Moscow has a huge number of attractions and ancient monuments. The oldest and most beautiful of which is St Basil's Church. He truly is a symbol of all of Russia.
In this article we will talk about one of the attractions of Moscow, which is located on Red Square.
History of origin
The correct name of this building is the Cathedral of the Intercession Holy Mother of God. But because of the church included in the Cathedral complex and named after the blessed one, they began to call it St. Basil's Cathedral.
In ancient times, when Tsar Ivan the Terrible ruled Russia, wooden churches were erected on Red Square (then called Trinity) as a sign of victory over enemies. By 1552 there were quite a lot of churches. It so happened that it was on the feast of the Intercession Mother of God, Russian soldiers took the Kazan fortress. And then Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the wooden churches to be united into one stone temple. The temple was named Intercession Cathedral.
Construction of the Cathedral ended in 1561. By 1722, there were 18 churches on the territory of the Cathedral, including St. Basil's Church. But in 1737, the Cathedral and most of the churches were almost completely burned out during a strong fire. The cathedral was quickly restored, after which it was built and rebuilt many times.
The Temple received its name in honor of the local holy fool. He walked with chains on his naked body at any time of the year. It was, in a way, a punishment for human sins. The local population considered St. Basil a miracle worker and clairvoyant. After all, he once accurately predicted a fire that destroyed half of Moscow. And even Tsar Ivan the Terrible revered the holy fool and was a little afraid of him.
Died St. Basil the Blessed in August 1557 at the age of 82. An interesting fact is that the whole city gathered for the funeral, and the king himself and the princes carried the coffin with the body of the blessed one to the church. He was buried near the unfinished temple. 30 years later, a building was erected over his grave. In it he placed an altar with a throne for worship. The extension was given the name of the Blessed One, and later a church was erected here, and the relics of the blessed one were also placed here.
Description of the Temple
The Orthodox Church of incredible beauty is especially popular among tourists. It looks like a fairytale palace. Initially it was white, then, after each restoration, they began to decorate it with bright colors. But the most colorful were the domes. The temple is unique in that all 10 domes have different designs; there is not a single dome that is similar to another.
St. Basil's Cathedral - history of creation
The height of the Temple is 65m.
The uniqueness is that neither the Cathedral nor the churches have basements. They are standing on the basement.
The modern Cathedral houses 10 separate churches, including St. Basil's Church. Each church has the name of a saint after whom it is named. The central tower is named after the holiday - the Intercession of the Mother of God.
The inside of the church is painted with unique images of saints and scenes from their lives. In the temple you can see rare icons in combination with frescoes from the 16th century and paintings from the 17th century.
But despite the fires and wars that occurred during this time, the Temple managed to survive and avoid complete destruction.
In the modern Cathedral, divine services are held every year on the Feast of the Intercession of the Day.
Now the Cathedral houses a branch of the State Historical Museum. The museum displays an amazing collection of bells cast between 1547 and 1996, as well as a collection of weapons of Russian soldiers.
In 1561, one of the most famous churches in Russia was consecrated - the Intercession Cathedral, or, as it is otherwise called, St. Basil's Cathedral. The portal "Culture.RF" remembered Interesting Facts from the history of its creation.
Temple-monument
The Intercession Cathedral is not just a church, but a temple-monument erected in honor of the annexation of the Kazan Khanate to the Russian state. The main battle, in which Russian troops were victorious, took place on the day of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And the temple was consecrated in honor of this Christian holiday. The cathedral consists of separate churches, each of which is also consecrated in honor of the holidays on which the decisive battles for Kazan took place - Trinity, the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem and others.
A huge construction project in record time
Initially, a wooden Trinity Church stood on the site of the cathedral. Temples were erected around it during the campaigns against Kazan - they celebrated the loud victories of the Russian army. When Kazan finally fell, Metropolitan Macarius suggested that Ivan the Terrible rebuild the architectural ensemble in stone. He wanted to surround the central temple with seven churches, but for the sake of symmetry the number was increased to eight. Thus, 9 independent churches and a belfry were built on one foundation; they were connected by vaulted passages. Outside, the churches were surrounded by an open gallery, which was called a walkway - it was a kind of church porch. Each temple was crowned with its own dome with a unique design and original drum decoration. The 65-meter-high structure, grandiose at the time, was built in just six years - from 1555 to 1561. Until 1600 it was the tallest building in Moscow.
Temple in honor of the soothsayer
Although the official name of the cathedral is the Cathedral of the Intercession on the Moat, everyone knows it as St. Basil's Cathedral. According to legend, the famous Moscow miracle worker collected money for the construction of the temple, and then was buried near its walls. The holy fool St. Basil the Blessed walked the streets of Moscow barefoot, almost without clothes, almost all year, preaching mercy and help to others. There were also legends about his prophetic gift: they say he predicted the Moscow fire of 1547. The son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ioannovich, ordered the construction of a church dedicated to St. Basil the Blessed. It became part of the Intercession Cathedral. The church was the only temple that always worked - all year round, day and night. Later, by its name, parishioners began to call the cathedral St. Basil's Cathedral.
Louis Bichebois. Lithograph "St. Basil's Church"
Vitaly Grafov. Moscow wonderworker Blessed Basil. 2005
The royal treasury and lectern at Lobnoye Mesto
The cathedral has no basements. Instead, they built a common foundation - a vaulted basement without supporting pillars. They were ventilated through special narrow openings - vents. Initially, the premises were used as a warehouse - the royal treasury and the valuables of some wealthy Moscow families were kept there. Later, the narrow entrance to the basement was blocked - it was found only during the restoration of the 1930s.
Despite its colossal external dimensions, the Intercession Cathedral is quite small inside. Perhaps because it was originally built as a memorial monument. In winter, the cathedral was completely closed, as it was not heated. When services began to be held in the temple, especially on large church holidays, very few people could fit inside. Then the lectern was moved to the Place of Execution, and the cathedral seemed to serve as a huge altar.
Russian architect or European master
It is still not known for certain who built St. Basil's Cathedral. Researchers have several options. One of them, the cathedral, was erected by the ancient Russian architects Postnik Yakovlev and Ivan Barma. According to another version, Yakovlev and Barma were actually one person. The third option says that the author of the cathedral was a foreign architect. After all, the composition of St. Basil's Cathedral has no analogues in ancient Russian architecture, but prototypes of the building can be found in Western European art.
Whoever the architect was, there are sad legends about him future fate. According to them, when Ivan the Terrible saw the temple, he was struck by its beauty and ordered the architect to be blinded so that he would never repeat his majestic construction anywhere. Another legend says that the foreign builder was executed altogether - for the same reason.
Iconostasis with a turn
The iconostasis for St. Basil's Cathedral was created in 1895 according to the design of the architect Andrei Pavlinov. This is the so-called iconostasis with a turn - it is so large for a small temple that it continues on the side walls. It is decorated with ancient icons - Our Lady of Smolensk from the 16th century and the image of St. Basil, painted in the 18th century.
The temple is also decorated with paintings - they were created on the walls of the building in different years. Here St. Basil and the Mother of God are depicted; the main dome is decorated with the face of the Savior Almighty.
Iconostasis in St. Basil's Cathedral. 2016. Photo: Vladimir d'Ar
“Lazarus, put him in his place!”
The cathedral was almost destroyed several times. During the Patriotic War of 1812, French stables were located here, and after that the temple was going to be blown up. Already in Soviet time Stalin's associate Lazar Kaganovich proposed dismantling the cathedral so that there would be more space for parades and demonstrations on Red Square. He even created a model of the square, and the temple building was easily removed from it. But Stalin, seeing the architectural model, said: “Lazarus, put it in its place!”
(St. Basil's Cathedral) is a striking monument of Russian architecture located on Red Square. The magnificent and solemn appearance of the cathedral with unusual multi-colored domes, loved by Muscovites and well remembered by foreigners, made it one of the main symbols not only of Moscow, but of all of Russia.
The temple was built in 1555-1561 by an unknown architect (there are different versions) on the orders of Ivan the Terrible in memory of the victory over the Kazan Khanate and the capture of Kazan, which fell on the day of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Subsequently it was rebuilt several times.
The peculiarity of the temple is that it is essentially 9 separate churches united by a common foundation. In the center is the pillarless Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, around it are grouped 8 smaller churches: Trinity, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (in honor of the Velikoretsk Icon), Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, Martyrs Adrian and Natalia, St. John the Merciful, Alexander of Svir, Varlaam of Khutyn, Gregory of Armenia . The altars of churches are consecrated in honor Orthodox holidays and the days of remembrance of saints that fell on the days of the decisive battles for Kazan.
Architecture
The architectural appearance of the Intercession Cathedral is unique. Pretentious and solemn, like a painted gingerbread, at first glance it seems like a chaotic pile of multi-colored domes, but in reality this is not the case. The cathedral building has a clear structure and is a rhombus inscribed in a square, forming an eight-pointed star in plan. In fact, these are 9 separate churches united by a common base (basement): in the center there is a pillarless Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ending with a high tent with a small gilded dome; around it are grouped 8 smaller churches, crowned with relief onion domes of different colors. On the southern side there is a two-tiered tented bell tower, and on the eastern side there is a chapel in honor of St. Basil the Blessed. The building is surrounded by a closed gallery-gulbische, adjacent to which are two massive porches with a hip roof.
The height of the cathedral is 65 meters.
In total, the Intercession Cathedral is decorated with 11 domes, 9 of which are located above the churches, one above the chapel of St. Basil the Blessed, and another (very small) above the bell tower. Of these, 9 domes are distinguished by a unique relief and coloring: colored spikes, rhombuses, ornaments; The meaning of their colors is not known for certain, but it is believed that the temple symbolizes Heavenly Jerusalem. According to the assumption of the Russian writer Nikolai Chaev (1824 - 1914), the color of the domes is explained by the dream of Blessed Andrei the Fool (of Constantinople), who dreamed of the Heavenly Jerusalem with gardens with many flowering trees and fruits of indescribable beauty.
The decorative design of the temple looks magnificent, but laconic: it includes flies, half-columns, kokoshniks and weights traditional for Russian temple architecture. The entire perimeter of the gallery is painted with images of flowers and floral patterns. The walls are decorated with façade icons of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the upcoming Basil and St. John the Blessed (southern wall of the bell tower) and Our Lady of the Sign with saints in the fields (eastern façade).
History of the Intercession Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is on the Moat, got its name from its location near the city, which passed along Red Square along the eastern wall of the Kremlin in the 16th-19th centuries. However, in colloquial speech The official name of the temple is practically not used: it became better known as St. Basil's Cathedral - in honor of the most famous Moscow holy fool and miracle worker. - legendary personality in the history of Moscow; in the past, on the site of the Intercession Cathedral, there was a wooden Trinity Church (on the Moat), in the cemetery at which the holy fool was buried. After his canonization in 1588, a chapel in his honor was built above the burial place of the wonderworker at the Intercession Cathedral. Subsequently, people began to call the entire cathedral after the miracle worker.
The temple was built in 1555-1561 by order of Ivan the Terrible in memory of the capture of Kazan.
The history of St. Basil's Cathedral is full of mysteries and blank spots: in particular, it is not known for certain who its architect was. According to the most common version, it was built by architects Ivan Barma and Postnik Yakovlev, however, it is considered outdated. There is a version that the legendary Barma and Postnik are the same person (Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma), as well as a theory that the cathedral could have been built by an unknown Italian architect (since a significant part of the Kremlin buildings were built by Italians), which has not yet been found convincing confirmation. A widespread urban legend says that after construction, Tsar Ivan the Terrible, struck by the beauty of the cathedral, ordered the architects to be blinded so that they would not build anything like that again, however, in reality this is unlikely: if one of the architects was really Postnik Yakovlev, then after the Intercession Cathedral he took participation in the construction of the Kazan Kremlin and, obviously, could not be blinded. Although, again, there is a version that these were different Fasters.
The walls of the temple were built of red brick, which was a rather innovative building material for Moscow at that time. To protect rare material from exposure atmospheric precipitation, the outside walls of the building were painted in red and white tones, emphasizing the masonry. In 1588, by order of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, the chapel of St. Basil's was added to the temple, in the form of an independent pillarless church with a separate entrance.
Not much information has been preserved about what the Intercession Cathedral looked like originally. It is known that in the past the bypass gallery surrounding it was open and did not have massive hipped porches and paintings with floral patterns: the vault over the gallery and two porches over the stairs were built in the second half of the 17th century, when the building underwent significant reconstruction. During the same period, new churches were added to the cathedral: the Deposition of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Virgin Theodosius and others. According to the Russian historian Peter Khavsky, by 1722 there were 18 thrones in the cathedral: Life-Giving Trinity, Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, St. Nicholas of Velikoretsky, Beheading of John the Baptist, Paraskeva-Friday, Barlaam of Khutyn, Apostle Andronicus, Gregory of Armenia, Cyprian and Justinia, Deposition of the Virgin Mary, Sergius of Radonezh, Basil the Great, Alexander of Svirsky, Virgin Theodosia, Mary of Egypt, All Saints, Epiphany and Three Patriarchs.
The domes also looked different: those colored figured domes for which St. Basil's Cathedral is known today appeared only at the end of the 16th century; the former were probably helmet-shaped, and their covering was destroyed by one of the city fires. Even their original number is questionable: it is known that during the restoration of 1784-1786 under the leadership of the architect Ivan Yakovlev, 8 small domes at the base of the tent were dismantled, which were recognized as later additions.
IN Patriotic War In 1812, the cathedral was plundered by the French, but immediately after the war it was repaired and consecrated. In 1817, when Red Square was reconstructed according to the design of Osip Bove, the retaining wall of the temple from Vasilyevsky Spusk and Moskvoretskaya Street was lined with stone, and a cast-iron fence was installed at the top.
IN Soviet years St. Basil's Cathedral escaped demolition (although services were still banned in it) and became one of the first architectural monuments taken under state protection. Its museumification began in 1918, and in 1923 it was decided to create a historical and architectural museum there, which later became part of the State Historical Museum. Initially, the building was in a deplorable state, but already in the 1920s, repair and restoration work began in it, designed to return the cathedral to its original appearance and partially recreate the interiors of the 16-17 centuries. In 1931, the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, previously installed in the central part of Red Square, was moved to the cathedral.
After the breakup Soviet Union- since 1991 - the temple building is in joint use of the museum and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Myths and legends
Being one of the most famous sights of Moscow and having at the same time a rather vague history, St. Basil's Cathedral was simply bound to acquire urban legends.
The most widespread legend concerns the construction of the temple: supposedly Tsar Ivan the Terrible, struck by the incredible beauty of the building, ordered its architects - Barma and Postnik - to be blinded, so that they would never be able to build a more beautiful temple anywhere than in Moscow. In reality, this is unlikely: firstly, it is not known for certain which architects erected the building. In addition, it is not clear whether the legendary Barma and Postnik were different people- Ivan Barma and Postnik Yakovlev - or it was one person - Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma. Be that as it may, after the construction of the Intercession Cathedral, Postnik Yakovlev participated in the construction of the Kazan Kremlin, which means he could not have been blinded - unless, again, these were different people.
There is a legend that the image of the historical Kul-Sharif mosque, destroyed by Russian troops during the capture of Kazan in 1552, is “encrypted” in the structure of St. Basil’s Cathedral: 8 of its chapters supposedly symbolize the 8 minarets of the destroyed mosque, and the 9th dominates them to commemorate the victory .
They say that St. Basil the Blessed, foreseeing victory over Kazan, collected money for the construction of the Intercession Cathedral and, shortly before his death in 1552, transferred it to Ivan the Terrible. However, this legend has no evidence.
Not without the library of Ivan the Terrible! According to one legend, it was hidden precisely in the basements of the Intercession Cathedral. Unfortunately, in reality this is impossible: the building simply does not have basements. The cathedral was built on a massive basement, which rests on an artificial hill, and its foundation is not so deep. However, in the basement there were rooms for storing valuables; another urban legend says that they could have housed the royal treasury.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, when French troops were leaving Moscow, Napoleon ordered the cathedral to be blown up, however, the French were unable to do this: supposedly, the rain that started extinguished the wicks and prevented them from preparing the explosion of the building. They say that Napoleon gave such an order in his hearts: he liked the cathedral so much that he wanted to move it to Paris, but he was informed that this was impossible (what a surprise!).
In the 1930s, Lazar Kaganovich proposed demolishing the Intercession Cathedral to make more space for parades and demonstrations on Red Square. According to urban legend, he made a model of Red Square with a removable cathedral building and brought it for demonstration to Stalin to show how the cathedral interfered with the passage of cars and columns. Showing the model, he unexpectedly tore off the Intercession Cathedral from it to clearly show how much better it would be without it, but the surprised Stalin exclaimed: “Lazarus, put it in its place!” - and the cathedral was saved.
Nowadays, St. Basil's Cathedral is one of the most popular attractions in Moscow, a must-see point on the maps of tourists coming to the capital. Its unusual and memorable appearance made it one of the wonders and symbols of Russia - and even those who have never been to Moscow can easily guess its domes, which are often printed on postcards and souvenirs, in books, textbooks and encyclopedias. If somewhere they talk or write about Moscow and Russia, the words will most likely be illustrated with a photograph of the Intercession Cathedral.
At the same time, the townspeople truly love him.
Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the Moat located on Red Square, building 2. You can get to it on foot from the metro stations "Okhotny Ryad" Sokolnicheskaya line, "Revolution square" Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, "Theatrical" Zamoskvoretskaya and "China town" Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines.
On June 11 and 12, the Intercession Cathedral Museum is closed
The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Moat (St. Basil's Cathedral) is one of the most significant monuments of ancient Russian architecture of the 16th century. The cathedral was built in 1555-1561. by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in honor of the conquest of the Kazan kingdom.
The central church was consecrated in the name of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Four churches - the Three Patriarchs of Constantinople, Cyprian and Justina, Alexander of Svir and Gregory of Armenia - were consecrated in the name of the saints, on whose memory day important events of the campaign took place. The program of dedications of the cathedral churches also reflected other important events of Russian spiritual life in the second half of the 16th century: the appearance in the Vyatka lands of a new image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the glorification of the Venerables Varlaam of Khutyn and Alexander of Svir. The Eastern Church is dedicated to the main dogma of the Christian faith - the Holy Trinity. The Western Church of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem connects the cathedral with the image of the Heavenly City.
The Intercession Cathedral has unique wall paintings, an impressive collection of ancient Russian icon painting and masterpieces of church and applied art. The ensemble of ten churches with full iconostases, the interiors of which reflect the four-century history of the temple, is unique.
Freeing Red Square from buildings that “interfere” with large-scale holiday events(parades and demonstrations), Lazar Kaganovich proposed to completely dismantle St. Basil's Cathedral. And in order to convince Stalin that he was right, for clarity, he made a model of the square from which the church could be removed. But everything did not go as he planned: when he took the cathedral from the model, the leader did not appreciate these actions and said a phrase that would go down in the history of the temple forever: “Lazarus, put it in its place!”
St. Basil's Cathedral is located in the capital of Russia, Moscow, not far from the Kremlin, in the southern part of Red Square. On geographical map it can be found at the following coordinates: 55° 45′ 9.25″ N. latitude, 37° 37′ 23.27″ e. d.
A huge stone temple appeared here after Tsar Ivan the Terrible promised God that if the Kazan campaign was successful, he would build a cathedral.
In the meantime, while hostilities lasted, after each serious victory on Red Square, temporary churches were erected around the Trinity Church, dedicated to the saints on whose day the battle was won. When the war ended in victory, the tsar ordered on the site of these churches (there were eight buildings in total) to build one, a stone one, which would stand for centuries, and in honor of the fact that the final victory came on the Intercession, in October 1552, to name the temple the Intercession Cathedral.
The new church was built very quickly, in six years. The construction of the Moscow temple began in 1555 and ended in 1561. Researchers have still not come to a consensus about who exactly was its architect. Official version suggests that the architects Plotnik Yakovlev and Barma were responsible for the construction work, but in Lately Many historians agree that the architect of the temple was only one master - Ivan Yakovlevich Barma, popularly known as Plotnik.
Some historians put forward another unconfirmed hypothesis that the architect of the building is an Italian master (this is evidenced by the original style of construction, combining both elements of Russian architecture and European architecture of the Renaissance).
After the construction was completed, a legend arose that the king ordered the architects to be blinded so that they could not build a temple of such beauty. Recently, historians agree that this is just a myth, since there are documents confirming the architectural activities of Plotnik, who was involved in the construction of the Kazan Kremlin and other buildings.
Temple names
Even before the start of construction work, Moscow Tsar Ivan the Terrible named the temple erected not far from the Kremlin the Intercession Cathedral. For a long time, Muscovites called the cathedral the Trinity Church (the previously located shrine was dedicated to the Holy Trinity). And some time after the completion of construction, people nicknamed the temple St. Basil's Cathedral - in honor of the local holy fool, who constantly, regardless of the season, walked around with chains on his naked body. St. Basil the Blessed had clairvoyance and was able to predict the fire that almost destroyed Moscow in 1547.
He died in 1557 and was buried near the walls of the unfinished shrine, and thirty years later a chapel, an extension, was erected over his grave, in which an altar with a throne for worship was installed. Naturally, the chapel received the name of the blessed one, who was canonized at the same time: more than one miraculous healing was recorded over the place of his burial.
After the extension was completed, services began to be held in the Moscow cathedral every day: previously the temple was not heated, and therefore services took place there only in the warm season (the new extension was more spacious and warm).
Construction
The architects built the cathedral from brick - a rather new and unusual material at that time (usually, when building churches, architects used white hewn stone). In the western part of the temple, the craftsmen were even able to lay a ceiling of bricks, making round holes in them, inserting a metal clip and securely fastening them together.
Already at the initial stage, the architect faced the first problem: the building had to be built on sandy, loose and wet soil (the proximity of the Moscow River flowing nearby affected it), which made it impossible to make a deep foundation (the foundation of the temple is several meters deep). To resolve the situation, the architects used a very interesting move: the massive structure of the temple rests on a basement consisting of several rooms - the lower floor, the height of which is six meters, and the width of the walls is three meters, while the basement has very powerful vaults and ceilings.
As building material For the lower floor, it was decided to use white limestone: its ability to absorb moisture well made it possible to minimize the risk of flooding in the event of a flood. After the basements were installed, octagonal foundations were placed on them, on which it was planned to build future temples (thus, the foundation of the building externally resembled a honeycomb and was characterized by increased strength).
It is interesting that experts, speaking about the secrets of St. Basil's Cathedral, often mention hiding places that were built in special niches on the lower floor (until the end of the 16th century, the royal treasury was even hidden here, and rich townspeople hid their property).
It was not easy to get here - only a few people knew about the stairs leading from the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God, and subsequently this narrow passage was walled up. The passage was discovered only in 1930, when restoration work was carried out; now the icons of the cathedral are stored in the basement rooms.
The architects used an interesting method when creating acoustics inside the cathedral (a method not uncommon in the construction of ancient Russian churches): in order to create good sound, the architects installed clay pots and voice boxes into the walls of the temple, directing their necks towards the interior of the building. This method made it possible to relieve pressure on the load-bearing parts of the temple.
Description of the temple
Giving a description of the Moscow temple, experts focus on the fact that it lacks a clearly defined main facade: all its sides look basic. The height of the structure reaches 65 meters, so for a long time the temple was considered the tallest building in the city.
Nowadays, looking at the temple, it is difficult to believe that initially the cathedral was not so colorful: judging by the descriptions, the walls of the church were white. They began to repaint it some time later, and they did this by radically changing the appearance of the cathedral - historians discovered drawings on its walls depicting false windows, kokoshniks, and memorial inscriptions. Polychrome and floral painting on a red background appeared only at the end of the 17th century.
Judging by the descriptions that have survived, in former times the Intercession Cathedral was more beautiful and elegant: it had more complex paintings, and the main dome was surrounded by smaller ones.
The appearance of the building was quite changed a hundred years after construction was completed: two porches were added, the external gallery was covered with vaults, and the walls were painted inside the cathedral. Therefore, in the temple you can see a combination of rare monuments of ancient Russian icon painting with frescoes of the sixteenth century, paintings of the seventeenth, and oil paintings of the eighteenth.
The temple was built taking into account the cardinal directions: focusing on them, they built four churches, and the same number were built diagonally. The Intercession Cathedral has nine churches: in the center is the main Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God, surrounded by four large (from 20 to 30 m) and four small churches (about 15 m), near which there was a bell tower and St. Basil's chapel. All these churches are located on the same foundation, have a common bypass gallery and are connected by internal corridors.
Domes of the Intercession Cathedral
At first, twenty-five domes were installed on the Intercession Cathedral, symbolizing the Lord and the elders located near his throne. Subsequently, only ten of them remained: one is located above the bell tower, the other rises above the chapel of St. Basil's, the rest - each above its own temple. At the same time, they are all different from each other: not only the design of the large domes is unique, but also the finishing of each drum.
Scientists suggest that initially the domes had a helmet-shaped shape, but were quickly replaced by a bulbous shape; the current colors appeared only in the middle of the 19th century, and until the 17th century. the temple had golden domes.
Temple today
Judging by the descriptions, throughout history, St. Basil's Cathedral was rebuilt and changed its appearance more than once (frequent fires, which were not uncommon in the city, also contributed to the need for frequent repair work).
For the first time, St. Basil's Cathedral was on the verge of extinction in 1812, when the French, leaving the capital of Russia, mined it (though for some reason they could not blow it up, but they plundered the church). When the war ended, the Intercession Cathedral was not only restored, but also on the river side its wall was decorated with a cast-iron fence.
The temple experienced the saddest times in the 20th century. In 1918, the Bolsheviks shot the rector of the church, Ivan Vostorgov, for “anti-Semitic propaganda.” Three years later, all valuables were removed from the cathedral, and the building was transferred to the Historical Museum. For some time it remained an active church, until in 1929 services were banned by removing all the bells (services in the cathedral were resumed only in 1991).
The second time the temple was on the verge of extinction was in 1936, when restorer Pyotr Baranovsky was asked to measure the temple in order to subsequently demolish it. In response to this, the architect categorically stated that this idea was insane and criminal, and threatened to commit suicide if it was carried out. Immediately after this, an arrest followed, but the church was not touched: it had too many defenders. Therefore, when he was released six months later, the temple stood in the same place.
