Armory of the Moscow Kremlin
Since the time of Ivan III, the Treasury Chamber was located on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin. In 1737 (under Empress Anna Ioannovna) the Treasury Chamber burned down. The surviving valuables were moved to the Teremnoy Palace, and the old building was dismantled.
.
In 1806-1810, the architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton built a new building – the Armory Chamber – to store the Kremlin treasures.
General information
According to contemporaries, the Armory was a huge building, not inferior in size to the Arsenal. In 1812 the valuables from the Armory were transported to Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1814 they were brought back. The Chamber, open to the public, became the first Kremlin museum. However, the building was poorly suited for storing valuable exhibits, as it was not heated and was a fire hazard. In the 1920s, during the campaign to seize church valuables, treasures from churches and monasteries were brought to the Armory. Exhibits from private collections were also brought here, after which the Museum of Applied Arts was opened there. In 1967, the lower floor of the Armory housed the Diamond Fund exhibition.”
.
