St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square

Red Square Is Highlight of Moscow on Russian Waterways Cruises

The official name of St. Basil's is the Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat. The cathedral got its name because Ivan the Terrible commissioned the construction of the church to celebrate the victory over the Tatars in Kazan on the Volga River in 1552. This victory occurred on the day of the Feast of the Intercession of the Virgin. The moat in its name once separated the Kremlin from Red Square. The church is called St. Basil's because St. Basil the Blessed in buried within.

St. Basil's has had a somewhat lucky past. Napoleon ordered his troops to blow up the church in 1812, but the exterior was saved although the men significantly damaged the inside. Stalin also planned to blow up St. Basil's because it impeded traffic around the square. Fortunately, he changed his mind.

St. Basil's looks exactly as I expected. The cathedral's traditional Russian timber design looks like a hodge podge of gables, roofs, and twisted onion domes. Architecturally, St. Basil's is symmetrical, but the varied colors and shapes make it look exotic and asymmetrical. Before 1670 the domes were gold and the church was white, much like the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Kremlin. Each of the numerous chapels inside is different, and each has its own story. Today St. Basil's is mostly a museum, and there is a fee to enter.