Saint Basil's Cathedral

Nowadays, Saint Basil's Cathedral is a part of the State Historical Museum and is in a list of the UNESCO world heritage in Russia. It annually attracts a lot of tourist and admirers of the ancient architecture, it can be considered as the eighth wonder of the world by right. The ceremonial service on the Intercession of the Theotokos provides a lasting impression, when zillions of candles are lighting in its halls, making people stand with palpitating hearts.

The beginning of the construction of the cathedral is considered to be connected with the victory of Russian people over Khanate of Kazan. The wonderful image of Saint Basil's Cathedral combines the traditions of the Russian architecture and European examples of Renaissance.

The main characteristic of the cathedral is that it stands on nine churches, which are located on the single foundation. The central altar was consecrated in the name of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin. By the beginning of the construction of the cathedral in the XVI century, the brick, from which it was decided to build the church, was new and little used material. Magnificent hipped roof tops the central part of the building. In all places it is surrounded by cupolas with wonderful decorations. It is easy to notice that all the cupolas have different design, but only if you scrutinize, you will see that the adornments of each cupola vary from each other as well. From the western side of the church there are two white stone richly decorated porches. The cathedral itself is not the only amazing structure here, the basement is quite interesting as well. Its vault has a huge length and, at the same time, there are no any supporting columns. Nowadays, there are icons of Pokrov Cathedral are stored. The height of the cathedral is 65 meters and up till the end of the XVI century it was the highest building on the territory of Moscow. One of the interesting characteristics of the cathedral is, also, that it has no clearly defined façade. In spite of everything, the cathedral survived all the wars and all the people, who ever wanted to destroy it, remaining one of the greatest monuments in the whole country.