Saint Basil's Cathedral

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, often known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Moscow's Red Square and one of Russia's most recognized cultural landmarks. The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, now a museum, is formally known as Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built under Ivan the Terrible's orders between 1555 and 1561 to commemorate the conquering of Kazan and Astrakhan. Until the erection of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600, it was the tallest building in the city.

The original Trinity Church, subsequently Trinity Cathedral, had eight chapels organized around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was built in 1588 over the burial of the venerated local saint Vasily. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the church was popularly known as the "Jerusalem," and it functioned as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.

As one of the most beautiful historical sites in Russia, Saint Basil's Cathedral has nine domes and is designed like a bonfire's flame ascending towards the sky. The cathedral foretold the 17th-century apogee of Russian national architecture.

As part of the Soviet Union's anti-religious activities, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community and has operated as a component of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was totally secularized in 1929 and is still a Russian Federation state property. Since 1990, the church has been a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square. Since 1997, following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly Orthodox Christian services with a prayer to St. Basil have been reinstated.

Location: Red Square, Moscow, Russia