The Palace of Facets is another palace on the ground of the Moscow Kremlin. Two of the rooms in this palace are shown on this page.
The Waiting Room Gold seals above the door proclaim it, as if the thousands who waited here day after day didn't already know. This is the waiting room of Ivan the Terrible. Encircling the room are a series of hand-painted frescos, painted from the bible, which seem to suggest that being one step away from the Czar was a peaceful prospect. But in Ivan the Terrible's court, there was a saying, The closer to the Czar, the closer to death.
The Throne Room And this is his Throne Room, where you slowly came forward, if Ivan summoned you. His advisers and members of his court all clustered against the wall, dwarfed by a giant ceiling, every inch of it covered by scenes from the Bible, all of it lighted by four bronze chandeliers. The Czar's wife was the only woman allowed in court, so Ivan cut a window -- there -- above the arch, so the other women of the palace could watch. Many official ceremonies and receptions have taken place here, even for centuries after Ivan the Terrible's reign, from Empress Catherine the Great holding court in the early 18th Century to banquets in the early 19th Century to Mikhail Gorbachev welcoming U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the 20th Century.