St. Basil's Cathedral

The St. Basil's Cathedral (Pokrovsky Sobor) was built in the mid-16th century by the order of Ivan the Great, in honour of the seizure of the Kazan khanate that was a part of the former Golden horde. It was being erected in 1555 - 1561 by Russian the builders Barma and Posnik Yakovlev.

Having seen the sights of the Kremlin towers we cast our eyes on the splendid cathedral of the Intercession. It is also called the cathedral of St. Vassily the Blessed. It was built in the mid-16th century by the order of Ivan the Terrible. There is a legend saying that having seen such beauty the tsar ordered the builders to be blinded so they would not erect such a beautiful church anywhere else.

Look, it is indeed beautiful! The cathedral architecture is based on deep religious symbolism. Eight domes surrounding the central ninth roof create nine churches on a single basement, and they form an eight-pointed star if seen from above. Number eight means the day of the Resurrection of Christ, and the star symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding star for a person on his/her way to Heaven. It also is a symbol of the Blessed Virgin.

In 1588, a tenth church was added to the cathedral: a memorial temple over the grave of Vassily the Blessed, the respected Moscow "God's fool," that gave its name to the whole cathedral. In the 1930s, some attempts to pull the cathedral down were made as it stood in the way of traffic and parades in Red Square (1). Fortunately the cathedral avoided this fate. There is a museum in the cathedral. On 13-14 October, during the patronal festival of the Protection, services are celebrated here.