St Basil's Cathedral

There could only be one place to start: St Basil's - probably the building that most people conjure up when they think of Russia. The red brick towers and the swirling colourful domes are actually made up of 9 chapels (eight were constructed originally and a ninth added to cover the grave of Basil the Blessed to whom the cathedral owes its name).

The domes were originally gilded and only became coloured for the first time in 1670.
As imposing as the domes are, the brick work and the delicate decoration around the bricks are just as impressive and can easily be overlooked as you follow the line of sight of the hundreds of tourists lined up pointing their cameras at the plump sweet like domes. As you can see above the red bricks are interlaced with white stones to form little patterns all around the cathedral and a delicate swirling flower pattern decorates the windows and doors in muted blues and oranges on a white background.

Twice the cathedral narrowly missed demolition. Firstly Napoleon, during his conquest of Moscow in 1812 ordered its destruction but rain soaked the gunpowder and they had to abandon the plan. Secondly Stalin wanted to get rid of the cathedral so that troops could exit Red Square more easily but the architect Baranovsky threatened to cut his own throat if the task was carried out. He might have saved St Basil's but the poor man got 5 years of hard labour in return.


The inside is worthy of another blip, or two, in its own right (maybe when the weather is a little colder!).

A more traditional postcard view.