Tsar Bell Monument

Address: Cathedral Square, Moscow Kremlin (near Red Square), Moscow, Russia

Website: https://www.kreml.ru/

Admission: Viewing outdoors is free; entrance to Kremlin grounds/museums is ticketed

The Tsar Bell (Tsar Kolokol) is a monumental bell located on display in the Moscow Kremlin. Cast in the 1730s, it is renowned as the largest bell ever cast and is exhibited on a stone pedestal near the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.

The bell was cast under the direction of the bellfounder Ivan Motorin and his son; during a 1737 fire the bell cracked and a large slab broke away, leaving the bell never to have been hung or rung. Visitors see the bell’s cast bronze surface, its ornate reliefs and the detached broken segment that lies beside it.

After the casting and the damage in 1737 the bell remained in the Kremlin where it was later mounted on a carved stone base for display rather than use. The bell stands outdoors within the Kremlin grounds close to Cathedral Square, near Red Square in central Moscow.

The bell is sited inside the Moscow Kremlin compound, adjacent to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and in the heart of the historic Kremlin complex in central Moscow.

• Size and status: Weighs about 202 tonnes and was cast in the 1730s, making it the largest bell ever produced though it was never rung.
• Broken segment: A broken segment weighing roughly 11 tonnes sits beside the bell and is visible to visitors as evidence of the bell’s failure during the 1737 Kremlin fire.

The Tsar Bell stands inside Moscow Kremlin grounds near the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. For visitors the Kremlin is accessed via the official visitor entrance by the Kremlin bridge/Kutafya Tower; the nearest metro stations are Alexandrovsky Sad (Filyovskaya Line), Biblioteka Imeni Lenina (Sokolnicheskaya Line) and Borovitskaya (Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line), all within about a 5-10 minute walk to the Kremlin entrance.

• View the Tsar Bell from inside the Kremlin's Cathedral Square; include Kremlin grounds access on your ticket so you can see the bell close-up alongside the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the cathedrals.
• Visit early when the Kremlin opens or later in the afternoon to avoid the major mid-day coach groups that concentrate around the bell and cathedral cluster.
• Combine the Tsar Bell stop with the nearby Armoury and the cathedrals on Cathedral Square to make the most of your Kremlin ticket and avoid repeated queues at different attractions.