St. Basil's

St. Basil's Cathedral

Moscow's enduring highlight, with its eclectic mix of colorful domes and lovely chapel interiors, has stood here since 1561.  Ivan the Terrible ordered its construction to mark the conquest of Kazan, 500 miles east of Moscow, that ended centuries of Mongolian Tatar rule in Russia. 

Combining motifs from Kazan's mosque with elements of Russian Orthodox style, the cathedral's design is a triumphant fusion of East and West, symbolic of Russia's victory.  The cathedral was designed with eight chapels, each representing a successful assault made on Kazan.  A ninth chapel with a small dome was added in 1588 to cover the grave of Basil the Blessed.  The cathedral was originally named the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat.

The cathedral's central tower is surrounded by onion domes:  four large and four small.  Originally gilded, they received their first full-color treatment in 1670.  The tent-roofed bell tower was added to St. Basil's Cathedral during the late 17th century (on the right).  It rang until 1918, when the Communist authorities closed the cathedral and melted down its bells.  It was not until 1997 that new bells were cast and once again rang out over Moscow.

Chapel of St. Cyprian

Each of the original eight chapels honors the saint upon whose feast day an assault on Kazan occurred.  St. Cyprian's Day was that of the penultimate attack on the stronghold.  With a striped blue and white dome, this chapel is one of the cathedral's largest.  Each chapel is connected by narrow passages and beautifully tiled galleries.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside.  The cathedral's 9 iconostases, symbolizing the separation between the divine and the earthly world, came from the Moscow and Novgorod schools of icon painting.

The interior of each chapel is illuminated by 19th-century oil paintings and the bright colors of lovingly restored frescoes dating back to the 16th century.

Our self-guided tour led us to the spiral wooden staircase which has remained hidden for hundreds of years until its accidental discovery in the 1970's during renovation work.  

Statue of Minin and Pozharskiy

This dramatic statue depicts the two legendary Russian heroes who drove Polish troops out of the Kremlin in 1612.

In 1812, Napoleon ordered its demolition, but the task was abandoned when rain dampened the gunpowder.  Although Stalin destroyed an estimated 400 of Moscow's historic churches, plenty remain scattered throughout the city and they are all free to enter.  The only exception is St. Basil's Cathedral.

www.saintbasil.ru

visited:  Saturday, November 21, 2015 and Sunday, November 22, 2015  It gets dark so soon, when we went in it was light and it was dark when we came out.