“TSAR’S PLACE”

According to the idea of the founders of the Historical Museum, its exposition was supposed to provide copies of unique monuments preserved in the territory of the Russian Empire, corresponding to a particular epoch of national history.
For the central of three rooms dedicated to the reign of Ivan IV, a copy of the “Tsar's Place” from the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin was made. It was a reconstruction of a unique monument in its original form - with the restored details of the decor, gilding and polychrome painting, lost by the original.
The original Tsar's prayer place, also called the Monomakh throne, was created for the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin in 1551, shortly after the wedding of Ivan IV on tsardom (1547). In reliefs of the throne the central political doctrine of that time about the continuity of God-established authority and the title of Moscow rulers from the Roman and Byzantine emperors through the Kiev and Vladimir princes was reflected.
The upper part of the prayer place is an intricate tented roof on four figured columns. Four fantastic predatory animals are the base of the Monomakh throne.
Twelve bas-reliefs on three side walls that form the basis of the throne illustrate the legend of the imperial regalia from the Byzantine emperor Konstantin Monomakh – the Monomakh's cap and the shoulder-mantle to the Kiev Grand Prince Vladimir Monomakh.