(St. Basil's Cathedral) is a striking monument of Russian architecture located on Red Square. The magnificent and solemn appearance of the cathedral with unusual multi-colored domes, loved by Muscovites and well remembered by foreigners, made it one of the main symbols not only of Moscow, but of all of Russia.
The temple was built in 1555-1561 by an unknown architect (there are different versions) on the orders of Ivan the Terrible in memory of the victory over the Kazan Khanate and the capture of Kazan, which fell on the day of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Subsequently it was rebuilt several times.
The peculiarity of the temple is that it is essentially 9 separate churches united by a common foundation. In the center is the pillarless Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, around it are grouped 8 smaller churches: Trinity, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (in honor of the Velikoretsk Icon), Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, Martyrs Adrian and Natalia, St. John the Merciful, Alexander of Svir, Varlaam of Khutyn, Gregory of Armenia . The altars of the churches were consecrated in honor of Orthodox holidays and days of remembrance of saints that fell on the days of the decisive battles for Kazan.
Architecture
The architectural appearance of the Intercession Cathedral is unique. Pretentious and solemn, like a painted gingerbread, at first glance it seems like a chaotic pile of multi-colored domes, but in reality this is not the case. The cathedral building has a clear structure and is a rhombus inscribed in a square, forming an eight-pointed star in plan. In fact, these are 9 separate churches united by a common base (basement): in the center there is a pillarless Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ending with a high tent with a small gilded dome; around it are grouped 8 smaller churches, crowned with relief onion domes of different colors. On the southern side there is a two-tiered tented bell tower, and on the eastern side there is a chapel in honor of St. Basil the Blessed. The building is surrounded by a closed gallery-gulbische, adjacent to which are two massive porches with a hip roof.
The height of the cathedral is 65 meters.
In total, the Intercession Cathedral is decorated with 11 domes, 9 of which are located above the churches, one above the chapel of St. Basil the Blessed, and another (very small) above the bell tower. Of these, 9 domes are distinguished by a unique relief and coloring: colored spikes, rhombuses, ornaments; The meaning of their colors is not known for certain, but it is believed that the temple symbolizes Heavenly Jerusalem. According to the assumption of the Russian writer Nikolai Chaev (1824 - 1914), the color of the domes is explained by the dream of Blessed Andrei the Fool (of Constantinople), who dreamed of the Heavenly Jerusalem with gardens with many flowering trees and fruits of indescribable beauty.
The decorative design of the temple looks magnificent, but laconic: it includes flies, half-columns, kokoshniks and weights traditional for Russian temple architecture. The entire perimeter of the gallery is painted with images of flowers and floral patterns. The walls are decorated with façade icons of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the upcoming Basil and St. John the Blessed (southern wall of the bell tower) and Our Lady of the Sign with saints in the fields (eastern façade).
History of the Intercession Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is on the Moat, got its name from its location near the city, which passed along Red Square along the eastern wall of the Kremlin in the 16th-19th centuries. However, in colloquial speech the official name of the temple is practically not used: it became better known as St. Basil's Cathedral - in honor of the most famous Moscow holy fool and miracle worker. - legendary personality in the history of Moscow; in the past, on the site of the Intercession Cathedral, there was a wooden Trinity Church (on the Moat), in the cemetery at which the holy fool was buried. After his canonization in 1588, a chapel in his honor was built above the burial place of the wonderworker at the Intercession Cathedral. Subsequently, people began to call the entire cathedral after the miracle worker.
The temple was built in 1555-1561 by order of Ivan the Terrible in memory of the capture of Kazan.
The history of St. Basil's Cathedral is full of mysteries and blank spots: in particular, it is not known for certain who its architect was. According to the most common version, it was built by architects Ivan Barma and Postnik Yakovlev, however, it is considered outdated. There is a version that the legendary Barma and Postnik are the same person (Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma), as well as a theory that the cathedral could have been built by an unknown Italian architect (since a significant part of the Kremlin buildings were built by Italians), which has not yet been found convincing confirmation. A widespread urban legend says that after construction, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, struck by the beauty of the cathedral, ordered the architects to be blinded so that they would not build anything like it again, however, in reality this is unlikely: if one of the architects was indeed Postnik Yakovlev, then after the Intercession Cathedral he took participation in the construction of the Kazan Kremlin and, obviously, could not be blinded. Although, again, there is a version that these were different Fasters.
The walls of the temple were built of red brick, which was a rather innovative building material for Moscow at that time. To protect the rare material from exposure to precipitation, the outside walls of the building were painted in red and white tones, emphasizing the masonry. In 1588, by order of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the chapel of St. Basil's was added to the temple, in the form of an independent pillarless church with a separate entrance.
Not much information has been preserved about what the Intercession Cathedral looked like originally. It is known that in the past the bypass gallery surrounding it was open and did not have massive hipped porches and paintings with floral patterns: the vault over the gallery and two porches over the stairs were built in the second half of the 17th century, when the building underwent significant reconstruction. During the same period, new churches were added to the cathedral: the Deposition of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Virgin Theodosius and others. According to the Russian historian Peter Khavsky, by 1722 there were 18 altars in the cathedral: the Life-Giving Trinity, the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, St. Nicholas of Velikoretsky, the Beheading of John the Baptist, Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa, Varlaam of Khutyn, Apostle Andronicus, Gregory of Armenia, Cyprian and Justinia, and the Deposition of the Robe. Theotokos, Sergius of Radonezh, Basil the Great, Alexander of Svirsky, Virgin Theodosius, Mary of Egypt, All Saints, Epiphany and the Three Patriarchs.
The domes also looked different: those colored figured domes for which St. Basil's Cathedral is known today appeared only at the end of the 16th century; the former were probably helmet-shaped, and their covering was destroyed by one of the city fires. Even their original number is questionable: it is known that during the restoration of 1784-1786 under the leadership of the architect Ivan Yakovlev, 8 small domes at the base of the tent were dismantled, which were recognized as later additions.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, the cathedral was plundered by the French, but immediately after the war it was repaired and consecrated. In 1817, when Red Square was reconstructed according to the design of Osip Bove, the retaining wall of the temple from Vasilyevsky Spusk and Moskvoretskaya Street was lined with stone, and a cast-iron fence was installed at the top.
During the Soviet years, St. Basil's Cathedral escaped demolition (although services there were still banned) and became one of the first architectural monuments taken under state protection. Its museumification began in 1918, and in 1923 it was decided to create a historical and architectural museum there, which later became part of the State Historical Museum. Initially, the building was in a deplorable state, but already in the 1920s, repair and restoration work began in it, designed to return the cathedral to its original appearance and partially recreate the interiors of the 16-17 centuries. In 1931, the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, previously installed in the central part of Red Square, was moved to the cathedral.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union - since 1991 - the temple building is in joint use of the museum and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Myths and legends
Being one of the most famous sights of Moscow and having at the same time a rather vague history, St. Basil's Cathedral was simply bound to acquire urban legends.
The most widespread legend concerns the construction of the temple: supposedly Tsar Ivan the Terrible, struck by the incredible beauty of the building, ordered its architects - Barma and Postnik - to be blinded, so that they would never be able to build a more beautiful temple anywhere than in Moscow. In reality, this is unlikely: firstly, it is not known for certain which architects erected the building. In addition, it is not clear whether the legendary Barma and Postnik were different people - Ivan Barma and Postnik Yakovlev - or whether it was one person - Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma. Be that as it may, after the construction of the Intercession Cathedral, Postnik Yakovlev participated in the construction of the Kazan Kremlin, which means he could not have been blinded - unless, again, these were different people.
There is a legend that the image of the historical Kul-Sharif mosque, destroyed by Russian troops during the capture of Kazan in 1552, is “encrypted” in the structure of St. Basil’s Cathedral: 8 of its chapters supposedly symbolize the 8 minarets of the destroyed mosque, and the 9th dominates them to commemorate the victory .
They say that St. Basil the Blessed, foreseeing victory over Kazan, collected money for the construction of the Intercession Cathedral and, shortly before his death in 1552, transferred it to Ivan the Terrible. However, this legend has no evidence.
Not without the library of Ivan the Terrible! According to one legend, it was hidden precisely in the basements of the Intercession Cathedral. Unfortunately, in reality this is impossible: the building simply does not have basements. The cathedral was built on a massive basement, which rests on an artificial hill, and its foundation is not so deep. However, in the basement there were rooms for storing valuables; another urban legend says that they could have housed the royal treasury.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, when French troops were leaving Moscow, Napoleon ordered the cathedral to be blown up, however, the French failed to do this: supposedly, the rain that started extinguished the wicks and prevented them from preparing the explosion of the building. They say that Napoleon gave such an order in his hearts: he liked the cathedral so much that he wanted to move it to Paris, but he was informed that this was impossible (what a surprise!).
In the 1930s, Lazar Kaganovich proposed demolishing the Intercession Cathedral to make more space for parades and demonstrations on Red Square. According to urban legend, he made a model of Red Square with a removable cathedral building and brought it for demonstration to Stalin to show how the cathedral interfered with the passage of cars and columns. Showing the model, he unexpectedly tore off the Intercession Cathedral from it to clearly show how much better it would be without it, but the surprised Stalin exclaimed: “Lazarus, put it in its place!” - and the cathedral was saved.
Nowadays, St. Basil's Cathedral is one of the most popular attractions in Moscow, a must-see point on the maps of tourists coming to the capital. Its unusual and memorable appearance has made it one of the wonders and symbols of Russia - and even those who have never been to Moscow can easily recognize its domes, which are often printed on postcards and souvenirs, in books, textbooks and encyclopedias. If somewhere they talk or write about Moscow and Russia, the words will most likely be illustrated with a photograph of the Intercession Cathedral.
At the same time, the townspeople truly love him.
Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the Moat located on Red Square, building 2. You can get to it on foot from the metro stations "Okhotny Ryad" Sokolnicheskaya line, "Revolution square" Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, "Theatrical" Zamoskvoretskaya and "China town" Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines.
The chronicle names the Russian architects Postnik and Barma as the authors of St. Basil's Cathedral, who, quite likely, built the cathedral without any drawings at all. There is a legend according to which Ivan the Terrible, having seen the cathedral built according to their design, was so delighted with its beauty that he ordered the architects to be blinded so that they could not build a temple anywhere else equal in beauty to the Intercession Cathedral. Some modern historians offer a version according to which the architect of the temple was one person - Ivan Yakovlevich Barma, who was nicknamed the Faster because he kept a strict fast. As for the legend about the blinding of Barma and Postnik, its partial refutation can be the fact that the name of Postnik later appears in the chronicle in connection with the creation of other significant architectural structures.
St. Basil's Cathedral is a symmetrical ensemble of eight pillar-shaped churches surrounding the ninth - the tallest - temple, topped with a tent. The chapels are connected to each other by a system of transitions. The pillar-shaped churches are topped with onion domes, none of which is identical in architectural decoration to the others. One of them is densely dotted with golden cones, they are like stars in the sky on a dark night; on the other, scarlet belts run in zigzags across a bright field; the third resembles a peeled orange with yellow and green segments. Each dome is decorated with cornices, kokoshniks, windows, and niches.
Until the end of the 17th century, until the Ivan the Great Bell Tower was built on the territory of the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral was the tallest building in Moscow. The height of the cathedral is 60 meters. In total, St. Basil's Cathedral has nine iconostases, which contain about 400 icons of the 16th-19th centuries, representing the best examples of the Novgorod and Moscow icon painting schools.
St. Basil's Cathedral is the most beautiful and mysterious church in all of Russia. It is believed that the architects who created it were deprived of their sight, Stalin himself did not allow the building to be demolished, and during the war the temple was hidden from shelling. The upper tier of the cathedral resembles a labyrinth, and the base resembles an eight-pointed star. We have collected all the most important things about the temple, by which foreigners unmistakably recognize Russia.
St. Basil's Cathedral - real name
St. Basil's Cathedral is a cult building from the time of Ivan the Terrible, by which any foreigner still recognizes Moscow. This is the most recognizable Russian temple. Few people know its true name - the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary on the Moat. On July 2 (June 29, old style), 1561, the central Intercession Church of the cathedral was once consecrated. The first reliable mention of the construction of the Church of the Intercession of Our Lady dates back to the autumn of 1554. It is believed that it was a wooden cathedral, which was later demolished to build a stone church.
The reason for the construction of the cathedral was the conquest of the Kazan Khanate. Tsar Ivan the Terrible, praying before the start of a military campaign, made a vow to God to build a temple, which Rus' had never seen before, in the event of his victory. The king was harsh and merciless, but remained a deeply religious man.
St. Basil's Cathedral - history
In order to preserve the beautiful building in a single copy, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the architects Postnik and Barma to be blinded, so the legend says. Their names became known only at the end of the 19th century. It is believed that the king watched the construction of the temple from a tower on the Kremlin wall. When construction came to an end, he called the architects to him to ask if they could repeat such a building? The architects answered the king in the affirmative. Then he ordered to deprive them of their sight. Scientists also have doubts about this: in the 16th century, outstanding architects were highly valued. So Italian craftsmen were invited to build the Kremlin. It is quite possible that, knowing the harsh disposition of the Russian Tsar, foreigners spread the rumors.
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. Divine services were regularly held in St. Basil's Cathedral. As a rule, they were performed in the annex - a church built in honor of St. Basil the Blessed, because the other churches were cold. That is why the name has taken root among the people - St. Basil's Cathedral.
Divine services in the temple continued until the beginning of the 20th century. The last rector became, now canonized in the host of new martyrs and confessors. He was shot for missionary activity. He enjoyed special love and respect among Muscovites.
Eyewitnesses said:
“At the request of Father John, the executioners allowed all the condemned to pray and say goodbye to each other. Everyone knelt down, and fervent prayer poured out... And then everyone said goodbye to each other. The first to cheerfully approach the grave was Archpriest Vostorgov, who had previously said a few words to the others, inviting everyone, with faith in God’s mercy and the speedy revival of the Motherland, to make the final atoning sacrifice. “I’m ready,” he concluded, turning to the convoy. Everyone stood in the indicated places. The executioner came close to him from behind, took his left hand, twisted him by the lower back and, putting a revolver to the back of his head, fired, at the same time pushing Father John into the grave.”
During the Great Patriotic War, the museum did not stop its work, although it was closed to visitors. St. Basil's Cathedral was carefully camouflaged to protect it from bombing. There is a legend that after the war, Stalin was offered to remove the cathedral under the pretext of interfering with the parade. It is believed that Kaganovich showed Stalin a model of the square, and in his presence removed the model of the temple, offering to demolish it. Stalin abruptly interrupted him: “Lazarus, put him in his place!” Since then, no one has questioned the integrity of the cathedral.
St. Basil's Cathedral - architecture
The cathedral was built over 6 years from 1555 to 1561. Its original image was changed by extensions, but the idea of St. Basil's Cathedral seems unusual even in modern times. It looks like a vault of eight churches that surrounds the tallest one, the ninth. A similar temple still does not exist in Russia. Each temple has its own entrance and lighting, however, the cathedral is a single building.
Without the attached porches, St. Basil's Cathedral seemed to be moving upward. The craftsmen used all possible architectural decorations at that time. All the domes of the cathedral are similar, but made differently. Nevertheless, the building looks very harmonious. This is one of the unique features of the cathedral. The idea of particular differences with general similarity also dominates the interior design of the cathedral. There are a lot of sacred symbols in the architecture of the cathedral: a circle is a symbol of eternity, a triangle is a symbol of the trinity of God, a square reminds of equality and justice, and a dot is the beginning of life. The architecture of the cathedral contains enormous spiritual meaning.
The thickness of the walls of the base of St. Basil's Cathedral reaches three meters. It is this thickness that allows you to securely hold as many as nine buildings. If you look at the base of the church, you can see that 8 small churches form an eight-pointed star - a symbol of the Virgin Mary. In the ensemble of small churches there are larger churches. They are strictly oriented to the cardinal directions and form symmetry. The main temple, with a huge dome and tent, represents the Protection of the Virgin Mary, Her intercession.
The first changes to the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary on the Moat occurred almost immediately after construction and were associated with the name of the famous Moscow saint - St. Basil the Blessed. Before the appearance of the stone cathedral on this site, there was a wooden Trinity Church, where Saint Basil often came to pray. In 1558, a lower church was added to the Intercession Cathedral over the burial place of the Moscow wonderworker, St. Basil the Blessed. To build this temple, the builders dismantled part of the original cathedral.
In the 17th century, two elegant porches with double tents were added to St. Basil's Cathedral, and a roof was erected over the outer gallery.
St. Basil's Cathedral - the idea
This choice of the architects is due to the fact that, according to the idea, St. Basil's Cathedral was supposed to symbolize paradise, the city of the Lord. The idea belonged to Metropolitan Macarius, and the architects tried to bring it to life. Epochs changed, and along with them, people’s ideas about what heaven should look like changed, and therefore the cathedral underwent changes. The main idea remained unchanged: St. Basil's Cathedral is a prototype of a heavenly paradise, a blossoming garden. It is decorated with grape leaves, beautiful flowers, plants that do not grow on the ground...
St. Basil's Cathedral is a chapel of the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is one of the eight churches surrounding the central cathedral. Although the official name of the shrine of the Russian Orthodox Church is the Cathedral of the Intercession, for believers and those interested in religious architectural monuments, it is known as St. Basil's Cathedral. You can understand the symbolism of the temple and its significance for Russia and the Russian people by considering the history of the emergence of the unique cathedral and the churches attached to it.
Background to the construction of the cathedral
St. Basil's Cathedral is not the first construction of a religious shrine to arise in Moscow in the 16th century. Initially, wooden churches were erected in honor of saints or Orthodox holidays that fell on the day of some military event on Kazan land, when Tsar Ivan the Terrible was fighting the Tatar invasion. One of the great battles, which took place on October 2, 1552, ended with a complete victory over the Kazan Khanate and the annexation of the city’s lands to the Orthodox city of Moscow.
This date (October 1) falls on the religious holiday of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which gave rise to the construction of a cathedral in memory of the final victory, which was consecrated in honor of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary. But the day of the campaign and victory itself coincided with another Orthodox day - the veneration of Saints Cyprian and Justina.
By decree of Ivan the Terrible, it was decided to combine all the camp churches erected on Red Square earlier and the new temple into a cathedral, which should become stone. But upon returning to Moscow, a wooden cathedral with seven chapels was built. It was consecrated in the name of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Only a year later the wooden buildings were dismantled and the construction of a stone church began, but it still had nothing to do with the name of St. Basil.
Reasons for the founding of the temple
St. Basil's Cathedral, among other buildings of the Intercession Church, appeared only in 1588 and became the 9th church of a unique monument of the Orthodox faith. The reasons for the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral were the events that took place during the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible and his son Fyodor Ivanovich. According to legends, Vasily was a holy fool and collected alms on Red Square, from which he fed and lived. He dressed in rags or went without any clothes even in the bitter cold. He wore chains as a symbol of repentance and sacrificing himself for the sake of Christ. He had the gift of healing and foresight, as evidenced by various legends or descriptions of his life.
Ivan the Terrible treated the holy fool with special respect and after his death, the date of which is twofold (1552 or 1557), permission was given to bury the body near the walls of the Intercession Church. According to chronicle documents, several years after the death of Basil, several healings were recorded from his relics, which was the reason for erecting a shrine made of precious metal with expensive stones over the grave of St. Basil and building a church, which was consecrated in honor of this saint.
Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich set the date for the veneration of the name of St. Basil - August 2, the day of the miraculous healing.
Unlike other churches that were part of the ensemble of churches of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Basil's Cathedral was an independent building and had a separate entrance.
There are two versions of the reasons for the construction of a multi-aisle temple:
- The Intercession Cathedral was supposed to become a semblance of the Vlachensky Monastery, in which the miracle of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos was revealed. It has a seven-tower shape. The Intercession Cathedral in Moscow was supposed to commemorate the ideology of the state of that time, that Moscow is the Third Rome.
- The idea of a multi-aisled cathedral was proposed by Metropolitan Macarius, who wanted to build another city in the center of Moscow, symbolizing Jerusalem, so to speak, a city within a city, which also echoed the concept of the Third Rome. The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos is the Heavenly Jerusalem and it must be indivisible, which is why all the buildings were erected on a single foundation.
Regardless of what idea led to the creation of a religious shrine, it is an object of unique Orthodox architecture, which still inspires admiration among people.
How the cathedral was built: versions
There are several versions about the construction of the cathedral, the ensemble of buildings of which includes St. Basil's Cathedral, who is the architect of the project and what their fate was after the completion of the work.
- One version suggests that Ivan the Terrible invited an architect from Pskov to implement his idea. His name was Postnik Yakovlev, but the people had the nickname Barma. This indicates that one person created the design of the Intercession Church and supervised its construction.
- The second version comes down to the fact that Postnik and Barma are two different people who together brought the idea of a multi-altar cathedral to life.
- The third version has nothing to do with Postnik or Barma. It is assumed that the author of the project was a European architect, presumably Italian. The style of the temple is very similar to the motifs of the Moscow Kremlin, the construction of which was carried out by the European architect. But there is no documentary evidence of this version.
Changes in architecture and design
The modern appearance of St. Basil's Cathedral (the official name is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary) differs in many ways from the cathedral built in the mid-16th century. Changes in style and architecture occurred due to frequent fires and the desire to make the cathedral more convenient to use.
Initially, the appearance of all buildings was strict, but immediately elegant. The walls were painted with frescoes and designs imitating brickwork to give the cathedral greater majesty.
The churches did not have porches. St. Basil's Cathedral was not included in the project and was not built simultaneously with other chapels. The bell tower stood separately and had a different shape.
The central cathedral in the tent style, surrounded by small churches in honor of the significant dates of the Kazan campaign, was a kind of memorial monument and did not require a special style.
Until 1588, the cathedral did not have a single heated room, which excluded the possibility of holding services during the cold period. St. Basil's Cathedral became the first heated facility, which attracted pilgrims and believers all year round to the Moscow shrine. The temple worked around the clock and hosted traveling people for the night. This point may have contributed to the fact that the cathedral became known precisely by the name of St. Basil's Cathedral, and not the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.
16th century modifications
Due to frequent fires in Moscow, the wooden tops of churches burned down. Once again it was decided to change the shape of the temple heads. They were made figured and covered with iron.
From the inside, all the rooms of the cathedral were united by labyrinths of passages, allowing servants to move freely from one room to another. The area of the churches themselves was so small that they were compared to cells. On major holidays, services were held on Red Square, because not a single church could accommodate everyone.
How the temple changed in the 17th century
Significant changes occurred only in the 17th century. A hipped bell tower was added to the ensemble of the cathedral in 1670. The cathedral received a new coloring in the form of a motley ornament. To the cathedral of eight chapels and St. Basil's Cathedral, several more churches were added, which had to be removed from Red Square due to their disrepair. According to the inventory of dilapidations of 1688, there is information that 20 thrones were attached to the Intercession Cathedral.
In addition to moving the existing churches, in 1672 a chapel was added over the grave of another Moscow holy fool named John, who died in 1589 and was buried on the territory of the cathedral.
By 1680, the cathedral had been significantly updated due to the fact that open-type wooden galleries were replaced by brick ones with a closed top, which made it possible to move around the perimeter of the cathedral in any weather and protected the churches and St. Basil's Cathedral from destruction by fires. Outside and inside, the walls of the gallery and other rooms were painted with herbal patterns, which added more elegance to the religious shrine.
Inscriptions about the date of completion of the restoration (1683) were applied to ceramic tiles and placed on the walls of the cathedral.
Fire and recovery
The Trinity Fire in Moscow in 1737 did not spare the church, which burned down almost 100%. But a decision was made to restore the temple. Work on the interior and architecture of the cathedral was entrusted to Ivan Michurin, who drew up a detailed plan and description of the Intercession Cathedral at the time of restoration.
New work to repair and change the architecture of the cathedral was carried out in 1784–1786 with the assistance of Catherine the Second, who allocated impressive funds for the renovation of the cathedral.
St. Basil's Cathedral, which received a covered porch due to the abolition of the throne of the Theodosius Church from the northern facade of the Intercession Cathedral, also came under alteration.
During this period, the exterior of the cathedral had nothing in common with its modern appearance, because street trading was not prohibited. Bookstores and the Apple Row completely covered the walls of the cathedral. Only Alexander the First resolved the issue with inappropriate buildings and transformed the area around the cathedral with the help of wild stone and iron lattice.
XIX - early XX centuries and their influence
The history of the 19th-20th centuries left its mark on the cathedral. At first, Napoleon attempted to destroy the shrine because he was amazed by the unique construction and wanted to destroy the Orthodox core of Russia. Attempts to blow up all the churches and St. Basil's Cathedral were in vain, but church utensils were stolen and the premises were desecrated. This led to a new stage of restoration work in the cathedral, which made it possible to preserve the shrine to this day.
Regular restoration work was carried out in the temple in 1890 and 1912:
- strengthened the floors;
- The cathedral sacristy was renovated, decorating its windows with colored stained glass.
Foundation of the museum in the 19th–20th centuries
The beginning of the 20th century was marked for the Intercession Cathedral by the fact that in 1918 it was taken under state protection as a historical object of national and world scale. Services in some churches have stopped completely. The process of transitioning the cathedral to the status of a museum began.
In 1923, it was decided to house a historical and architectural museum in the premises under the leadership of E. I. Silin, who was a researcher at the State Historical Museum.
In 1928, the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (popularly St. Basil's) received the status of a branch of the State Historical Museum, which has survived to this day.
Until 1949, research work was carried out in the cathedral, which discovered underground passages connecting the temple with the Kremlin. The functional significance of some rooms located in the basement of the cathedral was revealed.
Since 1991, St. Basil's Cathedral has been under the joint guardianship of the State Historical Museum and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Current state of the temple
Today the cathedral has been completely restored and is functioning, combining the functions of a museum and a place for worship on Sundays and Easter.
In 2008, the Intercession Cathedral received the status of one of the seven wonders of Russia, and in 2017 it was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, being a unique architectural monument and the pride of Russian Orthodoxy.
Address: Russia, Moscow, Red Square
Start of construction: 1555
Completion of construction: 1561
Number of domes: 11
Height: 65 m.
Coordinates: 55°45"09.4"N 37°37"23.5"E
Object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation
Short story
On July 12, 2011, the most famous Orthodox church in Russia, the Intercession Cathedral, or St. Basil's Cathedral, celebrated its 450th anniversary.
Located on Red Square next to the Kremlin, it has become a symbol of Moscow and the whole country. St. Basil's Cathedral is a whole city in the city: 10 churches with colorful domes were erected on a single foundation. He was built in 1555 - 1561 by order of Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the victory over the Kazan Khanate- the age-old enemy of Rus'.
View of the cathedral from the Moscow Kremlin
An old Moscow legend says that during the decisive assault on Kazan, Ivan the Terrible went to the camp church, located in a tent, and prayed fervently. But barely the priest had time to utter the words: “And there will be one flock and one shepherd,” when the earth shook from a powerful explosion, and part of the enemy fortifications flew into the air, opening the way for the Russian troops.
For the first time in the history of Rus', it included not a principality, but an entire state - the Kazan Khanate. The capture of Kazan had not only political significance (now the Russians controlled the Volga-Baltic trade route), but also religious significance - it was a campaign against the infidels. In Moscow, the townspeople greeted Ivan the Terrible with loud cries: “Many years to the pious Tsar, conqueror of the barbarians, savior of the Orthodox people!”
Monument to Minin and Pozharsky against the backdrop of St. Basil's Cathedral
St. Basil's Cathedral - a masterpiece of unknown architects
Initially, on the site of the future temple there was a wooden Church of the Holy Trinity, but in 1555 they began to build a stone cathedral, which still exists. Who was the main architect remains a mystery. According to one version, the tsar invited the Pskov master Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma; according to another, the names Postnik and Barma belong to two different architects.
According to the third version, St. Basil's Cathedral is a project of an Italian architect. There is a legend that the king ordered the eyes of the creator of the cathedral to be gouged out so that he could no longer repeat his masterpiece. But if we consider Postnik to be the author of the cathedral, then this legend does not find documentary evidence. Postnik could not have been blinded, since for several years after the completion of construction he worked on the project of the Kazan Kremlin.
View of the cathedral from Vasilyevsky Spusk
St. Basil's Cathedral - an outlandish constellation of tents and domes
St. Basil's Cathedral is crowned with 10 domes. 8 churches, located symmetrically around the main temple in the form of an eight-pointed star, symbolize church holidays falling on the days of the decisive battles for Kazan. There are 8 onion-shaped domes installed on their tops. The central Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary is completed with a tent with a small dome, and the tenth dome is built above the bell tower.
All 9 churches are united by a single base and an internal bypass gallery, painted with intricate floral patterns. None of the domes is the same as the other. St. Basil's Cathedral was not always so colorful. The white stone and brick used in the construction of the church gave it austerity and restraint.
View of the cathedral from Red Square
In the 17th century, the domes of the cathedral were decorated with ceramic tiles, asymmetrical extensions were added, tents were erected over the porches, and the walls were covered with intricate paintings. In 1931, a bronze Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, which previously stood on Red Square, was erected in front of the cathedral.
St. Basil's Cathedral - a temple to the glory of the miracle worker
The main church of the temple was consecrated in honor of the Feast of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, the Intercession Church is called St. Basil's Cathedral and is associated not with Ivan the Terrible and the Kazan campaigns, but with the name of the Moscow holy fool - the man of God. Vasily lived on the streets of Moscow and even in severe frost he walked half naked, wearing chains on his body - iron chains with crosses. Ivan the Terrible himself treated him with reverence
Baths of the cathedral
When Vasily became seriously ill, the Tsar visited him with his wife, Tsarina Anastasia. A number of miracles are attributed to the saint. While in Moscow, he put out a fire in Novgorod with three bowls of wine. Vasily exposed lies, and under external piety he could guess the actions of the devil. So, in front of the amazed pilgrims’ eyes, he threw a stone at the image of the Mother of God, which was revered as miraculous. When the crowd began to beat Vasily, he shouted: “And you will scrape the primer!” Having removed the paint layer, people saw that a devil was drawn under the image of the Mother of God. Vasily died in 1552, and in 1588 a church was built over the burial site of the relics of the wonderworker. This extension gave the common name to the Intercession Church - St. Basil's Cathedral.