St Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow

Card no 387 -  Masha

St Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow

Country: Russia

Place: Moscow

Received: 5^th February 2013

Distance:  1,618 miles

Travelled for:  20 days

 This is a beautiful photograph of a beautiful building.

The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat or Pokrovsky Cathedral are the official names for this Russian Orthodox church in Red Square in Moscow.  But the church is more commonly called the Cathedral of St. Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собор Василия Блаженного), anglicised as Saint Basil's Cathedral. It was built between 1555 and 1561 on the orders of Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan.

St. Basil's marks the geometric center of Moscow. It has been the hub of the city's growth since the 14th century and 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 side churches arranged around the ninth, central church of Intercession; the tenth church was erected in 1588 over the grave of a venerated local saint, St. Vasily. The building is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, a design that has no parallel in Russian architecture.  

This was the stamp -