Kolomna Kremlin

Kolomna sits where the Moskva joins the Oka, which made it the southern gate of the Moscow lands, and the kremlin was rebuilt in brick between 1525 and 1531 on the model of the Moscow one - sixteen towers, walls up to twenty-one metres high and four and a half thick. It was never taken. What reduced it was peace: once the frontier moved south the fortress lost its purpose, and from the eighteenth century townspeople quarried it for bricks, until Nicholas I banned the practice in 1826 - by which time about half the circuit had gone. Seven towers and two stretches of wall survive, including the Marinkina tower, named for Marina Mniszech, who in local tradition was imprisoned and died in it. Inside the walls is a working old town of churches, wooden houses and lanes, with the Assumption cathedral, a convent, and museums of the local pastila confection and of blacksmithing.

What you actually see

• The surviving walls - seven towers and two stretches of a 1520s brick circuit.
• The quarrying - about half the fortress taken for building material before 1826.
• The Marinkina tower - associated with Marina Mniszech's imprisonment.
• The old town - churches, wooden houses and lanes still inside the walls.

When to go

May to September. Half a day, longer with the town museums. Two hours by train from Moscow.

Honest expectations

Only about half the fortress survives - the rest was taken for bricks. The old town inside is lived in, not a museum. Museums are small and ticketed individually. Weekend crowds from Moscow in summer.

Nearby

Zaraysk kremlin is south; the Oka runs east.