Москва

St. Basil's Cathedral is an Orthodox church on Red Square in Moscow, one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or the Intercession Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 by order of Ivan the Terrible and dedicated to the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan.

In the place where St. Basil's Cathedral now stands, in the XVI century there was a stone Trinity Church, "what's on the Moat". We know that our ancestors did not give names just like that — there really was a defensive moat stretching along the entire wall of the Kremlin along Red Square (and along this moat — where public executions were carried out — there were several more churches that had the prefix "on blood" in their names). This moat was filled in only in 1813
It was built on Red Square in 1555 - 1561

The peculiarity of the temple is that in fact it is 9 separate churches united by a common foundation. In the center is the pillar-less Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, 8 smaller churches are grouped around it: Trinity, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (in honor of the Velikoretsky Icon), the Entrance of the Lord to Jerusalem, Martyrs Adrian and Natalia, St. John the Merciful, Alexander Svirsky, Varlaam Khutynsky, Gregory of Armenia. ... On the south side there is a two-tiered tent bell tower, and on the east side there is a chapel in honor of St. Basil. The building is surrounded by a closed gallery-gulbyshche, to which two massive porches with a hipped roof adjoin.
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In 1929, St. Basil's Cathedral was closed for divine services, the bells were removed from it and melted down. And in the 1930s, when planning the reconstruction of Red Square, the Soviet government seriously considered the demolition of the temple, since it allegedly interfered with the movement of cars. According to legend, Stalin personally forbade Lazar Kaganovich to touch the cathedral.

The temple is inside

The corridors of the temple

The decoration of the temple

The Pokrovsky Cathedral is richly decorated with wall paintings, has an impressive collection of ancient Russian iconography and masterpieces of church and applied art. The ensemble of 11 churches with full iconostases is unique, the interiors of which reflect the history of the temple for four and a half centuries

Now there is a branch of the Historical Museum in the cathedral, and the flow of tourists there does not dry up. Since 1990, it has occasionally hosted services.