Red Gate
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The Red Gates in Moscow used to be a rare example of a triumphal arch built to an exuberantly baroque design.
The original gate, thought to be the first triumphal arch in Russia, was built in wood on behest of Peter the Great to commemorate his victory at Poltava in 1709. His wife Catherine I replaced it with a new structure in order to commemorate her own coronation in 1724. This arch burnt down in a great fire 8 years later and was restored in 1742, for Elizaveta Petrovna's coronation train, which proceeded from the Moscow Kremlin to the Lefortovo Palace through the edifice.
In 1753 the wooden arch was demolished and replaced with a stone one. The design by Prince Dmitry Ukhtomsky faithfully followed that of Catherine I's architects. This was a refined specimen of baroque sensilibility, with red-blood walls, snow-white reliefs, golden capitals, and 15 bright paintings representing "Tsardoms of Russian Empire", coats of arms of Russian provinces, etc. A large portrait of Empress Elizabeth, surrounded by a lambent halo, was replaced with a double-headed eagle for Nicholas I's coronation in 1825. The structure was crowned by a golden statue of trumpeting angel. Around the gates, a spacious square was laid out.
The Arch and a neighbouring church were demolished in 1928 when the avenue they were located on, Sadovoye Koltso, was widened according to Lazar Kaganovich's Moscow redevelopment plan. The square that they stood upon was still known as Krasniye Vorota (Red Gates), and in 1935 a metro station of the same name opened. In 1953 one of the famous Stalin's skyscrapers was erected on the square. The square was renamed Lermontovskaya after the Russian author Lermontov in 1962 and was renamed back to Krasniye Vorota in 1986. Some decorative elements of the gate, such as the statue of angel, are exhibited in the Moscow City Museum. Whilst the question of rebuilding the arch has been raised several times, due to the traffic congestion of the square that seems unlikely.
