There are few buildings more famous in Moscow ?€” or around the world ?€” than St. Basil's cathedral. Its colorful domes and dramatic silhouette against the Kremlin cut a figure that many see as the very symbol of Russia.
The church itself, built from 1555 to 1561, is steeped in legend, the most popular one dating back to Ivan IV, or Ivan the Terrible, the tsar who commissioned the cathedral. When he saw the finished product, the legend goes, he had the architects blinded with a hot poker so they would never again create anything as beautiful.
Best remembered for the tragic events of his reign, such as sacking Novgorod, killing thousands of people and murdering his own son, Ivan's earlier years in power were considerably less destructive.
His victories over the khans of Kazan and Astrakhan in 1552 and 1556 were of great importance. To commemorate these achievements, Ivan asked masters Barma and Postnik ?€” two architects about whom very little is known ?€” to erect a great religious monument on Red Square.
It is important to note that he chose Red Square ?€” then a bustling marketplace ?€” rather than inside the Kremlin walls for the church. This way, it could be seen from any point in the city.
While the church is widely known as St. Basil's, or Vasily Blazhenny, the official name dating back to the mid-1500s is Pokrova Bogoroditsy, based on the Russian Orthodox holiday Pokrov Den, when the tsar's forces took Kazan. Only later was the church popularly referred to as St. Basil's ?€” not after the Russian Orthodox St. Vasily, but after Vasily Blazhenny, a pauper who sat outside the church seeking alms. Some 60 years after the church was finished, a cozy little chapel was added in the name of Vasily Blazhenny. This addition not only spoiled the symmetry of the church, but it effectively changed its name.
The church that may have inspired Ivan to maim his architects was, in fact, quite different from the one that stands on Red Square today. Indeed, the original architects, even with their vision intact, would not be able to recognize their original masterpiece, a symmetrical, eight-domed structure: four greater domed towers with four smaller ones in between. The larger, tented Pokrovsky tower stood over the central chapel, and all of the towers were then united by an open-air gallery.
The composition of the church is particularly interesting. It originally had no main facades, only towers topped by simple metal domes. St. Basil's also represents a breakthrough in building technology. It is one of the first Moscow monuments in which bricks instead of white limestone were used.
According to some studies, the builders of the cathedral were so fascinated with the color and texture of bricks that they did not paint over them, mixing the red brick with some limestone details.
But the striking effect of today's St. Basil's is the result of a major reconstruction undertaken in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. At that time the smaller, metal domes that were part of the original design were replaced by the merrily painted, exaggerated onion domes we see today. The exterior surfaces were subject to the same colorful decoration. The slightly leaning Pokrovsky bell tower was also added, and the open gallery was enclosed in glass.
St. Basil's is also unique for its synthesis of styles. Although rich with elements of Italian Renaissance style, such as the elaborate entablements and rusticated columns, there are also elements reminiscent of English Tudor style, such as the triangular frontons.
Like other ecclesiastical monuments of its time ?€” such as the John the Baptist church built for Ivan's coronation that is located nearby and the Church of the Ascension located at the Kolomenskoye open-air museum that was built to commemorate the birth of Ivan IV ?€” St. Basil's was intended from the beginning to be a monument, not a place for mass worship. This is immediately felt upon entering the church. The church's interior, with its gloomy corridors and unexpectedly small chapels, is a stark contrast to the gay exterior.
Inside are 10 chapels in all: one under each of the eight domes, one under the Pokrovsky tower and one under the Vasily Blazhenny chapel added later.
If you do visit St. Basil's interior, be sure to take a pair of binoculars to observe the restored ornamentation reminiscent of primitive Native American art on the upper reaches of the towers. In the chapel of the Tryokh Patriarkhov, or Three Patriarchs, the interior is brightly painted in 18th-century style.
After St. Basil's major reconstruction in the early 18th century, the great church entered a period of neglect. Indeed, the great Russian poets of the Golden Age hardly mention the church, preferring instead the styles of Western Europe. It is no wonder that by the beginning of the 20th century St. Basil's was in such an awful state that sources at the time report it "could have fallen in pieces at any moment."
It was only months before the 1917 revolution that the City Duma found funds to renovate the church. But restoration work did not actually begin until 1924.
While it was the Bolsheviks who ordered St. Basil's to be restored, not every revolutionary wanted the cathedral to remain on Red Square. They found the religious symbol in the heart of Moscow to be a dangerous influence in the new worker's state. Some even called for a palace of labor to be built in its place.
But the cathedral was saved by a latter-day tyrant who, perhaps, admired Ivan the Terrible's methods. Josef Stalin allowed St. Basil's to stay, calling it a pearl of Russian national architecture.
Sergei Nikitin is the editor in chief of Stolypino homeward Internet, a web site focusing on Russian culture (www.stolypino.narod.ru). He welcomes comments and questions about Moscow architecture at postmodernidze@imail.ru
The church itself, built from 1555 to 1561, is steeped in legend, the most popular one dating back to Ivan IV, or Ivan the Terrible, the tsar who commissioned the cathedral. When he saw the finished product, the legend goes, he had the architects blinded with a hot poker so they would never again create anything as beautiful.
Best remembered for the tragic events of his reign, such as sacking Novgorod, killing thousands of people and murdering his own son, Ivan's earlier years in power were considerably less destructive.
His victories over the khans of Kazan and Astrakhan in 1552 and 1556 were of great importance. To commemorate these achievements, Ivan asked masters Barma and Postnik ?€” two architects about whom very little is known ?€” to erect a great religious monument on Red Square.
It is important to note that he chose Red Square ?€” then a bustling marketplace ?€” rather than inside the Kremlin walls for the church. This way, it could be seen from any point in the city.
While the church is widely known as St. Basil's, or Vasily Blazhenny, the official name dating back to the mid-1500s is Pokrova Bogoroditsy, based on the Russian Orthodox holiday Pokrov Den, when the tsar's forces took Kazan. Only later was the church popularly referred to as St. Basil's ?€” not after the Russian Orthodox St. Vasily, but after Vasily Blazhenny, a pauper who sat outside the church seeking alms. Some 60 years after the church was finished, a cozy little chapel was added in the name of Vasily Blazhenny. This addition not only spoiled the symmetry of the church, but it effectively changed its name.
The church that may have inspired Ivan to maim his architects was, in fact, quite different from the one that stands on Red Square today. Indeed, the original architects, even with their vision intact, would not be able to recognize their original masterpiece, a symmetrical, eight-domed structure: four greater domed towers with four smaller ones in between. The larger, tented Pokrovsky tower stood over the central chapel, and all of the towers were then united by an open-air gallery.
The composition of the church is particularly interesting. It originally had no main facades, only towers topped by simple metal domes. St. Basil's also represents a breakthrough in building technology. It is one of the first Moscow monuments in which bricks instead of white limestone were used.
According to some studies, the builders of the cathedral were so fascinated with the color and texture of bricks that they did not paint over them, mixing the red brick with some limestone details.
But the striking effect of today's St. Basil's is the result of a major reconstruction undertaken in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. At that time the smaller, metal domes that were part of the original design were replaced by the merrily painted, exaggerated onion domes we see today. The exterior surfaces were subject to the same colorful decoration. The slightly leaning Pokrovsky bell tower was also added, and the open gallery was enclosed in glass.
St. Basil's is also unique for its synthesis of styles. Although rich with elements of Italian Renaissance style, such as the elaborate entablements and rusticated columns, there are also elements reminiscent of English Tudor style, such as the triangular frontons.
Like other ecclesiastical monuments of its time ?€” such as the John the Baptist church built for Ivan's coronation that is located nearby and the Church of the Ascension located at the Kolomenskoye open-air museum that was built to commemorate the birth of Ivan IV ?€” St. Basil's was intended from the beginning to be a monument, not a place for mass worship. This is immediately felt upon entering the church. The church's interior, with its gloomy corridors and unexpectedly small chapels, is a stark contrast to the gay exterior.
Inside are 10 chapels in all: one under each of the eight domes, one under the Pokrovsky tower and one under the Vasily Blazhenny chapel added later.
If you do visit St. Basil's interior, be sure to take a pair of binoculars to observe the restored ornamentation reminiscent of primitive Native American art on the upper reaches of the towers. In the chapel of the Tryokh Patriarkhov, or Three Patriarchs, the interior is brightly painted in 18th-century style.
After St. Basil's major reconstruction in the early 18th century, the great church entered a period of neglect. Indeed, the great Russian poets of the Golden Age hardly mention the church, preferring instead the styles of Western Europe. It is no wonder that by the beginning of the 20th century St. Basil's was in such an awful state that sources at the time report it "could have fallen in pieces at any moment."
It was only months before the 1917 revolution that the City Duma found funds to renovate the church. But restoration work did not actually begin until 1924.
While it was the Bolsheviks who ordered St. Basil's to be restored, not every revolutionary wanted the cathedral to remain on Red Square. They found the religious symbol in the heart of Moscow to be a dangerous influence in the new worker's state. Some even called for a palace of labor to be built in its place.
But the cathedral was saved by a latter-day tyrant who, perhaps, admired Ivan the Terrible's methods. Josef Stalin allowed St. Basil's to stay, calling it a pearl of Russian national architecture.
Sergei Nikitin is the editor in chief of Stolypino homeward Internet, a web site focusing on Russian culture (www.stolypino.narod.ru). He welcomes comments and questions about Moscow architecture at postmodernidze@imail.ru