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For a view of the exterior please go to
basil12s
and there are many more in the section on Moscow. For several views of the
interior please go to basilinter. The Cathedral of
Basil the Blessed (Vassili Blazhenni) was originally named the Cathedral of the
Intercession of the Virgin "On the Moat" (Pokrovskii Sobor "Na
Rvu.") It was built by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of
Kazan (1552) which happened to surrender on the holy day of the Intercession.
The Cathedral is located on the Red Square on the side of the Spasski Gate and
the Tsar's tower, "On the moat" which at that time existed along the
Kremlin's wall. The work was begun in 1554 after a small wooden Church of the
Trinity was removed where Saint Basil the Blessed had been buried in 1552.
Apparently foundations were laid down for the entire Cathedral, but originally
only the main central church, was built of stone and brick, and the eight
smaller individual chapels around it were first made of wood and later replaced
by masonry. The Church insisted at first that there be only seven chapels, but
for the sake of balanced proportion and to make the entire ensemble in the form
of a cross, the builders proposed eight chapels, which, at the same time, made
it possible to dedicate one chapel to each day on which one of the eight
victories was won over the Tatars. Though planned as chapels, and often so
called, they turned in the process of construction into individual small
churches. The Cathedral was consecrated in 1557 by Metropolitan Makarii in the
presence of the Tsar, boyars and large crowd. In 1588 another chapel was added,
where and in the same year the remains of Basil the Blessed were moved. Basil
was a beggarly devotee, prophet and miracle worker who never separated himself
from a large cross and chains that he carried in penance. The tsar and the
people regarded Saint Basil as a holy man and later the Church beatified him.
When he died in 1552, Ivan IV and Archbishop Makarii attended his funeral.
According to some sources, when the Cathedral was consecrated it had only the
main church and a few chapels, and tsars Fedor Ivanovich, Mikhail, Alexei and
even Fedor Alexeiyevich added a chapel or two. It appears that at one time
there were over twenty chapels around it, and that its present silhouette dates
from 1679 only. The central church and the four chapels that form a cross are
octagonal; the remaining four are square or of irregular shape. The transition
from the octagon to the tent-shaped roof of the central church or to the drums
of the chapels is accomplished by recessive, interspaced or superimposed tiers
of decorative kokoshniki. The drums have very narrow windows, one in each
facet. In fact the entire Cathedral is an extraordinary combination of
individual towers, place over a high vaulted substructure and dominated by the
central tower, which is the largest and the tallest. Its tent-shaped roof had
on its top another tier of small kokoshniki, then a drum, and finally an
onion-shaped gilded cupola, while the chapels are crowned with great cupolas
each different in design, color and shape and substantially larger than the
drum, and bearing a large Russian cross on its point. All ten churches (the
central plus nine chapels) have their own, cupola, and had their own altar,
iconostasis and everything needed for an independent service. They are
connected to each other by means of vaulted passages. This strange, fantastic
and extremely decorative edifice, in a way simply chaotic, despite contrasts,
architectural confusion and interior narrowness and of cavernous outlook, is
pleasant to see. To many it looks as if it has come from a fairy tale, and it
surely astonishes everybody who sees it for the first time. It is a visual
delight that creates an undeniable imprint in the memory, since nothing similar
could be seen else-where. While for some people it represents "Music"
in architecture," Napoleon simply called it a "Mosaue" and
ordered General Lariboisiere to destroy it. Fortunately, the artillery general
preferred to use it as a stable for his horses. Theophile Gautier said about
it: "Undoubtedly, this is the most original monument in the world; it does
not remind us of anything that we have ever seen before and it belongs to no
style. An edifice of clouds tinted by the sunset, liable at a breath of wind to
change its shape or to vanish." Alexander Dumas astonished his Russian
hosts when he said that the Cathedral was "The dream of a sick mind
realized by a crazy architect." But to the Marquis de Custine it looked
like "A bouquet of varicolored flowers." A legend says that Tsar Ivan
the Terrible was delighted when he saw the Cathedral for the first time. He
asked to see the architect and when the man, replying to the tsar's question,
naively said that he could build the same or an even more beautiful cathedral,
Ivan ordered his eyes be pulled out to prevent him from so doing it, that the
Cathedral could remain unrivaled. However, Barma and Postnik Yakovlev, the two
who were later credited for building it, were safe and sound. A few years
later, Ivan commissioned them to build Saint Nicholas church in Sviazhsk, the
new stronghold that the tsar established after he took Kazan from the Tatars.
The truth is that nothing similar to Saint Basil's Cathedral had been built any
place in the Christian world.
There are valid reasons to credit, at least partially, the Moscow Metropolitan
Makarii for its existence. He was the most staunch defender of the new
tent-shaped style, which considerably departed from the established Byzantine
traditions. As a close adviser to Ivan the Terrible, and probably the only one
who remained so until the end of this life, Makarii initiated many literary,
educational and artistic novelties in Moscow, including the form of the future
Cathedral of Basil the Blessed. But even more important is the imagination and
creativeness of the illiterate but often very gifted Russian muzjiks, who for
centuries built their izbas and their wooden churches and who eventually,
during Ivan IV's time, got the opportunity to show what they could do in
masonry, which had been very seldom used before. The Cathedral is the product
of the imagination of the simple man who never heard of scholastic "Laws
of proportion and symmetry," or of a plan or blue print, but knew
instinctively how to build, and were gifted.
The Cathedral was frescoed for the first time during the reign of Fedor
Ivanovich. The frescoes were renewed in 1784 and again in 1813-1817, 1839-1845
and at the end of the last century. The exterior of the Cathedral remained the
same for a long time: Red bricks with sparing use of white stone as a
decorative element. It was only after Napoleon left Moscow that the exterior
walls were covered with stucco and painted with bright colors. Each
architectural detail is painted in different shades ranging from bright red to
yellow, green, brown etc. Flowers, rosettes and all sorts of designs decorate
the panels, which were painted by the same fresco painters who decorated the
interior. In all a never ending glitter of colors. The pyramidal belfry,
porches, and arched covered galleries that run around a good part of the
Cathedral were added in the second half of the 17th century. Contrary to the
rules and customs, the belfry was built on the south-east side of the Cathedral
instead of the western side, probably in keeping with the practice of the
builders that everything in the church must be twisted, different, inharmonious
and at moments absurd. After the revolution Saint Basil the Blessed was closed,
sacked and pillaged. While the interior also remains empty, the Soviet
government now takes good care of its exterior, though sometimes using shiny
gold plate and cheap, motley color. (Ed note. The interior is now open to
visitors for a fee.)
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