St. Basil's Cathedral

St. Basil's Cathedral. Built in 1555-1561. Red Square. "At the S. end of the square is the Cathedral of St. Basil, or Vasili Blazhénni Cathedral, more properly called the Cathedral of the Virgin Protectress and Intercessor (Покровский Собборъ Василия Блаженнаго), a building of very singular appearance, begun by Ivan the Terrible in 1554 from plans by the Russian masters Barma and Postnik, to commemorate the conquest of Kazan. It was consecrated in 1557, but was not really completed until 1679. In 1812 the church was plundered by the French and used by them as a stable, but in 1839-45 it was restored in its original form. It consists of eleven small, dark chapels, arranged in two stories, and combined in a most extraordinary agglomeration. The building is surmounted by a dozen domes and spires, painted in all the colours of the rainbow, and of the most varied forms. Some of them are shaped like bulbs or pine-apples, some are twisted in strange spirals, some are serrated, some covered with facets or scales. All of them bulge out over their supporting drums and are crowned by massive crosses. The decoration, in which numerous Renaissance details may be detected, is of the most exuberant character. The whole effect is quaint and fantastic in the extreme).--Baedeker 1914. EE1975081p1a