Lobnoye mesto (russian: Лобное место) is a 13-meter-long stone platform situated on

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in front of

Saint Basil's Cathedral The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed ( rus, Собо́р Васи́лия Блаже́нного, Sobór Vasíliya Blazhénnogo), commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most p ...

. Its name is derived from the Russian words for 'forehead' () and 'place' (). In Old Russian meant 'a steep river bank'. The platform, believed to have been constructed in brick in the 1530s, was first mentioned in 1547, when

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Iva ...

addressed the Muscovites from there. Subsequently, it was primarily used for announcing the tsar's and for religious ceremonies. Despite a common misconception, the circular platform itself was never a place for

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

s. Sometimes scaffolds were placed by it, but usually public executions were carried out at ''Vasilevsky Spusk'' behind St. Basil's Cathedral. In the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

, during

Holy Week Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...

, the

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Hol ...

procession called "

donkey walk The donkey walk (russian: хождение на осляти, шествие на осляти) is a Russian Orthodox Palm Sunday ritual re-enactment of Jesus Christ's entry into Jerusalem. The best known historical donkey walk was practised in Mo ...

" would end at the Lobnoye Mesto where a depiction of

Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early medie ...

had been erected. The

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

himself, on foot to show humility, would lead the Patriarch of Moscow, who was seated on a donkey, in a procession from the city gates to Red Square. The nearby Monument to Minin and Pozharsky commemorates the events of 1612, when Prince Pozharsky ascended the Lobnoye Mesto to pronounce Moscow free from Polish occupation. In 1786, the architect

Matvei Kazakov Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov (russian: Матве́й Фёдорович Казако́в, 1738 – 7 November 1812) was a Russian Neoclassical architect. Kazakov was one of the most influential Muscovite architects during the reign of Catherine I ...

had the Lobnoye Mesto rebuilt in white stone while keeping its original location and proportions.

Location and first mention

The place of execution is opposite the

Spasskaya Tower The Spasskaya Tower ( rus, Спасская башня, Spasskaya Bashnya), translated as 'Saviour Tower', is the main tower on the eastern wall of the Moscow Kremlin which overlooks Red Square. History The Spasskaya Tower was built in 1491 by th ...

near the Intercession Cathedral and is a circular in plan stone pavement 13 m in diameter and 1 m high with a stone parapet. Initially, the Place of execution was made of brick but in 1599, during the reign of

Boris Godunov Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...

, it was rebuilt in stone and surrounded by a lattice. At the same time, Tsar Cannon was installed nearby on a wooden gun carriage. Images of Tsar Cannon are also documented in the engravings and drawings of seventeenth-century European travellers. The Lobnoye Mesto acquired its present appearance after the restoration of 1786.

References

Literature

* {{cite book , last= Khromov , first= Semen , date= 1981 , title= History of Moscow: An Outline , url= , location= Moscow , publisher= Progress Publishers , pages= 376 , isbn= Buildings and structures in Moscow Execution sites Kitay-Gorod Red Square Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow