Description of the attraction
The Tsar Cannon monument in Donetsk is a copy of a medieval artillery piece (bombards), a monument to Russian artillery and Russian foundry art.
The name Tsar Cannon most likely came from the significant size of this weapon. And in ancient times, the cannon was also called the "Russian shotgun", since it was believed that it was designed for shooting with a shot, or, in other words, buckshot. The cannon was also classified as a "basilisk".
The Tsar Cannon is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest cannon ever created. She is one of the largest weapons in our history. The original of this cannon was cast in bronze in 1586 by Andrey Chokhov, a Russian craftsman, at the Cannon Yard.
In 2001, in the spring, by a special order of the Moscow government, a copy of Andrey Chokhov's cannon was made at an Udmurt enterprise called OAO Izhstal in Izhevsk in 2001, but not from bronze, like the original, but from cast iron. The gun itself weighs 42 tons, one wheel weighs 1.5 tons, the core weighs 1.2 tons, and the barrel diameter of the gun is 89 cm.
This copy of the famous Tsar Cannon is a gift from the city of Moscow to Donetsk. And in May 2001, this cannon was installed right in front of the city hall on a cast-iron decorative carriage, near which there are cast-iron decorative cannonballs. The gun carriage itself weighs about 20 tons. However, the barrel length of this gun is 6 cm shorter than the original length - 5.28 meters.
In connection with such a large weight of the gun, I had to think very seriously about the pedestal. The stone processing plant "Ofmal" in the city of Shakhtersk, Donetsk region, coped with this task. The pedestal turned out to be very impressive in size: 30 cm high and a platform of seven meters by seven.
