62 meters high, built without internal supports or columns. The dynamics of the size, the symmetry, and the harmony of the entire structure evoke the image of a gigantic crystal growing out of a massive base. During the construction of the church, the high, steep bank of the river was built up, producing the effect of a natural pedestal blending into a cohesive whole that seems to grow out of the surrounding landscape, and creating an architectural dominance of the place, which can be seen easily for many miles around. The unique power of the Kolomenskoye church makes the modern mind think of a space ship poised for takeoff. This brilliantly conceived shape is an ideal match for the theme of the Ascension of Christ, to which this church is dedicated.
The walls of the church are extremely thick, reaching 2.5 to 3 meters in places. Inside is a staircase that ends at the base of the tower. A thin ribbon of a ladder descends from the cross, and leads to a circular chamber above the nave. In the XIX Century, local farmers would compete on holidays to see who was the speediest and most agile in climbing this ladder.
Atop a gallery on the eastern side is the Royal Palace, adorned with sculpted white stone, from which tsars watched the military maneuvers and falcon hunts that unfolded on the opposite bank of the river.
The Tsar Kolomenskoye residence was torched when the Tatar Khan Kaza-Girei invaded Moscow. Reconstruction did not begin until the late1630s, under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, and the process stretched out over a thirty-year period. Only in 1671 was the new and luxurious residence, a veritable miracle of architecture, completed. The new structure was a complex of seven independent palaces