Red Porch, Ceremonial staircase at Palace of Facets in Kremlin, Moscow, Russia

The Red Porch is the ceremonial entrance to the Palace of Facets in the Moscow Kremlin, reached by a wide three-flight staircase from Cathedral Square. Two white-stone arches topped with lion figures stand on a low stepped base, and the stair leads up to the palace's Holy Vestibule and main hall.

Marco Ruffo and Pietro Antonio Solari built the Red Porch at the end of the 15th century as the ceremonial entrance to the Palace of Facets. Tsars descended it for coronations, the last being Nicholas II in 1896. During the 1682 Streltsy Uprising, rebels threw several of Peter the Great's relatives down the stairs onto pikes. Stalin demolished it in the 1930s and replaced it with a workers' canteen; it was rebuilt in 1994.

The name comes from the old Russian word krasny, which meant "beautiful" and only later came to mean "red"; the same word names Red Square. Starting with Nicholas I, rulers returning from coronation in the Dormition Cathedral stopped on the staircase and bowed three times to the people below.

The staircase is visible from outside and can be viewed from the Kremlin grounds at any time, though you cannot walk on it. Complete restoration in 1994 brought it back to its original appearance after Soviet-era changes.

In the Streltsy Uprising of 1682, several of Peter the Great's rebellious relatives were thrown down this staircase onto the pikes of the Streltsy guard. The tsars also descended it on the morning of their coronation, and from Nicholas I onward rulers paused on it to bow three times to the crowd.