd by a stone differing from the rest in colour.
All the gates of the Kremlin are connected by a strong and lofty wall, surrounding it in the form of a vast triangle with many towers. Within this wall are contained all the most interesting and historically important buildings of Moscow ; the holiest churches with the tombs of the ancient czars, patriarchs, and metropolitans ; the remains of the ancient palace of the czars, the new ones of the present emperor, celebrated convents, the arsenal, senate house, &c. &c., and architectural memorials of every period of Russian history, for every Russian monarch, from the remotest jieriod down to the present ruler, have held it their duty to adorn the Kremlin with some monument.
The two most important remains of the old palaces of the czars are the Terema and the Granovitaya Palata, the former containing the Gyranaceum, the latter the coronation hall of the czars. The real corps de logis, the main body of the palace, w^as so much injured by the French, that no restoration was possible. In its place a new palace was erected, called the Bolshoi Dvorez (great palace), or, from its builder, the Alexanderski Dvorez. The ruins of both the others are by the side of it, and connected with it by stairs and galleries. They were " na vossdukh,'" as our guide told us, " so desolated by the French, that door and window stood open to ^vind and tempest." The coronation hall was restored long ago, and the Emperor Nicholas has repaired the Terema.
Terema, or Terem, is the name given in every Russian peasant's house to the upper part of the building, round which, sheltered by the projecting roof, a balcony runs, and where the daughters and children of the house are lodged. It may be easily imagined that the Terema plays no insignificant part in the love songs of the people ; tins part of the old palace of the czars is called pre-eminently the Terema. The architecture is the most peculiar I ever remember to have seen : it consists of four stories, of which the lowest is the largest, gradually diminishing, till the upper floor is so small as only to contain one room ; the whole, therefore, nearly resembling the lessening tubes of a telescope when drawn out. On the space thus left by the retreat of the upper story from the ceiling of the under, a balcony is formed, with steps both within and without ascending from one terrace to the other. Every terrace affords a most interesting view of the chaos of old and new buildings below, the Terema havinn nestled itself in the heart of the Kremlin. In the lowest floor, the throne and audience chambers of the old czars are sliown ; the upper one was the dwelling of the czarownas (princesses) and the children. All these rooms have Ik'ou repaired in the old Russian taste. The stoves are very pocidiar in form, and all the )lates of which they are composed onianuMitcd witli pretty paintings. The walls are covered with a kind of painting that reminds us
of the gorgeous glories of the Alhambra. They display an extraordinary confusion of foliage, vine trellices, singularly imagined flowers, woven in arabesques, and painted with the gayest colours. On the painted branches are perched birds, yellow, blue, gold, and silver ; squirrels, mice, and other small animals ; on every bough hangs a load of costly fruit, and all sorts of knots and figures in gold are intertwined among them. Here and there are portraits of the czars, and other faces, armorial bearings, houses in miniatm-e, and what not. Originals for these fancies were found in old churches, but of course the work of the modern artists is much more elegant, richer, and better executed. From one of the terraces of the Terema, we enter the little church " Spassa solotoyu rishotkoyu" (the Redeemer behind the Golden Balustrade), which was also plundered by the F^rench, but re-endowed most magnificently with gold and silver vessels, by the Emperors Alexander and Nicholas. On the roof are twelve gilded cupolas, the size of chimneys, the sight of which may, in the days of childhood, have delighted many a future czar.