Cap of Monomakh

Cap of Monomakh 

(Russian, shapka Monomakha), a symbol of autocracy in Russia. The crown of the Russian grand princes and tsars, the cap of Monomakh was made in Middle Asia during the 14th century. A pointed headdress with gold filigree, it is bordered with sable and embellished with precious stones. The crown is topped with a cross.

The legend that the crown was a gift from the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomachus to his grandson Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, the grand prince of Kiev, arose in the late 15th or early 16th century as a unified Russian state took shape. The legend served as a basis for the political theory of Moscow as the third Rome.

The cap of Monomakh was first used in a coronation when Ivan III Vasil’evich crowned his successor with it. Ivan IV Vasil’evich (Ivan the Terrible) was crowned with the cap. In 1721 an imperial crown replaced the cap of Monomakh in the coronation ceremony.