St. Basils' Cathedral (Pokrovskiy Cathedral)

Officially the cathedral is called the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin. It was constructed in 1560 to the order of Ivan the Terrible to commemorate his victory over the Tartar city of Kazan on the Volga. The architects from Pskov, Barma and Postnik, were commissioned to build something new and astonishing on the Red Square, and in a strikingly original way. The architects incorporated all the features of Russian wooden churches and rendered them into stonework. The result was stunning. There is a story that after seeing the cathedral for the first time, Ivan the Terrible had the men blinded so that they could never build anything to surpass the wonder of this new edifice. It was painted in rich colours and in the 17th century coloured tiles were added for decoration. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around one central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great significance in orthodox religion; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the old calendar) and the promised Heavenly Realm. Today the Cathedral is a museum. It contains an exhibition relating to the history of the building, the story of its construction. The building has no expressed main facade and is designed for an all-round viewing. The Cathedral contains the iconostasis of the Trinity Church, the famous Entry into Jerusalem icon. The exotic splendour of the Cathedral makes it one of the best and most striking examples of Old Russian architecture.