“The Old Castle” is the second picture in Modest Mussorgsky’s celebrated piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition, composed in 1874.
Mussorgsky wrote the cycle in memory of his close friend, the Russian architect and artist Viktor Hartmann, who died suddenly in 1873 at the age of only 39. The following year, an exhibition of Hartmann’s drawings, watercolors, architectural designs, and sketches was organized in St. Petersburg. After visiting it, Mussorgsky conceived Pictures at an Exhibition as an imaginary musical walk through the gallery.