Petitions Column

The column was installed around 1667 – the 1670s and still stands at the Tsar’s Courtyard, looking at the main façade of the non-extant original palace of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich. 

As tradition has it, in the XVII century, the Tsar’s orders were placed on the column for public view while the local parish residents would bring here their petitions – inquiries or complaints. 

During the restoration carried out in the 2000s the column’s brick facing was reconstructed and the column was surrounded with an artificial white stone perimeter paving. That is the way the column looks nowadays. 

Did you know that...

• There is an alternative opinion about the column’s function. Ivan Zabelin, XIX century architect and historian, argued that the column had served not for petitions, but for a sundial (as it stood at the Tsar’s Courtyard, a place available only for the royal confidants and servants).
• In the Soviet Union times, the column was called the Clock column as it really had a clock installed on it.