Someday I will go to Russia for vacation

@GerOttman That is quite some gun. I wonder if it was ever fired in anger, or if instead it was made as some sort of Royal Palace defender. It would have been an extremely difficult thing to transport and use in its own days.

On a couple of occasions I have taken a "virtual flight" over parts of Russia (and other countries) by Google Earth, and was surprised to find it is not at all just a huge plain covered in either trees or tundra. It has a lot of beautiful scenery and attractive towns - but all very remote!

@ArishMell It's known as The Tsar Cannon. I've read the history on it, I just don't remember all the details off the top of my head.

@GerOttman Thankyou! well, I've just had a quick Wikipedia look.

The gun, called the "Tsar Cannon", was made in the 16C. The very ornamental carriage is 19C after the original wooden one was destroyed in a fire; and is just a display item, not functional in a practical way.

The shot in front of it are too large so just ornamental, but if it had ever been used in action it would most likely have fired grape-shot as its early name, translated as "Russian Shotgun", shows .

Oddly it seems to have no touch-hole so it's hard to see how it could be fired safely, although it appears to have been fired at least once, probably in display.

So the whole thing seems to have been a demonstration of artistic foundry-work rather than a serious weapon.

"Tsar" means something like "Great", and was last used by the Russian military in USSR days when it detonated an experimental, 50Mt nuclear-fusion bomb called the "Tsar Bomba".