• Orthodox Cathedral St. Basil's (XVI century) is symbol of Russian church architecture that time.
• IN Soviet time There was a museum here, and religious services resumed in 1991. Now held every week.
• Architect, who built St. Basil's Cathedral, was called Barma Postnik.
• The magnificently decorated church was a thanksgiving to the Almighty for the outstanding military success ‒ capture of Kazan.
• The cathedral consists of nine separate churches, which are located on the same foundation and connected by two galleries.
• The relics of St. Basil, the holy fool who lived in Moscow in the 16th century, are buried in the temple.

The narrow galleries between the churches also have decoration: in the 17th century. they were painted floral ornament, and a little later – with story frescoes. Special attention It is worth paying attention to the basement, which used to serve as a treasury. Its space is covered with complex box vaults. In addition, a collection of icons is exhibited in the basement, as well as silver dishes, samples of weapons and a beautiful cover on the shrine of St. Basil, embroidered in the 16th century.

St. Basil the Blessed and the shrines of the cathedral

Saint Basil the Blessed, whose relics are buried in the Cathedral, lived in Moscow in the 16th century. and was a holy fool - a religious ascetic who rejected worldly goods. His life says that he all year round walked without clothes, slept on the street and observed strict fast. According to legend, he performed many miracles and had the gift of providence: Ivan the Terrible himself was afraid of his speeches. The saint was greatly revered, and his memory has been preserved to this day. The temple also contains the grave of Blessed John of Moscow.

Today, July 12, the Intercession Cathedral, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral, celebrates its 450th anniversary. This date is not accidental: on July 2 (June 29, old style), 1561, the central Intercession Church of the cathedral was consecrated.

Cathedral of the Intercession Holy Mother of God on the Moat, better known as St. Basil's Cathedral, is located in the southern part of Red Square in Moscow, near the Kremlin's Spassky Gate, above the descent to the Moskva River. It was built in the mid-16th century by order of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible to commemorate the conquest of the Kazan Khanate - part of the former Golden Horde - as a sign of gratitude for the victory.

It is not known exactly what stood before on the site of the Intercession Cathedral. Russian chronicles contain fragmentary and contradictory reports about wooden and stone churches. This gave rise to many guesses, versions and legends.

According to one version, soon after the return of Ivan IV the Terrible from the Kazan campaign of 1552, on the site of the future Church of the Intercession on the Moat on the edge of the Moscow River, a wooden church in the name of Life-Giving Trinity with seven aisles.

Saint Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow advised Ivan the Terrible to create a stone church here. Metropolitan Macarius also owned the main compositional idea future temple.

The first reliable mention of the construction of the Church of the Intercession of Our Lady dates back to the autumn of 1554. It is believed that it was a wooden cathedral. It stood for a little over six months and was dismantled before the construction of the stone cathedral began in the spring of 1555.

The Intercession Cathedral was built by Russian architects Barma and Postnik (there is a version that Postnik and Barma are the names of the same person). According to legend, so that the architects could not create a new and better creation, Tsar Ivan IV, upon completion of the construction of an outstanding masterpiece of architecture, ordered them to be blinded. This fiction was subsequently proven to be untenable.

The construction of the temple took only 6 years and only in the warm season. The chronicle contains a description of the “miraculous” acquisition by the masters of the ninth, southern throne, after the entire structure was almost completed. However, the clear symmetry inherent in the cathedral convinces us that the architects initially had an idea about the compositional structure of the future temple: it was planned to build eight chapels around the central ninth church. The temple was built of brick, and the foundation, plinth and some decorative elements were made of white stone.

By the autumn of 1559 the cathedral was basically completed. On the Feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God, all the churches were consecrated, with the exception of the central one, since “the larger church, the middle Intercession, was not completed that year.”

The consecration of the Intercession Church and, accordingly, the entire cathedral took place on July 12 (June 29, old style) 1561. Metropolitan Macarius consecrated the temple.

Each church of the cathedral received its own dedication. The Eastern Church was consecrated in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity. Researchers are still looking for an answer to why this church got its name. There are several hypotheses. It is known that in honor of the “Holy Life-Giving Trinity” a monastery was founded in 1553 in conquered Kazan. It is also believed that on the site of the Intercession Cathedral there originally stood a wooden Trinity Church, which gave its name to one of the chapels of the future temple.

Four side chapels are consecrated in honor of the saints, on whose memory days the most important events of the Kazan campaign took place: Cyprian and Justina (October 2 (15) - on this day the assault on Kazan ended), Gregory, the enlightener of Great Armenia (on his memory day September 30 (13 October) there was an explosion of the Arsk tower in Kazan), Alexander Svirsky (on his memorial day, August 30 (September 12), a victory was won over the army of Tsarevich Epancha, who was rushing from Crimea to help the Tatars), Three Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexander, John and Paul the New ( also commemorated on August 30).

Three more chapels are dedicated to Nikolai Velikoretsky, Varlaam Khutynsky and the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. The central throne is named in honor of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, since on October 1 (14), on the day of this holiday, symbolizing the intercession of the Mother of God for the Christian race, the main assault on Kazan began. The entire cathedral was named after the central church.

The prefix “on the Moat”, found in chronicles about the cathedral, is due to the fact that across the entire square, later called Krasnaya, along the Kremlin wall from the 14th century there was a deep and wide defensive ditch, which was filled in in 1813.

The cathedral had an unusual architectural composition - 9 independent churches were built on a single foundation - a basement - and connected to each other by internal vaulted passages surrounding the central temple. Outside, all the churches were surrounded by an initially open gallery-promenade. The central church ended with a high tent, the chapels were covered with vaults and topped with domes.

The ensemble of the cathedral was complemented by a three-hipped open belfry, in the arched spans of which massive bells hung.

Initially, the Intercession Cathedral was crowned with 8 large domes and a small dome over the central church. To emphasize the importance of the building material, as well as to protect the cathedral from atmospheric influences, all its exterior walls were painted in red and white colors. The painting imitated brickwork. The material of the original covering of the domes remains unknown, since they were lost during a devastating fire in 1595.

The cathedral existed in its original form until 1588. Then a tenth church was added to it on the north-eastern side over the grave of the holy fool St. Basil, who spent a lot of time near the cathedral under construction and bequeathed to be buried next to it. The famous Moscow miracle worker died in 1557, and after his canonization, the son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, Fyodor Ioannovich, ordered the construction of a church. Architecturally, it was an independent pillarless temple with a separate entrance.

The place where the relics of St. Basil were found was marked with a silver shrine, which was subsequently lost during the Time of Troubles, in early XVII V. Divine services in the saint's church soon became daily, and starting from XVII century, the name of the chapel is gradually transferred to the entire cathedral, becoming its “popular” name: St. Basil's Cathedral.

IN late XVI century, figured heads of the cathedral appeared - instead of the original burnt covering.

In 1672, an eleventh church was added to the cathedral on the south-eastern side: a small temple over the tomb of St. John the Blessed, the revered Moscow holy fool, buried near the cathedral in 1589.

In the second half of the 17th century appearance the cathedral took place significant changes. The wooden canopies over the walkway, which burned down every now and then in fires, were replaced with roofing on arched brick pillars. The Church of St. Theodosius the Virgin was built above the porch of the Church of St. Basil the Blessed. Above the previously open white stone stairs leading to the upper tier of the cathedral, vaulted hipped porches appeared, built on the so-called “creeping” arches.

In the same period, polychrome ornamental painting appeared. It covers the newly built porches, support pillars, outer walls of galleries and parapets of walkways. At this time, the facades of churches retain paintings imitating brickwork.

In 1683, the entire cathedral along the upper cornice was surrounded by a tiled inscription. Large yellow letters on a dark blue background of watered tiles reported on the history of the creation of the temple and its renovation in the second half of the 17th century. The inscription was destroyed a century later during another renovation.

In the 1680s. The belfry was rebuilt. In place of the open structure, a two-tier bell tower with an open upper platform for ringing was erected.

In 1737, during a huge fire, St. Basil's Cathedral was badly damaged, especially its southern church.

Dramatic changes in its painting program occurred during renovations in the 1770s and 1780s. The thrones of wooden churches demolished to prevent fires from Red Square were moved to the territory of the cathedral and under its vaults. At the same time, the throne of the Three Patriarchs of Constantinople was renamed in the name of John the Merciful, and the Church of Cyprian and Justina began to bear the name of Saints Adrian and Natalia (the original dedications to the churches were returned in the 1920s).

The inside of the church was painted with oil paintings depicting saints and hagiographic scenes. Oil painting was renewed in 1845-1848. and at the end of the 19th century. The outside walls were covered with paintings that imitated the masonry of large boulders - “wild stone”. The arches of the basement (lower non-residential tier) were laid, in the western part of which housing for the clergy (temple servants) was placed. The bell tower was combined by an extension with the cathedral building. The upper part of St. Basil's chapel (Church of Theodosius the Virgin) was rebuilt into a sacristy - a repository of church valuables and shrines.

In 1812, the order was given to French artillerymen to blow up the cathedral. However, it was only plundered by Napoleon's troops, but immediately after the war it was repaired and consecrated. The area around the cathedral was landscaped and surrounded by an openwork cast-iron lattice, designed by the famous architect O. Bove.

At the end of the 19th century, the task of returning the cathedral to its original appearance arose for the first time. The specially created Commission for the restoration of the monument included famous architects, scientists and painters, who determined the main directions of research and restoration of the Intercession Cathedral. However, lack of funds October Revolution and the subsequent period of devastation in the history of Russia did not allow the implementation of the planned program.

In 1918, the Intercession Cathedral was one of the first to be taken under state protection as a monument of national and world significance. Since May 21, 1923, it has been open to visitors as a historical and architectural museum. Moreover, until 1929, services were held in the Church of St. Basil the Blessed.

In 1928, the Intercession Cathedral became a branch of the State historical museum and remains so to this day.

In the 1920s Extensive scientific restoration work was carried out on the monument, thanks to which it became possible to restore the original appearance of the cathedral and recreate the interiors of the 16th - 17th centuries in individual churches.

From this moment to the present, four global restorations have been carried out, including architectural and pictorial works. The original 16th-century “brick-like” painting was restored outside, in the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God and in the Church of Alexander Svirsky.

In the 1950s-1960s. Unique restoration work was carried out: in the interior of the central church, a “temple chronicle” was discovered, in which the ancient architects indicated the exact date completion of the construction of the cathedral - July 12, 1561 (day of Equal-to-the-Apostles Peter and Paul); For the first time, the iron coverings of the domes were replaced with copper ones. The successful choice of material contributed to the fact that the dome coverings remain undamaged to this day.

In the interiors of four churches, iconostases were reconstructed, almost entirely consisting of icons of the 16th - 17th centuries, among which there are genuine masterpieces of the Old Russian school of icon painting ("Trinity" of the 16th century). The pride of the collection are the icons of the 16th-17th centuries. “Vision of the Sexton Tarasius”, “Nikola Velikoretsky in the Life”, “Alexander Nevsky in the Life”, as well as icons from the original iconostasis of the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary “Basily the Great” and “John Chrysostom”. In the remaining churches, iconostases from the 18th - 19th centuries have been preserved. Among them, two iconostases were moved in the 1770s. from the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin (altar barriers in the Church of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem and in the central church).

In the 1970s On the outer bypass gallery, under the later entries, a 17th-century fresco was discovered. The found painting served as the basis for recreating the original ornamental painting on the facades of the cathedral.

The year 1990 was an important milestone in the history of the museum: the Intercession Cathedral was included in the List of objects World Heritage UNESCO in Russia. After a long break, services were resumed in the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The following year, the cathedral was approved for joint use by the State Historical Museum and the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1997, the restoration of the interior, monumental and easel paintings was completed in St. Basil's Church, closed since the late 1920s. The church was included in the exhibition of the Intercession Cathedral, and divine services were resumed there.

The Russian Orthodox Church holds divine services in the Intercession Cathedral: on the days of the main altars (the Intercession and St. Basil), patriarchal or lordly services are held. Every Sunday an akathist is read at the shrine of St. Basil the Blessed.

In 2001-2011 The seven churches of the cathedral were completely restored, the façade paintings were renewed, and the tempera painting of the internal gallery was partially renewed. In 2007, the Intercession Cathedral became a nominee for the “Seven Wonders of Russia” competition.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

July 12, 2016 marks the 455th anniversary of one of the most famous architectural monuments of Moscow - the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Moat, which we know as St. Basil's Cathedral.

This famous cathedral, with its powerful walls and vaults, used to be used for hiding places. Deep niches were built in the walls of the basement, the entrance to which was closed by metal doors. There were heavy forged chests in which rich townspeople kept their valuable property - money, jewelry, utensils and books. The royal treasury was also kept there. What other legends and secrets does the temple that we call St. Basil’s Cathedral keep today?

Where did the name "St. Basil's Cathedral" come from?

Despite the fact that the cathedral was built in 1554 in honor of the victories of Ivan the Terrible over the Golden Horde, it was popularly named St. Basil's, after the name of the chapel added to the cathedral on the north-eastern side in 1588. It was built by order of the son of Ivan the Terrible - Fyodor Ioannovich over the grave Blessed Basil, who died in 1557, and was buried near the walls of the cathedral under construction. The holy fool walked naked in winter and summer, wearing iron chains; Muscovites loved him very much for his gentle disposition. In 1586, under Fyodor Ioannovich, the canonization of St. Basil took place. With the addition of St. Basil's Church, services in the cathedral became daily. Previously, the cathedral was not heated, since it was largely a memorial, and services were held in it only in the warm season. And the chapel of St. Basil's was warm and more spacious. Since then, the Intercession Cathedral has been known more as St. Basil's Cathedral.

Is it true that Ivan the Terrible gouged out the eyes of the temple builders?

The most common myth about the cathedral is the chilling story of gullible souls that Tsar Ivan IV allegedly ordered its builders, Postnik and Barma, to be blinded so that they would never be able to build anything else that could surpass and eclipse the newly erected architectural masterpiece. Meanwhile, there is no real historical evidence. Yes, the builders of the temple were really called Postnik and Barma. In 1896, Archpriest John Kuznetsov, who served in the temple, discovered a chronicle in which it was said that “The pious Tsar John came from the victory of Kazan to the reigning city of Moscow... And God gave him two Russian masters named Postnik and Barma and was wise and convenient for such a wonderful work ..." This is how the names of the cathedral’s builders became known for the first time. But there is not a word about blindness in the chronicles. Moreover, after completing the work in Moscow, Ivan Yakovlevich Barma took part in the construction of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, the Kazan Kremlin and other iconic buildings, which are mentioned in the chronicles.

Is it true that the cathedral was originally intended to be so colorful?

No, it's erroneous opinion. The current appearance of the Intercession Cathedral is very different from its original appearance. It had white walls, strictly painted to resemble brick. All the polychrome and floral painting of the cathedral appeared only in the 1670s. By this time, the cathedral had already undergone significant reconstruction: two large porches were added - on the north and south sides. The external gallery was also covered with vaults. Today in the decoration of the Intercession Cathedral you can see frescoes of the 16th century, tempera painting of the 17th century, monumental oil painting of the 18th-19th centuries, and rare monuments of Russian icon painting.

Is it true that Napoleon wanted to move the temple to Paris?

During the War of 1812, when Napoleon occupied Moscow, the Emperor liked the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary so much that he decided to move it to Paris. The technology of that time did not allow this to happen. Then the French first built stables in the temple, and later simply planted explosives in the base of the cathedral and lit the fuse. The assembled Muscovites prayed for the salvation of the temple, and a miracle happened - heavy rain began, which extinguished the wick.

Is it true that Stalin saved the Cathedral from destruction?

The temple miraculously survived the October Revolution - marks from shells remained on its walls for a long time. In 1931, a bronze monument to Minin and Pozharsky was moved to the cathedral - the authorities cleared the area of ​​unnecessary buildings for parades. Lazar Kaganovich, who was so successful in destroying the Kazan Cathedral of the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and a number of other churches in Moscow, proposed completely demolishing the Intercession Cathedral in order to further clear the place for demonstrations and military parades. Legend has it that Kaganovich ordered the production of a detailed model of Red Square with a removable temple and brought it to Stalin. Trying to prove to the leader that the cathedral interfered with cars and demonstrations, he unexpectedly tore off the model of the temple from the square. The surprised Stalin allegedly at that moment uttered the historical phrase: “Lazarus, put him in his place!”, so the question of demolishing the cathedral was postponed. According to the second legend, the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary owes its salvation to the famous restorer P.D. Baranovsky, who sent telegrams to Stalin calling not to destroy the temple. Legend has it that Baranovsky, who was invited to the Kremlin on this issue, knelt before the assembled members of the Central Committee, begging to preserve the iconic building, and this had an unexpected effect.

Is it true that the Cathedral now serves only as a museum?

The historical and architectural museum in the cathedral was founded in 1923. However, even then, during Soviet times, services in the cathedral still continued. They continued until 1929, and resumed again in 1991. Today the cathedral is jointly used by the State Historical Museum and the Russian Orthodox Church. Divine services are held in St. Basil's Cathedral weekly on Sundays, as well as on patronal holidays - August 15, the day of remembrance of St. Basil, and October 14, the day of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. Basil's Cathedral in a 16th-century engraving.

St. Basil's Cathedral. Photo of the beginning. 20th century

There are several versions about the creators of the cathedral.
According to one version, the architect was the famous Pskov master Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma.
According to another, widely known version, Barma and Postnik are two different architects, both involved in the construction.
According to the third version, the cathedral was built by an unknown Western European master (presumably an Italian, as before - a significant part of the buildings of the Moscow Kremlin), hence such a unique style, combining the traditions of both Russian architecture and European architecture of the Renaissance, but this version is still I never found any clear documentary evidence.
According to legend, the architect(s) of the cathedral were blinded by order of Ivan the Terrible so that they could not build another similar temple. However, if the author of the cathedral is Postnik, then he could not have been blinded, since for several years after the construction of the cathedral he participated in the creation of the Kazan Kremlin.

In 1588, St. Basil's Church was added to the temple, for the construction of which arched openings were laid in the northeastern part of the cathedral. Architecturally, the church was an independent temple with a separate entrance.
At the end of the 16th century. figured heads of the cathedral appeared - instead of the original covering, which burned down during the next fire.
In the second half of the 17th century, significant changes took place in the external appearance of the cathedral - the open gallery surrounding the upper churches was covered with a vault, and porches decorated with tents were erected above the white stone stairs.
The external and internal galleries, platforms and parapets of the porches were painted with grass patterns. These renovations were completed by 1683, and information about them was included in the inscriptions on the ceramic tiles that decorated the façade of the cathedral.

Fires, which were frequent in wooden Moscow, greatly damaged the Intercession Cathedral, and therefore, from the end of the 16th century. renovation work was carried out on it. Over the more than four-century history of the monument, such works inevitably changed its appearance in accordance with the aesthetic ideals of each century. In the documents of the cathedral for 1737, the name of the architect Ivan Michurin is mentioned for the first time, under whose leadership work was carried out to restore the architecture and interiors of the cathedral after the so-called “Trinity” fire of 1737. The following comprehensive repair work was carried out in the cathedral by order of Catherine II in 1784 - 1786. They were led by the architect Ivan Yakovlev.

In 1918, the Intercession Cathedral became one of the first cultural monuments taken under state protection as a monument of national and world significance. From that moment on, its museumification began. The first caretaker was Archpriest John Kuznetsov. In the post-revolutionary years, the cathedral was in dire straits. In many places the roof was leaking, windows were broken, and in winter there was even snow inside the churches. Ioann Kuznetsov single-handedly maintained order in the cathedral.
In 1923, it was decided to create a historical and architectural museum in the cathedral. Its first head was a researcher at the Historical Museum E.I. Silin. On May 21, the museum was opened to visitors. Active collection of funds has begun.
In 1928, the Intercession Cathedral Museum became a branch of the State Historical Museum. Despite the constant restoration work that has been going on in the cathedral for almost a century, the museum is always open to visitors. It was closed only once - during the Great Patriotic War. In 1929 it was closed for worship and the bells were removed. Immediately after the war, systematic work began to restore the cathedral, and on September 7, 1947, on the day of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow, the museum reopened. The cathedral became widely known not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders.
Since 1991, the Intercession Cathedral is in joint use of the museum and the Russian Orthodox Church. After a long break, services were resumed in the temple.

In St. Petersburg there is a memorial church in memory of Alexander II - the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, better known as the Savior on Spilled Blood (completed in 1907). The Intercession Cathedral served as one of the prototypes for the creation of the Savior on Spilled Blood, so both buildings have similar features.

Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary “on the Moat” July 13th, 2016

The Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary "on the Moat", also called St. Basil's Cathedral, rises on Moscow's Red Square, next to the Kremlin, opposite the Spasskaya Tower. It was erected here in 1561 in memory of the capture of Kazan by the Russian army, the capital of the powerful Khanate that threatened Russia centuries after the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

The second (popular) name of the temple was given in honor of the saint revered by Muscovites, a contemporary of the construction of the cathedral, buried under its porch.

But initially the temple did not look like it does now! Look...

It is not known exactly what stood before on the site of the Intercession Cathedral. Russian chronicles contain fragmentary and contradictory reports about wooden and stone churches. This gave rise to many guesses, versions and legends.

According to one version, soon after the return of Ivan IV the Terrible from the Kazan campaign of 1552, on the site of the future Church of the Intercession on the Moat on the edge of the Moscow River, a wooden church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity with seven chapels was founded on a hill.
St. Moscow Metropolitan Macarius advised Ivan the Terrible to create here stone church. Metropolitan Macarius also came up with the main compositional idea for the future church.

The first reliable mention of the construction of the Church of the Intercession of Our Lady dates back to the autumn of 1554. It is believed that it was a wooden cathedral. It stood for a little over six months and was dismantled before the construction of the stone cathedral began in the spring of 1555.
The Intercession Cathedral was built by Russian architects Barma and Postnik (there is a version that Postnik and Barma are the names of the same person). According to legend, so that the architects could not create a new and better creation, Tsar Ivan IV, upon completion of the construction of an outstanding masterpiece of architecture, ordered them to be blinded. This fiction was subsequently proven to be untenable.

The construction of the temple took only 6 years and only in the warm season. The chronicle contains a description of the “miraculous” acquisition by the masters of the ninth, southern throne, after the entire structure was almost completed. However, the clear symmetry inherent in the cathedral convinces us that the architects initially had an idea about the compositional structure of the future temple: it was planned to build eight chapels around the central ninth church. The temple was built of brick, and the foundation, plinth and some decorative elements were made of white stone.

By the autumn of 1559 the cathedral was basically completed. On the Feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God, all the churches were consecrated, with the exception of the central one, since “the larger church, the middle Intercession, was not completed that year.”

The prefix “on the Moat,” found in chronicles about the cathedral, is due to the fact that across the entire square, later called Red, along the Kremlin wall from the 14th century there was a deep and wide defensive ditch, which was filled in in 1813.

The cathedral existed in its original form until 1588. Then a tenth church was added to it on the north-eastern side over the grave of the holy fool St. Basil, who spent a lot of time near the cathedral under construction and bequeathed to be buried next to it. The famous Moscow miracle worker died in 1557, and after his canonization, the son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, Fyodor Ioannovich, ordered the construction of a church. Architecturally, it was an independent pillarless temple with a separate entrance.

The place where the relics of St. Basil were found was marked with a silver shrine, which was subsequently lost during the Time of Troubles, at the beginning of the 17th century. Divine services in the saint's church soon became daily, and starting from the 17th century, the name of the chapel was gradually transferred to the entire cathedral, becoming its "popular" name: St. Basil's Cathedral.

At the end of the 16th century, figurative domes of the cathedral appeared - instead of the original burnt covering.

In 1672, an eleventh church was added to the cathedral on the south-eastern side: a small temple over the tomb of St. John the Blessed, the revered Moscow holy fool, buried near the cathedral in 1589.

The cathedral had an unusual architectural composition - 9 independent churches were built on a single foundation - a basement - and connected to each other by internal vaulted passages surrounding the central temple.

The architecture of temples comes down to three types: tented, large towers and small towers. All of them are united using a single compositional technique: “octagon on quadrangle” - this means that the octahedron is placed on a cubic base. But the volumes of the premises are different, and their combinations are unusual. According to one of the main researchers of the cathedral, A.L. Batalov, “similarity and difference, unity and isolation - the reconciliation of these contradictory principles becomes main theme in the architecture of the cathedral and corresponds to the main idea of ​​its program.”

The most alive and bright statement about this temple belongs to 20-year-old Mikhail Lermontov: “...behind the wall itself, which descends to the right from the mountain and ends in a round corner tower, covered like scales with green tiles; a little to the left of this tower are the countless domes of St. Basil’s Church, the seventy aisles of which (this is, of course, not so - A.K.) all foreigners are amazed, and which not a single Russian has yet bothered to describe in detail.”

Almost 100 years later, the artist Aristarkh Lentulov saw this cathedral as an exotic “bouquet”.

German naturalist first half of the 19th century century, Johann Heinrich Blasius, who visited Russia in 1840, initially mistook it for a group of rocks or a colossal plant. But this is what was revealed to him later: “Only after climbing up, you begin to little by little understand that all parts of the temple are located symmetrically...”.

And - the logical ending: “Instead of a tangled, discordant labyrinth, this ultra-national architectural work reveals an exemplary order and correctness full of meaning” (!). In the mouth of a pedantic German, such an assessment is undoubtedly the highest praise.

Let's look at the cathedral first from above, from the domes. How many are there?

An arbitrary accumulation of domes is excluded; this is just an optical illusion deliberately prepared by the creators of the temple. In addition, the patterned chapters are not original. At the end of the 16th century, they replaced the much stricter and more modest “helmets” that had been damaged in the fire.

Let's start from the head above the central tent. It is immediately clear that around the main tent, diagonally, there are 4 small domes on low drums, under which there are three rows of semicircular kokoshniks “back-to-back”. Let us imagine for a moment that there are no large heads standing next to them. And now, before us is a five-domed temple, distinguished only by a sharply elevated central part: 1 + 4 = 5.

Now let's count the remaining domes. There are only 4 of them, and they are located on the cardinal points around the main tent, which also goes back to the five-domed structure traditional for Byzantine and Russian churches, although much rarer than the first. And here: 1 + 4 = 5.

We do not take into account the small low dome to the left of the altar - this is the head of the chapel over the relics of St. Basil, it appeared here later, in 1588. In the same way, the tented bell tower, built in 1683 instead of the previous belfry to the right of the altar, will have to be excluded from it. And then it turns out that the impression of incredible, incomprehensible multi-domedness was achieved by the simple connection of two traditional five-domed temples, as if inserted into one another. In this case, the result is, of course, not 10, but 9 - the central tent “works” for both five-domes.

But drawings made by foreigners, as well as ancient inventories of the cathedral, allow us to say that there were much more domes here.

Outside, along the perimeter of the main tent, there were 8 (!) very small domes. 4 similar domes stood around the largest, the Entrance to Jerusalem chapel, located in the center of the western facade of the cathedral, opposite the Spasskaya Tower. Alas, during the renovation of the 1780s they were dismantled - apparently, in the era of classicism this forest of domes (9 + 8 + 4 = 21!!!) seemed “architectural excess”. It's a pity…

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