ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL
St. Basil's Cathedral was built by Postnik and Barma in
1555-1561. It was commissioned by Ivan IV (the Terrible) to
commemmorate the annexation to Russia of the Mongol states of
Kazan and Astrakhan. Since this occured on the festival of the
Intercession of the Virgin in 1552, Ivan named it the Cathedral
of the intercession of the Virgin (Pokrovsky Sobor).The names of the architects were unknown until 1896, when old manuscripts mentioning it's construction were found. According to the chronicler, the architects of the cathedral were sent to Ivan by God. There was a story that, Ivan had had the two architects blinded so that they could never again create such a beautiful church. However, records from 1588, a quarter century after the cathedral's completion, (and four years after Ivan's death), indicate that Postnik and Barma built the chapel at the north-east corner of the cathedral, where the holy prophet, or fool in Christ, Basil (Vasily) was buried. This chapel was commissioned by Tsar Fyodor.
The Holy fools, or fools in Christ, were itinerant ascetics who enjoyed great popularity among the ordinary people of Russia, many of them being revered as saints. Vasily first came to the Tsar's notice in 1547 when he foretold the fire that swept Moscow that year.
Cannonized after his death, Basil the Blessed died the same year (1552) that many of the Mongol Khannates were captured. Basil had opposed the cruelties of Ivan, and was well-known for his fearless denounciation of the Tsar. When, after Ivan's death, his chapel was built onto the cathedral, the name of the chapel gradually came to be applied to the whole cathedral.
The cathedral is built of stone and brick covered with
stucco in traditional Russian style with
eight colorful onion
domed chapels surrounding a central tent-roofed structure. The
transition from the square sub-structure to the main octagonal
tower is accomplished by recessive interspaced tiers of ornate
kokoshniki. The eight chapels symbolize the eight assaults on
Kazan, and are dedicated to religious festivals and saints on
whose feast days the Russian army acheived major victories in
the Kazan campaign. It's ground plan is in the form of an
eight-pointed star. The domes were given their present form at
the end of the 16th century. Originally the domes were
helmet-shaped, and were set around a central tower which was
destroyed at the end of the 18th century. The colorful painting
of the domes dates from the 17th century, when the bell tower
was added and the open galleries around the whole complex were
vaulted over.
The cathedral is based on strictly geometrical principles. In the center is the main church with it's 57m (187ft) high tower. This tower is an octagonal tent-roofed structure topped by a small golden dome. Around this central tower are four large and four small chapels, each with a dome in proportion to it's size. The four larger chapels are at the ends of an imaginary cross with the main church at it's central point. The smaller chapels lie between the larger ones. The cathedral stands on a high base.
The four larger chapels have an octagonal lower storey topped by a series of triangles enclosing slit windows. The apexes of the triangle point upwards, giving a strong sense of vertical movement. Above these are a cornice and a band of blind semicircular arches, and above these again are more triangles and slit windows, maintaining the upward movement.
The towers of the four smaller chapels begin with tiers of blind semicircular arches, set back one above the other. Above these is the drum supporting the dome, with brick mosaic decoration and slit windows.
The interior is decorated with frescoes dating mostly from the
16th century and icons from the 15th-17th centuries. Each of the
nine churches is prolonged upward into a drum surmounted by a
dome. The chambers are connected by low, vaulted passages within
the thick walls, with a narrow vaulted corridor around them. The
low, arched doorways and windows are of various forms, all deeply
recessed and flanked with engaged columns.
The French stabled their horses here in 1812, and before leaving Moscow Napoleon wanted to blow it up. Luckily, because of cold, hunger, and the fear of sabotage by the people of Moscow, this order was never carried out.
The interior, open to the public, has undergone much reconstruction. It was a branch of the Historical museum, but was returned to the Orthodox church for the Easter festivities of 1991.
The photographs on this page were taken inside the cathedral looking into two of the chapels. I wish they were better. We took many more, but unfortunately the film didn't advance in the camera.
On the next page are more photographs which contain some very nice close-ups of some of the fresco painting on the outside of the cathedral, and the domes.
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