There is a story to the effect that after seeing the cathedral for the first time, Ivan The Terrible had the men blinded so that they could never build anything to surpass the wonder of this new building.  The small church of Saint Basil, which was built later on the grave of a God’s fool much respected in Moscow, gave the whole cathedral its second, more widely known name of St. Basil’s Cathedral.

               The cathedral actually comprises nine individual churches each crowned by a unique tower.  The spire of the central church, which has an altar dedicated to the Intercession, unites the other eight churches, with their onion domes, as if binding them to itself.  This symbolizes the supremacy and protection of the Mother of God over all the Orthodox Church and over the Russian lands.   In Russian church architecture the spire symbolizes the canopy which from ancient times was put up over a holy place as a sign of God’s protection and holiness.

                St. Basil’s Cathedral is unique among Moscow’s churches.  It is not simply a place where people come to pray, but is also itself an icon in stone.  It is in fact an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine.  The idea of the cathedral is based on deep religious symbolism.  There are eight towers crowned with onion domes positioned around the central, ninth spire, and on plan they form an eight-pointed star. The number eight denotes the day of Christ’s Resurrection, which in the ancient Jewish calendar was the eighth day, and also the coming Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ.  The star itself symbolizes the entire Christian Church as a guiding star showing mankind  the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem.. The eight-pointed star is also a symbol of the Virgin, Queen of Heaven: in Orthodox iconopraphy she is depicted with a maforia ( a veil) with three eight-pointed stars on her shoulders and her brow.  They indicate her eternal maidenhood before and after the birth of Christ. 

                The eight-pointed star is made out of two superimposed squares.  The square symbolizes the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City, The two crossed squares symbolize the preaching of the Evangelists in the four corners of the earth, that it, throughout the world.  The cathedral’s internal gallery has a mural of the Garden of Eden. 

                With all the majesty of its external appearance, the cathedral is quite small within.  During services it could not accommodate many worshippers.  When services were held in Red Square on special feast days, it was filled with great crowd, and the clergy stood on Lobnoye Mesto, where a lectern was placed, and St. Basil’s Cathedral served as an altar of a huge church open to the heavens.

                The cathedral has been protected by providence, for several times it has been faced with destruction, and each time it has emerged unscathed.  According to legend, Napoleon wanted to take this Moscow wonder back to Paris with him.  However, at that time there was no technology for doing so, and so before the French retreat he gave orders that it should be blown up with the Kremlin.  Muscovites were trying to put out the burning fuses when suddenly a cloudburst helped to prevent the explosions. 

                After the revolution the cathedral only just escaped becoming a sacrifice of the Bolshevik excesses.  In 1918 the communist authorities shot the archpriest Ioann Vostorgov, who was the cathedral’s senior priest, confiscated its property, melted down all its bells, and closed the cathedral down.  In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, Stalin’s associate and director of the reconstruction plan, proposed that the cathedral should be knocked down to clear the area for public parades and vehicle movement on Red Square.  It is said that he prepared a special model of Red Square in which the cathedral could be removed, and brought to Stalin to show how the cathedral was an obstacle for marches and traffic.  Then he said: “But if we knock it down, like that!¼” and with these words he jerked the cathedral out of the square.  Stalin looked, thought for a bit and then pronounced the immortal words: “Lazar! Put it back!”

                Destruction of the cathedral was prevented on another occasion by the courage of the architect P. Baranovsky, a man who was devoted to Russian culture and suffered much in its cause.  When he was ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused point blank, and threatened to kill himself.  Then he sent a very sharp telegram to the top brass.  For some reason Stalin held back, and the decisions to knock it down was cancelled.  Baranovksy was punished with a few years in jail.  A museum was opened in St. Basil’s Cathedral, and guided tours were given.  In the 1970s during restoration work a spiral wooden staircase was discovered in one of the walls, and museum visitors can now go up this staircase to the ventral church where they can see the majestic vaulted ceiling reaching to the sky, the priceless iconostasis of the 16^th century, and proceed through the narrow labyrinth of the internal gallery, completely covered in strange painted patterns.  For the patron saint’s festival on 13-14 October a service is held in the cathedral. 

                To the left of St. Basil’s Cathedral one can see Lobnoye Mesto- a raised area made out of white stone with a cast iron railing.  It was built in the first half of the 16^th century and served as a platform from which the Tsar’s edicts were read out, and also the sentences for convicted criminals.  Lobnoye Mesto is sited at the top of a steep slope - uzlobie, which is what gives it its name.  In Orthodox Moscow it symbolized the hill of Golgotha in Jerusalem, on which Christ was crucified.  In translation from ancient Hebrew Golgotha means lob (“head” or “forehead”).  There is a legend that Adam had been buried at Golgotha, and that the blood from Christ’s crucifixion wounds washed over his skull, thus redeeming man’s original sin.