Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed

(Saint Basil's Cathedral, Pokrovskiy Cathedral)

The domes of many Russian churches built in the fourteenth - sixteenth centuries are lifted on drums so high that they look like towers. The need to protect these domes against snow and ice led to the erection of bulbous external shells, generally onion-shaped. The Kremlin at Moscow contains several such churches, some designed by Italian architects in a style combining Renaissance details with Russian architectural tradition.
A final expression of pure Russian architectural fantasy, in which Byzantine elements, detached from their original meaning, were multiplied in unbelievable extravagance, is the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed in Moscow. It was built for Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible from 1554 to 1560 by the architects Barma and Postnik in Square, adjacent to the Moscow Kremlin.
The plan is more rational than the startling appearance of the exterior might lead one to believe. A tentlike octagonal central church is surrounded by eight smaller but lofty separate churches arranged in a lozenge pattern. Each of the corner churches is octagonal and supports a towering onion pattern. The architects inserted four even smaller churches, two of which are square and two heart-shaped, all four crowned by onion domes, between the corner churches. The connecting gallery and the conical bell tower are 17-th century additions. The drums of all eight domes are ornamented with innumerable arch-shapes derived from the Byzantine blind arcade but reduced to ornaments, and with gables that become zigzags. The onion domes are fluted, twisted, or reticulated and painted green and white in stripes that make a vivid contrast to the orange-red of the brick.

Notice: St.Basil's Cathedral is situated at Moscow on The Red Square near The Kremlin

Literature: Book "Russian art" A.P. Minyar-Belorucheva