One of the visually most surprising buildings in the world!
The St. Basil Cathedral is located at the end of the Red Square opposite the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin.
This legendary building is officially called "The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat".
St. Basil’s Cathedral was built in 1555 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. It was completed in 1561. That's pretty much all the genuine history that's known about this celebrated landmark.
The church was dedicated to the protection and intercession of the Virgin, but it came to be known as the Cathedral of Vasily Blazhenny (St. Basil the Beatified) after Basil, the Russian holy fool who was “idiotic for Christ’s sake” and who was buried in the church vaults during the reign (1584–98) of Tsar Fyodor I.
The church was designed by two Russian architects, Posnik and Barma.
In 1918, St. Basil Cathedral was among the first Russian buildings to be taken into custody of the Soviet Government as the monument of Russian and world heritage. It opened as a museum in May 1923, and for the six more years regular church services were held in the Cathedral. Four major renovation works have taken place since 1920s and the Cathedral has been restored to its original shape.
