Until the invasion of Russia by Napoleon in 1812 and the last great fire in the city, Moscow was essentially built out of wood with only its churches and fortifications being of stone or brick, the earliest of which date from the fourteenth century. The ample, constant and cheap supply of timber ensured that secular and religious buildings were constructed out of wood and fortified by wooden stockades and towers. It was not until the fifteenth century that these fortifications began to be replaced by brick or stone; all were completed by the end of the seventeenth century, outside Siberia

Until the invasion of Russia by Napoleon in 1812 and the last great fire in the city, Moscow was essentially built out of wood with only its churches and fortifications being of stone or brick, the earliest of which date from the fourteenth century. The ample, constant and cheap supply of timber ensured that secular and religious buildings were constructed out of wood and fortified by wooden stockades and towers. It was not until the fifteenth century that these fortifications began to be replaced by brick or stone; all were completed by the end of the seventeenth century, outside Siberia