Kremlenagrad Castellum Urbis Moskvae

A revealing look at the heart of an expanding 17th century Russia.

This magnificent view of Moscow’s Kremlin Fortress is based on the work of Hessel Gerritsz, cartographer for the Dutch East India Company and apprentice to Willem Janszoon Blaeu. Originally engraved around 1613, the image captures the political and military heart of the Tsardom of Russia at the end of the Time of Troubles. This is an attractive example of the second edition, published in a Dutch-language edition of the Atlas Maior around 1664. An aerial view offers a readily comprehensible plan of the Kremlin, surrounded by high walls and water on all sides.

Over thirty important structures are carefully illustrated, numbered, and labeled in the accompanying legend. The Ivan the Great Bell Tower (#24) dominates the skyline – no building in Moscow was allowed to be taller until the 19th century. Other key buildings include the Cathedral of the Assumption (#20), the Imperial Treasury (#14), the Armory (#6), and the first Tsar Bell (#25). Further features, unlabeled, offer additional details about life around the Kremlin, including barges plying the river, wooden planks serving as sidewalks, market stalls, and the distinctive outline of St. Basil’s Cathedral in the foreground.

The engaging oblique perspective was a relatively common feature of 17th-century urban portraits, epitomized in Braun & Hogenburg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Cities of the World). The orientation, with southwest at the top, is more unusual, and even rarer still is the incorporation of Cyrillic script in the title cartouche, compass rose, and labels for the Moscow and Neglinnaya Rivers.