History
In the Middle Ages, the spot was occupied by granaries. After they burnt down in the last years of the 17th century, Peter the Great engaged a team of Russian and German architects to construct the Kremlin Arsenal, designed to be one the largest buildings in Moscow at the time. Construction started in 1702, but was interrupted due to lack of funds during the Great Northern War with Sweden, and was only completed in 1736, under supervision of Field-Marshal Burkhard Christoph von Münnich. The new building was gutted by a fire in 1737, and only restored from 1786-1796.
During Napoleon's invasion of Russia, the retreating French soldiers had the central part of the building blown up. It was restored between 1816 and 1828 to a Neoclassical design in order to house a museum dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon.
Accordingly, some 875 cannons captured from the retreating Grand Army were put on display along the south walls of the Arsenal. Of these, 365 are French, 189 are Austrian, 123 are Prussian, 70 are Italian, 40 are Neapolitan, 34 are Bavarian, and 22 are Dutch. Since 1960, Russian carriage-mounted cannons of the 16th and 17th centuries have been displayed along the south wall of the building.
Read more about this topic: Kremlin Arsenal
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