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Saint Basil’s Cathedral
The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного), commonly known as Saint Basil’s Cathedral, is a church in Red Square in Moscow, Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat (Russian: Собор Покрова пресвятой Богородицы, что на Рву) or Pokrovsky Cathedral (Russian: Покровский собор).[5] It was built from 1555–61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. A world famous landmark, it was the city’s tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight side churches arranged around the ninth, central church of Intercession; the tenth church was erected in 1588 over the grave of venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, the church, perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City,[9] as happens to all churches in Byzantine Christianity, was popularly known as the «Jerusalem» and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the tsar.[10]
The building is shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky,[11] a design that has no analogues in Russian architecture. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that «it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century … a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design.»[12] The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.[13]
As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union’s anti-theist campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928.[14] It was completely and forcefully secularized in 1929[14] and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.[15] It is occasionally mislabeled as the Kremlin owing to its location on Red Square in immediate proximity of the Kremlin.[/vc_column_text][vc_tour interval=»0″ el_position=»last»][vc_tab title=»Comment 1″ tab_id=»1367944903-1-35″][vc_column_text el_position=»first last»]“The pictures don’t do it justice”
I smiled every time I looked or walked past it, it was surreal. You can enter it but need to buy a ticket (350 roubles) which has to come from the kiosk on the left hand side[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=»Review 2″ tab_id=»1367944903-2-46″][vc_column_text el_position=»first last»]“I wouldn’t bother going in”
The outside is superb, atmospheric. Best to see it in both summer and winter. The internal restoration is a bit shoddy though.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][vc_tab title=»Review 3″ tab_id=»1367945110766-3-2″][vc_column_text el_position=»first last»][icon type=»icon-font» size=»36″ float=»right» color=»#808080″]What can be more beautiful and authentic than Red Square in Moscow. Of course the visit should be done in the Mosct appropriate season. I would choose First Decade of June[/vc_column_text][/vc_tab][/vc_tour][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row el_position=»last»][vc_column width=»1/2″][vc_column_text el_position=»first last»]The site of the church had been, historically, a busy marketplace between the St. Frol’s (later Saviour’s) Gate of the Moscow Kremlin and the outlying posad.
The centre of the marketplace was marked by the Trinity Church, built of the same white stone as the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy (1366–68) and its cathedrals. Tsar Ivan IV marked every victory of the Russo-Kazan War by erecting a wooden memorial church next to the walls of Trinity Church; by the end of his Astrakhan campaign, it was shrouded within a cluster of seven wooden churches.
According to the sketchy report in Nikon’s Chronicle, in the autumn of 1554 Ivan ordered construction of the wooden Church of Intercession on the same site, «on the moat». One year later, Ivan ordered construction of a new stone cathedral on the site of Trinity Church that would commemorate his campaigns.
Dedication of a church to a military victory was «a major innovation»[12] for Muscovy. The placement of the church outside of the Kremlin walls was a political statement in favour of posad commoners and against hereditary boyars.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=»1/2″][vc_posts_slider type=»flexslider_fade» count=»5″ interval=»3″ link=»link_post» thumb_size=»slider-double» posttypes=»post» categories=»Gaming,Entertainment,Food,Technology» orderby=»date» order=»desc» el_position=»first last»][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]