Alarm Tower

This was one of the last towers to be built. It got its name from the bell hangingin it which used to summon the townfolk in times of danger. In 1680, itwas topped by a cube adorned with slender semicolumns, a four-faceted tentroof with double listening apertures and a watch tower with a bell. In1771, the tolling of the bell marked the outbreak of a popular uprisingagainst the boyars and high clergy in Moscow. After cruelly suppressingthe uprising, Empress Catherine the Great ordered the bell's tongue tobe removed, which was common practice at that time in Russia. For morethan thirty years, the bell hung "tongueless". In 1803, the bellwas taken down and transferred to the Arsenaland subsequently, in 1821, to the Armourywhere it remains to this day.

The height of the tower is 38 m (125 ft).