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Many would think that St. Basil's Cathedral alone would justify a visit to Moscow. This extraordinary building - the supreme achievement of 16th century architecture in Moscow - is now a branch of the State Historical Museum.
With its ground-plan in the form of an eight-pointed star, its nine churches and its bizarre domes, its vivid colours and it's heterogeneous assortment of architectural elements, the church was originally built by Ivan the Terrible in 1555-61. It was called the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin (Pokrovsky Sobor) to commemorate the capture of Kazan, capital of Kazan, on the festival of the Intercession of the Virgin in 1552. According to the chronicler, the architects of the cathedral, Postnik and Barma, were sent by God to Ivan the Terrible. There is a story that Ivan had them blinded after the building was completed; however, this is no more than a legend, for in 1588 - four years after Ivan's death - Postnik and Barma added the chapel at the north-east corner of the cathedral housing the tomb of the holy fool Basil (Vasily) by whose name the cathedral is now known.
The holy fools, or fools in Christ, were itinerant ascetics who enjoyed great popularity among the ordinary people of Russia, many of them being revered as saints.
The holy fool Basil the Blessed died in 1552, the year of the capture of Kazan. He was well known for his fearless denunciation of Ivan the Terrible's cruelties, and when, after Ivan's death, his chapel was built on to the cathedral, the name of the chapel gradually came to be applied to the whole cathedral.
The domes were given their present form at the end of the 16th century. To refer to them as onion domes seems an over-simplification, given their varied turban-like and tear-drop shapes. Originally the domes were helm-shaped, with eight domes set around the central tower(destroyed at the end of the 18th century). The colourful painting of the domes dates from the 17th century, when the bell-tower was added and the open galleries around the whole complex were vaulted over.
In 1812, the French army stabled their horses in St. Basil's Cathedral. Before leaving Moscow, Napoleon ordered it to be blown up, but cold, hunger and fear of sabotage by the people of Moscow prevented the order from being carried out.
