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Lying at the very centre of the Kremlin, this square traditionally welcomed all guests to the town who entered through the main gates. In the past, this was the junction of all the main streets of the Kremlin. The square's name relates to the great cathedrals that stand here - Blagoveshchensky Sobor (The Cathedral of the Annunciation), Uspensky Sobor (The Cathedral of The Assumption), and Arkhangelsky Sobor (The Catheral of The Archangel), as well as the Church of the Twelve Apostles, and The Church of the Deposition of the Robe. This was once the stage for official parades to mark the coronations of the Tsars, and also of massed religious processions on great church holidays. On the Red Steps of the Faceted Chamber the sovereigns of Russia would appear before their people, and in front of these steps foreign ambassadors were traditionally welcomed to the city.
To this day, as they have for many centuries, the domes of these legendary churches shine with gold, and on holidays their bells ring out across Sobornaya Square. This unique mix of medieval architecture gives a special feeling of the closeness of God and the uninterrupted links of time to anyone stepping across the square's white paving stones, restored in 1955.
In 2001, the great Spanish tenor Placido Domingo gave a concert on Sobornaya Square, and each year at the Annunciation, Patriarch Aleksei, head of the Russian church, releases a flock of doves to symbolically carry the good word throughout the world.
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