Palace of Facets

The Palace of the Facets ( _ru. Грановитая Палата) is a diminutive palace in the Moscow Kremlin which contains what used to be the main banquet reception hall of the Muscovite Tsars.

Named after its distinctive stonework facade, the Palace of Facets is all that is left of a larger royal palace, commissioned by Ivan III in 1485 and finished six years later. The Palace of the Facets is the work of two Italian Renaissance architects, Marco Ruffo and Pietro Solario. The first floor of the Palace of the Facets consists of the main hall and adjoining sacred vestibule. Both are decorated with rich frescoes and gilded carvings. The splendid vaulted main hall has an area of about 500 m² (5,380 ft²). It was the throne room and banqueting hall of the 16th-century and 17th-century tsars and is now used for holding receptions ( [http://www.kremlin2000.ru/pict/36-37.jpgpicture] ).

On the palace's southern facade is the Red Porch. The tsars passed down this staircase on their way to the Cathedral of the Dormition for their coronations. The last such procession was at the coronation of Nicholas II in 1896. In the Streltsy Rebellion in 1682 several of Peter the Great's relatives were hurled down the Fair Staircase onto the pikes of the Streltsy guard. Demolished by Stalin in the 1930s, the staircase was rebuilt in 1994 at great expense.

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