The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, popularly known as Saint Basil’s Cathedral (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного), is a Russian Orthodox church erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–1561. Built on the order of Ivan IV of Russia to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the geometric center of the city and the hub of its growth since the 14th century. It was the tallest building in Moscow until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
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| St Basil’s at night |
The picture was taken during my stroll from Maroseika via Ilyinka up Tverskaya Street and down the Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street towards the Krasnaya Presnya on Friday. The entire walk took about 1.5-2 hours. I am actually grateful to my friend who encouraged me to find the angle for the photo because the blue stripes on the dome were complementing the blue evening sky.
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| St Basil’s from the Moskva River |
The restoration works cost $14mln. The cathedral remains the federal property of the State and a branch of the State Historical Museum, although the religious ceremonies also take place inside.
More posts:
St Basil’s Cathedral Marks 450th Anniversary (Los Cuadernos de Julia)
Moscow Summer: St Basil’s Cathedral from the Moskva River (Los Cuadernos de Julia)
Moscow’s St Basil’s Cathedral Is 450 (NowPublic)
I've loved all your recent posts on Moscow's churches. I'm a non-believer, but have always adored church buildings. Not sure what it says about me, but in many ways I consider myself a spiritual person, just not religious. I don't know if that makes sense. Probably it means I'm rather confused 🙂
Carola, thanks so much, and it makes perfect sense to me what you are saying about being a spiritual, rather than religious, person. I am exactly the same, plus I don't actually belong to any church. To me, there is faith, and then there is religion, which is an institutionalised faith. And if you excuse the pun, “institutionalised” sometimes suggests “being put in the lunatic asylum”, and this is what they do with faith once they lock it in within a church. This is the reason why for a long time I couldn't even go into a church, it seemed to be full of bigots. Something happened in England where I started visiting churches, not regularly, but now and again. I began to like the ambience, let alone architecture. This is what I'm trying to “preserve” here in Russia. All the more so b/c there's an assumption that churches were destroyed in bulk. In truth, it was the same kind of iconoclasm as England had seen in the 16th c., with the added secularisation.
A perfect way of putting it, Julia. You echo my own sentiments of religion being ‘institutionalised’. The ‘locked-in’ thing makes it incredibly limiting and dictatorial, I think. I believe it’s why, over the centuries, religion has engendered so many wars, fanaticism, radicalism, etc. and probably always will. As it obviously does for you, to me ‘faith’ has a wider and freer sense, encompassing all of life. From faith in my fellow humans, my own convictions and world view, to trusting people, being free to express myself how I see fit and even feeling safe in the environs I inhabit at any given time. I’ve always hated conforming and being independent in body, thought and spirit are vital to me. None of these fit in with the dogma of religion.
I love St. Magnus Cathedral here in Orkney. Architecturally it’s stunning, I think, particularly the interior. Historically it has a fascinating past. Although classed as one of the world’s smallest Cathedrals, it ‘feels’ vast and impressive inside. It isn’t affiliated to any church, but belongs to the people of Orkney. A kind of ‘free’ church, I guess. I list a few links in case you’re interested in having a peep at them.
http://www.stmagnus.org
http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/stmagnus/magcath.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Magnus_Cathedral
Carola, thanks so much for the links – do you have any photos of the cathedral? Or would you make any, please, and I would happily show them all here? The cathedral is a beautiful place, especially being so old.
You're very welcome, Julia.
I'm afraid I don't have any recent photos of St. Magnus Cathedral. The ones I have are all pre-digital. Please give me a while and I'll either try to find them and scan them or if that doesn't work well, take some new ones.