Kremlin embankment – the central embankment in Moscow of the Moskva River near the walls of the Kremlin. It is located between Lenivka street and Vasilyevsky descent of the Red Square. The first stone embankment in Moscow.
Back in the 12th-14th centuries, there was a ford under the walls of the Kremlin in the shallow part of the Moskva River. Two roads crossed near the ford, one of which, running along the river, turned into the modern Kremlin embankment. In the XIV century, the wall of the wooden Kremlin ran along the river and a log bridge was built on the ford. By the end of the 15th century, brick walls and the towers of the Kremlin were constructed closer to the river, the road along the river was built, and the bridge was moved down the river, to a place opposite the modern Red Square.
At the end of the 15th century, the banks of the river were cleared of buildings, and from 1687-1693 the Big Stone Bridge was built. To repel the (failed) Swedish invasion in 1707-1708, earthen ramparts and bastions were built on the river banks. With the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg in 1713, the embankment turned into a garbage dump, which remained there until 1795.
In the 1770s, the embankment was covered with logs as part of the project of V.I. Bazhenov. After the flood of 1786, the idea arose to strengthen the riverbank and line it with stone. In the 1790s, as part of the project of M.F. Kazakov, the Kremlin embankment was again freed from buildings, a passage was arranged along it, the coast was reinforced with stone and trees were planted.
When the bastions of the 18th century were demolished in 1819, the land was used to fill the embankment, on which two rows of trees were planted. In 1872, a grandiose glazed Marine Pavilion was built on the embankment for the Polytechnic Exhibition, which stood for several years, and the grand opening of the exhibition occurred on the embankment. At the end of the 19th century, a horse-drawn tram passed along the embankment, which the Boulevard Ring tram (“Annushka”) replaced at the beginning of the 20th century.
I. A. Frantsuz gave the embankment its modern look with a granite finish of the inclined retaining wall in 1936. The Kremlin embankment runs along the Kremlin wall, past the Vodovzvodnaya, Blagoveshchenskaya, Taynitskaya, 1st and 2nd Bezymyanny, Petrovskaya and Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) towers. Linden trees have been planted between the roadway of the embankment and the Kremlin wall.
The Alexander Garden and the Zotov Chambers also overlook the embankment (No. 1/9, an architectural monument (federal) – a manor ensemble of the 18th-19th century with outbuildings of the 18th – first third of the 19th centuries; the Russian Book Chamber occupied the building).
Near the Alexander Garden, on the embankment, there is an old mouth of the Neglinka River, which has been tunneled.
Nearest metro: Tretyakovskaya, Biblioteka Imeni Lenina.
Attractions nearby: Stalinist skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya embankment, Kosmodamianskaya embankment, Bolshoy Krasnokholmsky Bridge, Kotelnicheskaya embankment, Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge, Maly Ustinsky Bridge, Raushskaya embankment, Moskvoretskaya Embankment, Sofiyskaya Embankment, Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge.
