Thursday, April 12, 2012

St Basil's Cathedral - Moscow, Russia

Known as the Cathedral of Basil the Blessed, it is a Russian Orthodox cathedral erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–1561. The building's design, shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues in Russian architecture - nothing similar can be found in the entire millenium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century. Legend says that Ivan the Terrible blinded the architect so that he could not recreate the masterpiece elsewhere.
Built on the edge of the Red Square in Moscow, St. Basil’s Cathedral is a colorful edifice made up of 9 individual chapels, each a symbol of a successful assault on Kazan and topped by an onion dome. The ninth chapel was erected in 1588 between the first eight, giving the cathedral the look of an eight-corner star when seen from above.
St Basil's Cathedral,Moscov
St Basil's Cathedral