Video: St. Basil's Cathedral: a pearl of Russian architecture, shrouded in legends
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
For five centuries it has been standing on Red Square, amazing in its beauty St Basil's Church … It is called one of the pearls of Russian architecture, almost the main symbol of the country. Like many other outstanding monuments, this cathedral is shrouded in many legends, the authenticity of which is no longer easy to understand.
The temple has several names. Until the 17th century, it was called the Trinity Church, because initially a wooden church with that name stood on the same place. After the victory over the Kazan Khanate, Ivan the Terrible ordered to build a new cathedral. By the way, Russian troops defeated Kazan on October 1, 1552, and this day was considered the holiday of the Intercession of the Mother of God. That is why the official name of the building is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God on the Moat.
At first, services were not held in the temple and they were not even heated. It was mostly a memorial structure. In 1588, the relics of St. Basil the Blessed were brought to the cathedral. After that, a church was added, which received the name of the Saint. Services began to be held there. After that, popular rumor christened the entire cathedral after the name of the church.
According to legend, Basil the Blessed was involved in raising funds for the construction of the temple. Every day the holy fool came to Red Square and threw a coin over his shoulder. Nobody dared to touch money. And when there were enough funds, Basil the Blessed gave them to the king.
If we turn to the lives of the Saint, then the date of his death is August 2, 1552. And the first stone of the cathedral was laid only in 1555, after the campaign against Kazan. Basil the Blessed was no longer alive then.
Many people from school know the legend about the architects of the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed - Barma and Postnik. Ivan the Terrible was so impressed by the beauty of the temple that he ordered to deprive the masters of their eyesight so that they could not build anything more beautiful. There is no official mention of the architects of the cathedral at that time. The names of Postnik and Barma appear in the annals only in the 16th and 17th centuries. Some scholars are inclined to believe that there was only one architect - Postnik Yakovlev, nicknamed Barma. Others claim that the architect was from Western Europe.
Until 1957, it was believed that the completion of the construction of the temple was dated 1560. But during the restoration, a temple-created inscription was found under the layers of painting - June 12, 1561 in a new style.
Another legend associated with the cathedral says that the library of Ivan the Terrible is hidden in the dark basements of the Intercession Church. But this cannot be true, since the cathedral was built on a mound, so there can be no talk of any dungeons.
They tried to destroy the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed several times. After Napoleon Bonaparte took Moscow, he gave the order to blow up the temple. According to legend, Muscovites began to pray, and a miracle happened: the rain that began extinguished the fuses.
There is no documentary evidence for another common myth. In the 1930s. Soviet power was actively rebuilding Moscow. The responsible architect and restorer of the capital was Pyotr Baranovsky. In 1936, the authorities decided to demolish the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, since it interfered with car traffic. Baranovsky was categorically against this, and even sent a telegram to the Kremlin with threats: if the temple was blown up, then only with him. True or not, but the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Mother of God on the Moat remained to decorate Red Square.
As already noted, most of the outstanding architectural monuments have their own legends. But these 10 facts will destroy popular myths about famous buildings.
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