Tsar Bell

At the foot of the Ivan the Great Bell-Tower,on a granite base (designed by the Neo - classical French architect Auguste- Richard Montferrand), is the world's largest bell, the 210 ton Tsar Bell.It was cast in the Kremlin by the foundry man Ivan Motorin and his sonMikhail in 1733-35. Russian masters Vasily Kobelev, Piotr Kokhtev, PiotrSerebriakov and others skillfully adorned the surface of the bell withrelief representations of the second Romanov tsar Alexei Mikhailovich andEmpress Anna Ioannovna, five icons and two inscriptions. A fire that sweptMoscow in 1737 also engulfed the Kremlin, and when water was poured onthe hot bell it cracked and an 11.5 ton piece broke off. The bell stands6.14 m (20 ft) high and has a diameter at the base of 6.60 m (22 ft). Itconsists of just under 80 per cent copper.