Christopher Galloway

Christopher Galloway was a Scottish engineer and architect active in Russia during the reign of Tsar Mikhail. He is best known for constructing the clocks at the tented roof of the Spassky Tower in the Moscow Kremlin, and the water engine in the Vodovzvodnaya Tower.

Life Nothing is known about his early biography before his arrival in Moscow in 1621 (or 1620 in different accounts), and after 1645. Historian Ivan Zabelin believes that Galloway was mentioned in a chronicle as Christophor Christophorov; however, I. L. Buseva-Davydova thinks that those are two different persons. Others say that for food he received 6 altyns and 5 dengas in 1641 (20 and a half of kopecks), and received the double from 1645 on.

According to chronicles, Galloway repaired the clocks of the Tsesarskaya Tower in 1628, and also "small clocks at the gates [or: small pocket watches, as per Zabelin; meaning is unclear]". In May that same year a heavy fire destroyed the clocks; Galloway restarted the work and finished in 1628; on 16 August 1628 he received almost the same presents as before.

In 1633, Galloway constructed a machine to lift water from the Moskva into the Sviblova (Vodovzvodnaya) Tower.

Galloway also built the complex of the Printing House (Pechatnyy Dom). According to I. L. Buseva-Davydova, the plan of the Terem Palace (1636–1637) may have belonged to Galloway.