Tourist attractionMoscow · RU
Tsar Cannon
On Ivanovskaya Square inside the Moscow Kremlin, between the towering bell spire of Ivan the Great and the domed Twelve Apostles' Church, sits one of Russia's most photographed symbols: the Tsar Cannon. Cast in bronze in 1586 by the master foundryman Andrei Chokhov, this colossal bombard boasts a calibre of 890 mm — so vast that it is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest cannon by barrel diameter. Its massive bronze tube, adorned with ornamental belts, inscriptions and a relief equestrian portrait of Tsar Feodor Ioannovich who commissioned it, rests on an ornate cast-iron carriage flanked by four enormous decorative cannonballs. The Tsar Cannon has never been fired in battle. Intended to guard Moscow's approaches from Crimean Tatar raids, it became instead a monument to the ambition and artistry of sixteenth-century Russian foundry craft — a spectacular feat of engineering whose sheer presence has drawn visitors for centuries. Today it is an open-air exhibit you can walk right up to, making it one of the most approachable and memorable sights within the Kremlin walls.