It is the beginning of the 17th century. The Time of Troubles is over. In 1613 Michael Romanov ascended the Russian throne. One of the first concerns of the tsar from this new dynasty was to restore the ruined residence. The royal palace in the Kremlin had suffered a great deal during the Polish intervention, when soldiers who were quartered there ransacked it and set it on fire. The chambers and apartments now stood without roofs, windows or doors, the royal treasury had been looted and the master craftsmen had been killed or left Moscow. On royal decree builders, stone masons, carpenters and painters were summoned to the capital. They soon embarked upon the restoration of the ruined city. The tsar's wooden apartments were erected inl6l4-l6l5, but no sooner was it completed than the new building burnt down. The wooden apartments erected in 1626 and adorned with carving and painting were also destroyed by fire in 1626. These terrible conflagrations resulted in the abandonment оf the traditional dry and warm timber dwellings and a change to stone and brick.