Senatskaya Tower

Right behind the Spasskaya Tower and Lenin Mausoleum stands the Senatskaya Tower. It was built in 1491 by the architect Pietro Antonio Solari. The Senatskaya Tower served purely defensive function; it defended the Kremlin from the side of the Red Square. For a long time it remained nameless. The current name was given to the tower after the Senate building, whose round dome is well seen from the Red Square (now the residence of the President of Russia), had been erected on the territory of the Kremlin in 1787. Inside the tower there are three tiers of vaulted rooms. Windowless square tower was topped with the stone hipped roof crowned with the gilded weathercock in 1860.