Patriarch's Palace

Opposite the Senate is the four-story Patriarch's Palace and his private chapel, the Church of the Twelve Apostles, which now house the Museum of 17th-Century Life and Applied Art with over 1,000 exhibits. Patriarch Nikon comissioned the palace for himself in 1635. After Nikon banned elaborate decorations on church buidings, he had the architects Konstantinov and Okhlebinin design the structure in simple white Byzantine fashions. The palace was placed near the main cathedral and the Trinity Gate, where clergy formally entered the Kremlin.The museum has an interesting colection of rare manuscripts, coins, jewelryy, furniture, fabrics, embroidery and table games. The books include an ABC primer written for the son of Peter the Great. Two of the halls are decorated to look like a 17th-century house.