I can say for sure that St. Basil's Cathedral is the most beautiful church in Moscow! It's the heart of the city and for many people it’s a symbol of it. It is located also in Red Square. It was built in 1555-1561 by order of the tsar Ivan the Terrible in memory of the capture of Kazan.
The chronicle says that the creators of the cathedral are the Russian architects Postnik and Barma. According to legend Ivan the Terrible was very astonished by the beauty of the cathedral and he issued a directive to blind the architects so that they wouldn’t be able to reconstruct such a masterpiece ever again. The cathedral symbolizes the Jerusalem above!
Initially the name of the cathedral was Intercession of the Holy Virgin but later it got the name of Vasily Blajenny who was a holy fool and was teaching the people rectitude. He was canonized and his relics are located in the cathedral. There are many cases when people were cured after kissing the shrine with the relics.
The construction of the cathedral is very special. It consists of 9 separate churches, each of which is dedicated to one of the Saints in days when the tsar was winning a battle. Each church has its own name.
The domes of the churches became colorful only in the 19 century. Before they were single-color, probably green.
Nikolay Dubovsky, 1916-1917
Opening hours from 10:00 to 19:00;
Ticket office: from 9:00 to 17:00 in summer and from 9:30 to 16:30 in winter;
Ticket price: about 10$
Free day: Wednesday and festive days, check on the website or contact me
Website: http://www.shm.ru/visit/kontakty-i-rezhim-raboty/hvb/
Metro station: Okhotny ryad
