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This entrance tower, originally known as the "Timofeyevskaya", and once the Kremlin's medieval torture chamber, was built in 1490 on the former site of one of the towers of Dmitry Donskoy's white-stone Kremlin. The Duke is known to have led his army out through the tower in 1380, on his way to his historic victory against the Mongol Tatars at the Battle of Kulikovo.
The new tower protected residential settlements and the approaches from the wharfs on the Moskva River. It had a powerful bastion, a drawbridge and a gate into the Kremlin.
In the 17th century the tower acquired its present name -which came from the churches of Ss. Constantine and Helen, which stood nearby. In 1680 a tent roof was erected upon a quadrangular base. At the same time, the gates were bricked up. In 1707, by decree of Peter I, the loop-holes were widened and cannons installed. At the turn of the 19th Century the bridge and bastion were taken down, being thought unnecessary. Traces of these features are still visible today.
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