Michelle Loubon

Pres­i­dent Dim­it­ry Medvedev and Prime Min­is­ter Vladimir Putin con­duct Rus­sia's busi­ness from the Krem­lin-the seat of gov­ern­ment. Apart from the high-pow­ered meet­ings and de­ci­sions made with­in its walls, the Krem­lin is renowned for its ar­chi­tec­tur­al beau­ty. Book lovers can vis­it the sights of the Krem­lin via The 100 Most Beau­ti­ful Trea­sures of Rus­sia (a cul­tur­al jour­ney through Russ­ian His­to­ry). The Krem­lin, a World Her­itage site, is lo­cat­ed in Rus­sia's cap­i­tal Moscow. A chap­ter ti­tled On­ly God Is Above It con­veys Russ­ian sen­ti­ments on the Krem­lin which boasts a col­lec­tion of palaces, cathe­drals and tow­ers that soar above Moscow and sil­hou­ette the city's sky­line. "Above Moscow there is on­ly one Krem­lin and above the Krem­lin there is on­ly one God," goes an old Russ­ian say­ing. As far as the Russ­ian peo­ple are con­cerned, this still holds true to­day. Sprawl­ing over an area of 70 acres, the en­tire com­plex over­looks the Mosk­va Riv­er, where it dom­i­nates the city's sky­line. The Krem­lin flour­ished from a sys­tem of sim­ple for­ti­fi­ca­tions to a fortress sur­round­ed by 7,330 ft (2,235 me­tres) de­fence wall and fi­nal­ly emerg­ing as the im­pos­ing seat of gov­ern­ment.

Pow­er­ful Russ­ian lead­ers have en­hanced and even re­mod­elled the Krem­lin based on their ideas. An ex­cerpt added: "The first was Prince Yuri Dol­go­rukiy, "The Long­hand" Moscow's founder, to whom a mon­u­ment was erect­ed in Gorky Street. In the mid­dle of the 12th cen­tu­ry, he built a small, for­ti­fied set­tle­ment on top of the hill over­look­ing Mosk­va. In the late 15th cen­tu­ry, Tsar Ivan III ex­tend­ed the set­tle­ment by build­ing a for­ti­fied wall in­cor­po­rat­ing 19 tow­ers." Then, Czar Pe­ter the Great trans­ferred the em­pire's cen­tre of pow­er to St Pe­ters­burg. About 200 years lat­er, it was re­stored by Lenin to Moscow's Krem­lin-a sym­bol­ic act rep­re­sent­ing the re­birth of the cap­i­tal and its re­in­state­ment as the cen­tre of pow­er.

His­toric Alexan­der Gar­den

Trav­ellers en­joy respites-es­pe­cial­ly green spaces in the city. One such place, the His­toric Alexan­der Gar­den, is sit­u­at­ed be­tween the Krem­lin and the Ma­nege. Its ori­gins date back to Ivan IV, who had var­i­ous herbs and re­me­di­al plants grown there for use in the roy­al apothe­cary. An ex­cerpt said: "The term gar­den is a bit mis­lead­ing, be­cause it is a com­bi­na­tion of park, memo­r­i­al gar­den, ceme­tery and sculp­tur­al dis­play." At the be­gin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry, Alexan­der I sat on the throne. Through his de­sire for a stretch of green park­land where he could stroll, he com­mis­sioned the ar­chi­tect Os­ip Bove to re­design the area. Bove di­vert­ed the small Neglin­naya Riv­er, which flowed around the Krem­lin, through an un­der­ground aque­duct.

To his cred­it, he not on­ly cre­at­ed ar­eas of green­ery but al­so an or­nate ru­ined "grot­to" along the wall of the Krem­lin-a se­clud­ed spot much favoured as a ren­dezvous for lovers. A sec­tion known as the Green Sanc­tu­ary, which runs from the His­tor­i­cal Mu­se­um to the Ar­se­nal Tow­er, forms a small oa­sis in the midst of a hec­tic city cen­tre. An ex­cerpt reads: "As in the days of Alexan­der I, it is still a pleas­ant place to rest in the shad­ow of the Krem­lin Wall. Dur­ing the sum­mer chil­dren splash about the foun­tains and in win­ter the gen­tle slopes along­side the Krem­lin are a favourite place for sled­ding." The Gold­en Ring

Apart from Red Square and St Basil's Cathe­dral, The Gold­en Ring show­cas­es art and ar­chi­tec­tur­al land­scapes.

An ex­cerpt said it got the name Gold­en Ring "be­cause the most sig­nif­i­cant art and cul­tur­al cen­tres are arranged in a se­mi cir­cu­lar pat­tern around the north and north­east of Moscow. It en­com­pass­es sev­er­al old Russ­ian towns, which are close­ly con­nect­ed with each oth­er dur­ing the Mid­dle Ages both his­tor­i­cal­ly and cul­tur­al­ly." "This name is an al­lu­sion to the gold­en-shaped domes of the church­es. It is a ref­er­ence to the gen­tle Russ­ian coun­try­side, in which pearls of ur­ban ar­chi­tec­ture nes­tle so har­mo­nious­ly." Among the most vis­it­ed sites are Church of Christ Trans­fig­u­ra­tion and Trin­i­ty Monastery in Sergiyev Posad-Rus­sia's most im­por­tant monastery.

Rich Russ­ian his­to­ry

To com­pound it, bib­lio­philes would be treat­ed to a buf­fet of rich Russ­ian his­to­ry. It ac­com­pa­nies the de­scrip­tions about the land­marks like Kazan Cathe­dral at St Pe­ters­burg and Lake Lago­da at Greater Rus­sia. Its fore­word says: "Rus­sia is un­be­liev­ably vast and rich in im­pres­sive cul­tur­al trea­sures, his­tor­i­cal sites and fas­ci­nat­ing his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ments left be­hind by the Grand Princes of the Kievan Rus in the 9th cen­tu­ry, the Tar­tars in the 13th and 14th cen­turies and the So­vi­ets in the 20th cen­tu­ry." The Tsars are cred­it­ed for the most shin­ing ex­am­ples of Rus­sia's cul­tur­al his­to­ry. It added: "Not on­ly were count­less num­bers of for­ti­fi­ca­tions, palaces and cas­tles, monas­ter­ies and cathe­drals built dur­ing the reign be­tween 1462 and 1917, but en­tire towns and cul­tur­al land­scapes were al­so cre­at­ed. Moscow and St Pe­ters­burg alone boast more than 100 in­di­vid­ual build­ings list­ed among Un­esco's World Her­itage Sites."