H s, Eastern Orthodox church and museum on Red Square, Tverskoy District, Moscow, Russia
Saint Basil's Cathedral is a red brick Russian Orthodox church on Red Square in Moscow, built from 1555 to 1561. Its central tented spire rises above nine chapels, each crowned with a differently patterned onion dome: green-and-white stripes, blue-and-white stripes, red-and-green diamonds, and green-and-yellow diamonds. A bronze equestrian statue stands before the base.
Tsar Ivan the Fourth commissioned the church in 1555 to celebrate a military victory over the Khanate of Kazan. Construction finished in 1561, and the building later took the name of Basil the Blessed, a local saint whose grave lies in one of the chapels.
The name 'on the Moat' refers to the Alevizov moat that once ran along the Kremlin wall, about 13 meters deep and 36 meters wide. Since 1997, weekly Orthodox services and prayers to St. Basil have been held again in the cathedral, which has been a branch of the State Historical Museum since 1928.
The church stands directly on Red Square and opens daily except Wednesday, with the entrance facing the square. Inside, the passages are narrow and the stairs steep, so visitors should wear comfortable shoes and allow time to walk through at a relaxed pace.
The 1588 chapel over Vasily's grave has a vault studied as a benchmark of Muscovite stonemasonry, its quality unmatched until the Trinity church at Khoroshovo in 1596. The craft lapsed in the Time of Troubles, and builders of the 1600s compensated with thicker walls and heavier vaults.
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