Abstract

The fire of 6.500 over the 9.000 muscovite houses in 1812 demonstrates the apocalyptic level of the disaster. Since the power encountered immense issues to carry on the reconstruction, the first way to analyze it is to look at the results of the tsar first decisions, from the reconstruction of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower to the sending out on mission of an architect planner. The newly designed perimeter outside the Kremlin’s walls is also a meaningful place to examine. The new city ultimately constitutes the result of a controlled urbanism managed by a Commission that sustained the building reconstruction in such a strict way that a newly characteristic architectural outfit appeared in the city. Thanks to contemporary views, one can convoke a visual history of the reconstruction that emphasized (among other things) the role of architects from Scottish and Italian origins, stressing altogether the fact that this immense construction site was partly an European challenge.