Basilius Kathedraal.
Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed.

St. Basil's Cathedral stands on a podium at the southern end of Read Square. It was built during the reign of Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the victory over the Tatars and the conquest of the city Kazan. The tsar wanted to build not one church but several, each dedicated to a saint on whose days he had won the battle. The very complicated composition is nevertheless very similar to the traditional structure of Russian churches.
The four cylindrical volumes of the chapels surround the central tower with its high-pitched pyramidal roof. Located between them are the lesser chapels. In 1588 a church and bell tower were built close to the cathedral and dedicated to Basil, a sanctified Muscivite who was buried there. From the 16th century the cathedral was the state treasury.
Today it is a museum, whose valuable exhibits include the iconostasis of the Trinity Church and the famous icon 'The Entry into Jerusalem'. In front of the cathedral is a round raised platform (Lobnoye Mesto) built in 1534. From it the tsar's decrees were proclaimed; later it also served as a scaffold.