Saint Basil's Cathedral
Compass point Type Dedicated to Commemorates
Central core Tented church Intercession of Most Holy Theotokos Beginning of the final assault of Kazan , 1 October 1552
West Column Entry of Christ into Jerusalem Triumph of the Muscovite troops
North-west Groin vault Saint Gregory the Illuminator of Armenia Capture of Ars Tower of Kazan Kremlin , 30 September 1552
North Column Saint Martyrs Cyprian and Justinia ( since 1786 Saint Adrian and Natalia of Nicomedia ) Complete capture of Kazan Kremlin , 2 October 1552
North-east Groin vault Three Patriarchs of Alexandria ( since 1680 Saint John the Merciful ) Defeat of Yepancha 's cavalry on 30 August 1552
East Column Life-giving Holy Trinity Historical Trinity Church on the same site
South-east Groin vault Saint Alexander Svirsky Defeat of Yepancha 's cavalry on 30 August 1552
South Column The icon of Saint Nicholas from the Velikaya River ( Nikola Velikoretsky ) The icon was brought to Moscow in 1555
South-west Groin vault Saint Barlaam of Khutyn May have been built to commemorate Vasili III of Russia
North-eastern annex ( 1588 ) Groin vault Basil the Blessed Grave of venerated local saint
South-eastern annex ( 1672 ) Groin vault Laying the Veil ( since 1680 : Nativity of Theotokos , since 1916 : Saint John the Blessed of Moscow ) Grave of venerated local saint
Naming
The building , originally known as `` Trinity Church '' , [ 10 ] was consecrated on 12 July 1561 , [ 12 ] and was subsequently elevated to the status of a sobor ( similar to an ecclesiastical basilica in the Catholic Church , but usually and incorrectly translated as `` cathedral '' ) . [ 98 ] `` Trinity '' , according to tradition , refers to the easternmost sanctuary of the Holy Trinity , while the central sanctuary of the church is dedicated to the Intercession of Mary . Together with the westernmost sanctuary of the Entry into Jerusalem , these sanctuaries form the main east–west axis ( Christ , Mary , Holy Trinity ) , while other sanctuaries are dedicated to individual saints . [ 99 ]
The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (, '), commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is a church in Red Square in Moscow, Russia and is regarded as a symbol of the country. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat (, ') or Pokrovsky Cathedral (). It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600. The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight churches arranged around a ninth, central church of Intercession; a tenth church was erected in 1588 over the grave of venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, the church, perceived (as with all churches in Byzantine Christianity) as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City, was popularly known as the Jerusalem and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar. The building is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, a design that has no parallel in Russian architecture. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century . a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design. The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century. As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's anti-theist campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928.