St. Basil's Cathedral

Day 12236, 21:40:42: Old Joe the Mighty - Lvl 6 (Crewmember) starved to death!The most famous, the most famous, the most beautiful and mysterious... you can still choose many wonderful words for this amazing temple. All this is about St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, one of the symbols of Moscow. By the way, the official name of the temple is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, indeed, once there was a protective moat with a depth of 13 meters. This temple is unusual and unique... well, everything in order… Going on a campaign against Kazan in 1552, Tsar Ivan the Terrible vowed to build the greatest cathedral in the event of his victory. The assault on Kazan began on the day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, so the cathedral was consecrated in honor of this holiday. Initially, there was a wooden church on the square, other temples were built around it. After the capture of Kazan, the entire complex was rebuilt in stone in order to perpetuate the glorious victory in the centuries. As a result, instead of seven churches, nine and one belfry were erected. Each temple was crowned with a dome with a unique pattern. All the churches are united in a single ensemble, which has no analogues in the world.

The grandiose 65-meter structure was built in just six years. Until the beginning of the XVII century, the temple was the tallest in the capital. The personality of the Moscow wonderworker Vasily the Blessed is inextricably linked with him. It was said that Ivan the Terrible himself was afraid of him. The Blessed One had a visionary gift. The chronicles describe the case: during a feast in Moscow, Vasily went to the window and poured out the wine, when the tsar asked why he was doing this, the blessed one replied that he was putting out a fire in Novgorod. Indeed, at this very time Novgorod was on fire. The miracle worker also predicted a fire in Moscow… St. Basil was buried near the walls of the church, for which he collected money. The coffin was carried by Ivan the Terrible himself. But perhaps the most mysterious and mysterious legend is connected with the architects of the temple. It is still unknown for certain who created this divine creation, there are three versions: some researchers believe that the cathedral was built by Moscow architects Ivan Barma and Postnik Yakovlev; others believe that Barma and Yakovlev are one person; there is also an opinion that the author of the cathedral was a European master, indicating that there are no analogues in ancient Russian architecture, but there are in European. Further, the legend says that Ivan the Terrible was struck by the beauty of the temple and ordered either to put out his eyes, or to take the life of the architect so that he could not repeat his creation. This version was even included in school textbooks, apparently in order to justify the nickname of the tsar – the Terrible.

The main value of the cathedral is its unique iconostasis, which contains more than four hundred icons. In order to have the right acoustics inside, during the construction of the cathedral, a large number of clay pots were walled up in the walls with their necks inside. If you look at the temple from above, you can see that the churches form the Star of Bethlehem, a symbol of the Most Holy Theotokos. During the construction, a secret passage was equipped in the temple, connecting the cathedral with the royal treasury. The temple was repeatedly burned. They tried to destroy it several times. During the Patriotic War of 1812, Napoleon wanted to move the temple to Paris, but it was impossible to do so, then he decided to blow up the cathedral, but could not, it began to rain heavily, the gunpowder got wet and the temple remained in place. For the second time in 1936, the Politburo considered the issue of expanding Red Square, even made a mock-up for clarity. Lazar Kaganovich reported that when he removed the model of the temple from the square, Stalin sternly said: "Lazar. Put it back in its place." And the cathedral has been standing on this very place for almost 500 years and I would like to hope that it will stand forever… And in our museum, too. The layout of St. Basil's Cathedral was created by our masters for two whole years! This is a filigree, delicate and unique work, the layout repeats the original in the smallest details.