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St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

Architecture in Russia: St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow

By , About.com Guide

1554-1560: Ivan the Terrible erected the exuberant St. Basil's Cathedral just outside the Kremlin gates in Moscow.
St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow

St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow

ArtToday.com Photo
The reign of Ivan IV (the Terrible) brought a brief resurgence of interest in traditional Russian styles. To honor Russia's victory over the Tatars at Kazan, the legendary Ivan the Terrible erected the exuberant St. Basil's Cathedral just outside the Kremlin gates in Moscow. Completed in 1560, St. Basil's is a carnival of painted onion domes in the most expressive of Russo-Byzantine traditions. It is said that Ivan the Terrible had the architects blinded so that they could never again design a building so beautiful.

St. Basil's Cathedral is also known as the Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God.

After the reign of Ivan IV, architecture in Russia borrowed more and more from European rather than Eastern styles.

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