Tsar Bell, Bronze bell at Moscow Kremlin, Russia.
The Tsar Bell is a bronze bell at the Moscow Kremlin standing 6.24 meters tall with a diameter exceeding 6.5 meters. A large triangular section weighing about eleven tons is missing from the wall and rests beside the main body on the ground.
A fire in 1737 caused the bell still resting in its casting pit to crack when water struck the hot metal during attempts to extinguish the flames. The broken cylinder remained underground for over a century until workers raised it in 1836 and placed it on a stone pedestal.
The bell's reliefs show Empress Anna Ioannovna and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the ruler at the time of the previous bell, alongside baroque angels, plants and oval medallions with saints. The broken opening once served as a doorway when the bell was used as a chapel.
The bell stands outdoors on a platform between the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and the Dormition Cathedral within the Kremlin complex. Visitors can walk around the entire object and view both sides of the broken fragment.
The metal was cast in a pit directly on Kremlin grounds because no furnace was large enough to hold over 200 tons of bronze. The missing wedge weighs more than some complete historic bells in other European cities.
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