Today, on July 12, the Intercession Cathedral, better known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, celebrates its 450th anniversary. This date is not accidental: on July 2 (June 29, old style), 1561, the central Intercession Church of the cathedral was consecrated.
Cathedral of the Intercession Holy Mother of God on the Moat, better known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, is located in the southern part of Red Square in Moscow, near the Kremlin's Spassky Gate, above the descent to the Moskva River. It was built in the middle of the 16th century by order of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible to commemorate the conquest of the Kazan Khanate - part of the former Golden Horde - as a token of thanksgiving for the victory.
What stood earlier on the site of the Intercession Cathedral is not exactly known. Russian chronicles contain fragmentary and contradictory reports of wooden and stone churches. This gave rise to many guesses, versions and legends.
According to one version, shortly after the return of Ivan IV the Terrible from the Kazan campaign in 1552, on the site of the future Church of the Intercession on the Moat on the edge of the Moskva River, a wooden church was laid on a hill in the name of Life-giving Trinity with seven aisles.
Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow advised Ivan the Terrible to build a stone church here. Metropolitan Macarius also had the main compositional idea of the future church.
The very first reliable mention of the construction of the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God dates back to the fall of 1554. It is believed that it was a wooden cathedral. It stood a little more than six months and was dismantled before the start of the construction of the stone cathedral in the spring of 1555.
The Cathedral of the Intercession was erected by the Russian architects Barma and Postnik (there is a version that Postnik and Barma are the names of one person). According to legend, so that the architects could not create a new better creation, Tsar Ivan IV, upon completion of the construction of an outstanding masterpiece of architecture, ordered them to be blinded. Subsequently, the inconsistency of this fiction was proved.
The construction of the temple took only 6 years and only in the warm season. The chronicle contains a description of the "miraculous" acquisition by the masters of the ninth, southern throne, after the entire construction was almost completed. However, the clear symmetry inherent in the cathedral convinces us that the architects initially had an idea of the compositional structure of the future temple: it was supposed to put eight side-altars around the central ninth church. The temple was built of bricks, and the foundation, plinth and some decorative elements were made of white stone.
By the fall of 1559, the cathedral was largely completed. On the feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God, all the churches were consecrated, with the exception of the central one, since "the larger church of the middle Intercession was not completed that year."
The consecration of the Intercession Church and, accordingly, the entire cathedral took place on July 12 (June 29, old style), 1561. The temple was consecrated by Metropolitan Macarius.
Each church of the cathedral received its own dedication. The Eastern Church was consecrated in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity. Researchers are still looking for an answer to why this church got its name. There are several hypotheses. It is known that in honor of the "Holy Life-Giving Trinity" in 1553 a monastery was founded in the conquered Kazan. It is also believed that the wooden Trinity Church originally stood on the site of the Intercession Cathedral, which gave the name to one of the chapels of the future temple.
Four side chapels are consecrated in honor of the saints, in the days of whose memory the most important events of the Kazan campaign took place: Cyprian and Justina (October 2 (15) - on this day the assault on Kazan was completed), Gregory, the enlightener of Great Armenia (on September 30 (13 October), there was an explosion of the Arskaya tower of Kazan), Alexander Svirsky (on the day of his memory on August 30 (September 12), a victory was won over the army of Tsarevich Yepanchi, who was hurrying from Crimea to help the Tatars), Three Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexander, John and Paul the New ( commemorated also on August 30).
Three more side-chapels are dedicated to Nikolai Velikoretsky, Varlaam Khutynsky and the feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem. The central throne is named in honor of the Protection of the Mother of God, since on October 1 (14), the day of this holiday, symbolizing the intercession of the Mother of God for the Christian family, the main assault on Kazan began. The entire cathedral was named after the name of the central church.
The prefix "on the Moat", found in the chronicles of the cathedral, is associated with the fact that a deep and wide defensive ditch ran along the Kremlin wall from the 14th century across the entire square, later called Red, along the Kremlin wall, which was filled up in 1813.
The cathedral had an unusual architectural composition - 9 independent churches were built on a single foundation - a basement - and were connected by internal arched passages surrounding the central temple. Outside, all the churches were surrounded by the originally open gallery-gulbische. The central church ended with a high tent, the side-chapels were covered with vaults and crowned with domes.
The ensemble of the cathedral was complemented by a three-tent open belfry, in the arched spans of which massive bells hung.
Initially, the Intercession Cathedral was crowned with 8 large domes and a small dome over the central church. To emphasize the importance of the building material, as well as to protect the cathedral from atmospheric influences, all its walls outside were painted in red and white colors. The painting imitated brickwork. The material of the original covering of the domes remains unknown, as they were lost during the devastating fire of 1595.
In its original form, the cathedral existed until 1588. Then, from the northeastern side, the tenth church was added to it over the grave of the holy fool Basil the Blessed, who spent a lot of time at the cathedral under construction and bequeathed to be buried next to it. The famous Moscow miracle worker died in 1557, and after his canonization, the son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, Fyodor Ioannovich ordered to build a church. In architectural terms, it was an independent pillarless temple with a separate entrance.
The place where the relics of Basil the Blessed were found was marked with a silver shrine, which was later lost during the Time of Troubles, at the beginning of the 17th century. Divine services in the church of the saint soon became daily, and starting from the 17th century, the name of the chapel was gradually transferred to the entire cathedral, becoming its "popular" name: St. Basil's Cathedral.
At the end of the 16th century, figured chapters of the cathedral appeared - to replace the original burnt-out cover.
In 1672, the eleventh church was added to the cathedral from the southeast: a small temple over the grave of John the Blessed - the revered Moscow holy fool, buried near the cathedral in 1589.
In the second half of the 17th century, significant changes took place in the appearance of the cathedral. Wooden sheds over the gulbisch, now and then burnt down by fires, were replaced with a roof on arched brick pillars. Above the porch of the Church of St. Basil the Blessed, the Church of St. Theodosia the Virgin was added. Above the previously opened white-stone stairs leading to the upper tier of the cathedral, vaulted hipped porches appeared, arranged on the so-called "creeping" arches.
In the same period, polychrome ornamental painting appeared. It covers the newly built porches, pillars, outer walls of galleries and parapets of gulbis. The facades of the churches preserve at this time a painting imitating brickwork.
In 1683, the entire cathedral was girded with a tiled inscription along the upper cornice. Large yellow letters on a dark blue background, glazed tiles told about the history of the creation of the temple and its renovation in the second half of the 17th century. The inscription was destroyed a century later during another renovation.
In the 1680s. rebuilt the belfry. On the site of the open structure, a two-tiered bell tower with an open upper ringing platform was erected.
In 1737, during a grandiose fire, St. Basil's Cathedral was badly damaged, especially its southern church.
Fundamental changes in his painting program occurred during the renovation in the 1770s and 1780s. On the territory of the cathedral and under its vaults, the thrones of wooden churches, demolished to prevent fires from Red Square, were transferred. At the same time, the throne of the Three Patriarchs of Constantinople was renamed in the name of John the Merciful, and the church of Cyprian and Justina began to bear the name of Saints Adrian and Natalia (the original dedications to the churches were returned in the 1920s).
The interior of the church was painted with an oil "plot" letter depicting saints and scenes of hagiographic content. Oil painting was renewed in 1845-1848. and at the end of the 19th century. Outside, the walls were covered with paintings that imitated masonry of large boulders - "wild stone". The arches of the basement (the lower non-residential tier) were laid, in the western part of which they placed housing for the clergy (servants of the temple). The bell tower was combined with an annex to the building of the cathedral. The upper part of the chapel of St. Basil the Blessed (the Church of Theodosius the Virgin) was rebuilt into a sacristy - a repository of church values and shrines.
In 1812, an order was given to French gunners to blow up the cathedral. However, it was only plundered by Napoleon's troops, but immediately after the war, it was repaired and consecrated. The area around the cathedral was landscaped and surrounded by an openwork cast-iron lattice designed by the famous architect O. Bove.
At the end of the 19th century, the task of returning the cathedral to its original appearance arose for the first time. The specially created Commission for the restoration of the monument included famous architects, scientists and painters, who determined the main directions of research and restoration of the Intercession Cathedral. However, lack of funds, October Revolution and the subsequent period of devastation in the history of Russia did not allow the implementation of the conceived program.
In 1918, the Intercession Cathedral was one of the first to be taken under protection by the state as a monument of national and world importance. Since May 21, 1923, it has been open to visitors as a historical and architectural museum. At the same time, until 1929, divine services were held in the Church of St. Basil the Blessed.
In 1928, the Intercession Cathedral became a branch of the State Historical Museum and is still the same.
In the 1920s. extensive scientific restoration work was carried out on the monument, thanks to which it became possible restoration the original appearance of the cathedral and the reconstruction of the interiors of the 16th - 17th centuries in individual churches.
From this point to the present, there have been four global restorations involving architecture and painting. The original 16th century brick-like painting was restored on the outside, in the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God and in the church of Alexander Svirsky.
In the 1950s-1960s. unique restoration work was carried out: in the interior of the central church, a "temple-created chronicle" was opened, in which the ancient architects indicated the exact date of completion of the construction of the cathedral - July 12, 1561 (the day of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Peter and Paul); for the first time the iron coverings of the domes were replaced by copper ones. The good choice of material has contributed to the fact that so far the coverings of the domes remain intact.
In the interiors of four churches, iconostases have been reconstructed, almost entirely consisting of icons of the 16th - 17th centuries, among which there are genuine masterpieces of the Old Russian school of icon painting ("Trinity" of the 16th century). The pride of the collection is the icons of the 16th-17th centuries. "The Vision of the Sexton Tarasiy", "Nikola Velikoretsky in the Life", "Alexander Nevsky in the Life", as well as icons from the original iconostasis of the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos "Basil the Great" and "John Chrysostom". The remaining churches have preserved iconostases from the 18th - 19th centuries. Among them, two iconostases were transferred in the 1770s. from the cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin (altar barriers in the Church of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem and in the central church).
In the 1970s. on the outer bypass gallery, a 17th century fresco was discovered under the late inscriptions. The found painting served as the basis for the reconstruction of the original ornamental painting on the facades of the cathedral.
1990 became an important milestone in the history of the museum: the Intercession Cathedral was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in Russia. After a long break, services were resumed in the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. The following year, the cathedral was approved for joint use by the State Historical Museum and the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1997, the restoration of the interior, monumental and easel painting was completed in the Church of St. Basil the Blessed, closed since the late 1920s. The church was included in the exposition of the Intercession Cathedral, and divine services were resumed in it.
Divine services are held in the Intercession Cathedral by the Russian Orthodox Church: on the days of the main thrones (the Intercession and St. Basil the Blessed), patriarchal or archbishop services are held. At the shrine of St. Basil the Blessed, an akathist is read every Sunday.
In 2001-2011. seven churches of the cathedral were completely restored, the facade paintings were renewed, and partly the tempera painting of the inner gallery. In 2007, the Intercession Cathedral was nominated for the Seven Wonders of Russia competition.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
They freeze in admiration when they see the St. Basil's Cathedral, unsurpassed in its beauty, next to the Kremlin. This monument Russian history and culture with its multi-colored painted poppies has long become an integral part of the capital of Russia and its symbol. The official name of this attraction is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat. Until the 17th century, the cathedral was called Trinity Cathedral, since the originally built wooden church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Currently, the cathedral is included in the list of world cultural heritage and is under the protection of UNESCO.
History of the construction of the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed.
The order to build the Intercession Cathedral was given by Ivan the Terrible in honor of the victory over the Kazan Khanate and the storming of the impregnable Kazan fortress. This event took place on the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, in honor of which the temple was named. Construction began in 1555 and was completed six years later. No reliable information about the architects who built the cathedral has survived. Most researchers are inclined to believe that this is the work of the Pskov master Postnik Yakovlev, who had the nickname Barma.
After the addition of the church of St. Basil the Blessed to the existing churches in 1588, the cathedral acquired its name. As conceived by the author, the ensemble of temples was a symbol of Heavenly Jerusalem. Instead of burnt church coverings, at the end of the 16th century, figured domes, familiar to our eyes, appeared.
In the 80s of the 17th century, porches decorated with tents were erected over the stairs leading to the temple, and the open gallery that surrounded the cathedral acquired vaults. In the painting of the gallery's surface, the craftsmen used herbal motives, and during the restoration work, the first half of the XIX a cast-iron fence was installed around the cathedral.
From the first days of Soviet power, St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow has been under the protection of the state, although until 1923 it was in desolation. After the creation of a historical and architectural museum in it, major construction work was done and the collection of funds was carried out. On May 21, 1923, the first visitors crossed its threshold. Since 1928 it has been a branch of the State Historical Museum. At the end of 1929, the bells were removed from the temple and it was forbidden to hold services. At the time of the Great Patriotic War the museum was closed, but after its completion and the next restoration activities, the museum reopened its doors to visitors. The beginning of the 90s of the XX century was marked by the resumption of church services in the temple. Since that time, the cathedral has been jointly used by the museum and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The height of St. Basil's Cathedral is 65 meters. But, despite this modest figure, the beauty of the cathedral leaves no one indifferent. Due to the fact that its ensemble includes nine churches built on a common foundation, it is included in the list of the largest cathedrals in the world in terms of volume. The uniqueness of the temple is that it does not have a clearly defined main entrance. Entering the temple for the first time, you can get confused in its layout. But, if you look at it from a bird's eye view, or at its drawing (top view), placed on the wall of one of the churches, everything becomes clear and understandable.
Church of St. Basil's Cathedral.
In the center of the complex there is a pillar-like church, consecrated in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. The central exits of the main temples surrounding it face the four cardinal points. Smaller churches were erected between them, completing the composition. When looking from above at the entire ensemble, you can clearly see two squares turned to each other at an angle and making up a regular eight-pointed star, symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The sides of the squares themselves, in addition to the four ends life-giving cross, meant the firmness of faith. And the unification of churches around the Pillar Church symbolizes the unity of faith and God's protection spread over Russia. The bell tower, built in 1670, is located a little further away.
Hiding place in the temple.
Another feature of the unique ensemble is the absence of basements. It was erected on a basement - a complex of premises, the height of the walls of which exceeds six meters, and the thickness reaches more than three meters. In its walls, special openings are provided, which serve to create a constant microclimate in the premises, regardless of the season. In ancient times, the basement was used as a secret storage for church valuables and the royal treasury. The cache could only be accessed from the second floor of the central cathedral by a secret staircase located in the wall. Now there is a repository of icons that belong to the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat. The oldest of them is the image of St. Basil the Blessed, dating from the end of the 16th century.
The entire ensemble is surrounded by a covered bypass gallery, which has long become one with it. Like the inner bypass, it is painted with a grass and plant pattern related to 17th century... Their floors are paved with bricks, partly with herringbone masonry, and some areas with a special rosette pattern. Interestingly, bricks from the sixteenth century are more resistant to abrasion than those used for restoration work.
St. Basil's Cathedral inside.
The interior decoration of all the nine churches that make up the complex is not similar to one another and differs in the style of painting, colors and manner of its execution. Some of the walls are decorated with oil painting, and some have preserved frescoes dating from the sixteenth century. The main treasure of the cathedral is its unique iconostases, which contain more than four hundred priceless icons belonging to the period of the 16th-19th centuries and belonging to the brush of Moscow and Novgorod masters.
After the return of the temple to the fold of the Orthodox Church, which took place on the bright feast of the Intercession, the museum began to renew the collection of bells. Today you can see nineteen exhibits representing the masterpieces of foundry art. The "oldest" of them was cast five years before the capture of Kazan, and the youngest in 2016 turns twenty. With your own eyes you can see the armor and weapons with which the troops of Ivan the Terrible went to attack the Kazan Kremlin.
In addition to unique icons inside the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, you can see the canvases of Russian masters of portrait and landscape painting of the nineteenth century. The pride of the museum exposition is the collection of old manuscripts and early printed books. You can view all the priceless exhibits of the museum and wander around the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos as part of a group tour or order an individual visit. It should be remembered that you can take photos and videos by making a separate payment through the cashier of the museum. Between the basement and the second floor of the temple there are shops where you can buy a souvenir as a keepsake.
The famous colorful Church of the Intercession on the Moat, one of the main attractions of Moscow, was erected in 1555-1561 to commemorate the capture of Kazan by Russian troops in 1552. It was consecrated in honor of the holiday of the Intercession because the attack of Russian troops to Kazan began on that very day. We are used to seeing the cathedral as a single one, but in fact it consists of ten independent churches. Hence such a bizarre, unique appearance of the entire cathedral, or, better to say, the temple complex.
Initially, there were nine churches, with the central one dedicated to the Intercession of the Theotokos, and the remaining eight to a certain holiday or saint, on whose day one or another memorable event related to the siege of Kazan took place. In 1588, a church was added to the complex over the burial place of the famous Moscow blessed Vasily, and now she alone has the right to be called, in the strict sense of the word, the church of St. Basil the Blessed.
So, we will talk about the Intercession Multi-Church Cathedral, as it was erected in 1555-1561. In many books and in our time, you can read that its construction was carried out under the supervision of two masters - Barma and Posnik. There are, however, versions that unknown Italian masters supervised the construction. But she has no documentary evidence and no argumentation, except for the unusual appearance of the cathedral. N.M. Karamzin rashly called the style of the Intercession Cathedral "Gothic", but this is absolutely wrong from an art criticism point of view, and only the authority of the "first Russian historiographer" allows some to still insist on the foreign authorship of the original St. Basil's Cathedral.
Where did the opinion come from that the construction was supervised by two masters?
In 1896, priest Ivan Kuznetsov published an excerpt from a manuscript collection that was then kept in the Rumyantsev Museum. This collection was compiled not earlier than the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. It contains the "Legend of the Transfer miraculous image Nicholas the Wonderworker ", which was a royal gift to the Intercession Cathedral. This late legend says that Tsar Ivan the Terrible, shortly after the capture of Kazan, erected seven wooden churches around the larger, eighth, stone one, near the Frolov Gate (that is, from the 17th century, the gates of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower). "And then God gave him two Russian masters, nicknamed Barma and Postnik, who were wise and fit for such a wonderful work." This information about the "two masters" was taken on faith by most historians.
But the legend, rethinking the old legend, was not a chronicle text. In addition, we recall that the expression "nicknamed" in the then Russian language, as now, meant only the nickname of the person, and not his given name... A skillful master could be called a barma, since barmas are mantles for the clothes of kings and spiritual dignitaries, richly and variedly decorated and requiring skillful and careful execution. Posnik, or Postnik, is a proper name. Therefore, it is not logical that in the "Tale" the first master is named only by his nickname without a name, and the second - only by his name without a nickname.
More reliable can be considered the text from the "Russian Chronicler from the beginning of the Russian land to the accession to the throne of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich", written in the first half of the 17th century, that is, in time much closer to the event of interest to us. In it we read: "In the same year, by the order of the Tsar and Sovereign and Grand Duke Ivan, a church was started, promised for the capture of Kazan in honor of the Trinity and the Intercession ..., and the master was Barma and his comrades." Only one architect is named here, but, obviously, not because of ignorance of the name of the second master (Posnik), but because it was the same person.
Subsequently, another source was found, indicating that the names Posnik and Barma really refer to one, and not to two persons. It follows from it that the manuscript of the Code of Law of 1550 belonged until 1633 to the monastery solicitor, the Moscow serviceman Druzhina. Druzhina was the son of Tarutia and the grandson of Posnik, who had the nickname Barma. The matter seems completely clear: two mythical masters, one of whom was called Barma, and the other - Posnik, are combined into one historical person - Posnik (this, of course, is not a baptismal name, but something like a modern surname) nicknamed Barma, which meant that this man is skilled in crafts.
Moreover, the architect Postnik of that time is known for the construction of a number of other structures, namely: the Kazan Kremlin, Nikolsky and Assumption Cathedrals in Sviyazhsk. However, this fact, brilliantly proven back in 1957 by the Russian archaeologist N.F. Kalinin, many historians and art critics still bypass their attention, who, by habit, repeat about Barma and Postnik as two builders of the Intercession Cathedral.
The chronicles call the authors of the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed the Russian architects Postnik and Barma, who, most likely, built the cathedral without any drawings at all. There is a legend according to which Ivan the Terrible, seeing the cathedral built according to their project, was so delighted with its beauty that he ordered to blind the architects so that they could not build a temple anywhere else equal in beauty to the Intercession Cathedral. Some modern historians offer a version according to which the architect of the temple was one person - Ivan Yakovlevich Barma, who was nicknamed Postnik because he kept a strict fast. As for the legend of the blinding of Barma and Postnik, its partial refutation can be the fact that the name of Postnik is later found in the chronicles in connection with the creation of other significant architectural structures.
The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed is a symmetrical ensemble of eight pillar-like churches surrounding the ninth - the highest - temple, crowned with a tent. The side-altars are connected to each other by a system of transitions. The pillar-like churches are crowned with onion domes, none of which repeats the others in architectural decoration. One of them is densely covered with golden cones, they are like stars in the sky on a dark night; on the other, scarlet belts run in zigzags across the bright field; the third resembles a peeled orange with yellow and green slices. Each dome is decorated with cornices, kokoshniks, windows, niches.
Until the end of the 17th century, when the Ivan the Great Bell Tower was built on the territory of the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral was the tallest building in Moscow. The height of the cathedral is 60 meters. In total, there are nine iconostases in the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, in which there are about 400 icons of the 16th-19th centuries, representing the best examples of the Novgorod and Moscow icon-painting schools.
Freeing Red Square from buildings that "interfere" with large-scale festive events(parades and demonstrations), Lazar Kaganovich proposed to completely dismantle St. Basil's Cathedral. And in order to convince Stalin that he was right, for clarity, he made a model of the square, from which it would be possible to remove the church. But everything did not go as he planned: when he took the cathedral from the model, the leader did not appreciate these actions and said the phrase that went down in the history of the temple forever: “Lazarus, put it back!”.
The Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed is located in the capital of Russia, in Moscow, not far from the Kremlin, in the southern part of Red Square. On geographic map it can be found at the following coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 9.25 ″ s. latitude, 37 ° 37 ′ 23.27 ″ E etc.
A huge stone temple appeared here after Tsar Ivan the Terrible promised God, if the Kazan campaign was successful, to build a cathedral.
In the meantime, hostilities lasted, after each major victory on Red Square, temporary churches dedicated to the saints, on the day of which the battle was won, were erected around the Trinity Church. When the war ended in victory, the tsar ordered on the site of these churches (there were eight buildings in total) to erect one, stone, which would have stood for centuries, and in honor of the fact that the final victory came to the Intercession, in October 1552, to call the temple the Intercession Cathedral.
The new church was erected very quickly, in six years. The construction of the Moscow temple began in 1555 and ended in 1561. Researchers still have not come to a consensus about who exactly was its architect. The official version says that the architects Plotnik Yakovlev and Barma were responsible for the construction work, but in recent times many historians agree that the architect of the temple was only one master - Ivan Yakovlevich Barma, among the people - the Plotnik.
Some historians put forward another unconfirmed hypothesis that the architect of the building is an Italian master (this is evidenced by original style buildings, combining both elements of Russian architecture and European architecture of the Renaissance).
After the construction was completed, a legend arose that the king ordered the architects to be blinded so that they could not build a temple of such beauty. Recently, historians agree that this is only a myth, since there are documents confirming the architectural activities of Plotnik, who was engaged in the construction of the Kazan Kremlin and other buildings.
Temple names
Even before the start of construction work, the Moscow Tsar Ivan the Terrible, not far from the Kremlin, called the Cathedral of the Intercession. Muscovites called the cathedral the Trinity Church for a long time (the former shrine was dedicated to the Holy Trinity). And some time after the completion of the construction, people called the temple the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed - in honor of the local holy fool, who constantly, regardless of the season, walked with chains, dressed on his naked body. Basil the Blessed had clairvoyance and was able to predict the fire, which in 1547 almost destroyed Moscow.
He died in 1557 and was buried near the walls of an unfinished shrine, and thirty years later a side-altar was erected over his grave, an extension in which an altar with a throne was installed for worship. Naturally, the side-altar received the name of the blessed one, who was canonized at the same time: more than one miraculous healing was recorded over the place of his burial.
After the extension was completed, services in the Moscow cathedral began to be held every day: previously, the temple was not heated, and therefore services in it took place only in the warm season (the new extension was more spacious and warm).
Construction
The architects built the cathedral of bricks - a material that was quite new and unusual for those times (usually, when building temples, architects used white hewn stone). In the western part of the temple, the craftsmen were even able to lay out the ceiling of bricks, making round holes in them, inserting a metal clip and securely fastening together.
Already at the initial stage, the architect faced the first problem: the building had to be built on sandy loose and damp soil (the proximity of the nearby Moskva River affected), which made it impossible to make a deep foundation (the foundation of the temple is several meters deep). To resolve the situation, the architects used a very interesting move: the massive structure of the temple rests on a basement consisting of several rooms - the lower floor, the height of which is six meters and the width of the walls is three meters, while the basement has very powerful vaults and ceilings.
It was decided to use white limestone as a building material for the lower floor: its ability to absorb moisture well, made it possible to minimize the risk of flooding in the event of a flood. After the basements were installed, octagonal foundations were placed on them, on which it was planned to erect future temples (thus, the base of the building outwardly resembled a honeycomb and was distinguished by increased strength).
It is interesting that experts, speaking about the secrets of the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed, often mention hiding places, which were arranged in special niches on the lower floor (until the end of the 16th century, they even hid the royal treasury here, and the rich townspeople - their property).
It was not easy to get here - about the stairs leading from the Church of the Intercession Mother of God, only a few people knew, and later this narrow passage was walled up. The course was discovered only in 1930, when restoration work was carried out; now the icons of the cathedral are kept in the premises of the basement.
An interesting method was used by architects, creating acoustics inside the cathedral (a method that is not uncommon in the construction of ancient Russian churches): in order to create a good sound, the architects installed clay pots and voice-overs into the walls of the temple, directing them with their necks towards the inner space of the building. This method made it possible to relieve the pressure on the load-bearing parts of the temple.
Description of the temple
Giving a description of the Moscow temple, experts focus on the fact that it is devoid of a clearly defined main facade: all its sides look basic. The height of the building reaches 65 meters, therefore, for a long time, the temple was considered the tallest building in the city.
Nowadays, looking at the temple, it is hard to believe that the cathedral was not originally so colorful: judging by the descriptions, the walls of the church were white... They began to repaint it some time later, and they did this, radically changing the appearance of the cathedral - historians found drawings on its walls depicting false windows, kokoshniks, commemorative inscriptions. Polychrome and plant painting on a red background appeared only at the end of the 17th century.
Judging by the descriptions that have come down, in the old days the Intercession Cathedral was more beautiful and elegant: it had a more complex painting, and the main dome was encircled by smaller ones.
The exterior of the building was quite changed a hundred years after the completion of construction: two porches were added, the outer gallery was covered with vaults, and the walls were painted inside the cathedral. Therefore, in the temple you can see a combination of rare monuments Old Russian icon painting with frescoes of the sixteenth century, painting of the seventeenth, oil painting of the eighteenth.
The temple was erected, taking into account the cardinal points: focusing on them, they erected four churches, and the same number were built diagonally. The Intercession Cathedral has nine churches: in the center is the main temple of the Intercession of the Mother of God, surrounded by four large (from 20 to 30 m) and four small churches (about 15 m), near which there was a bell tower and a chapel of St. Basil the Blessed. All these churches are located on the same foundation, have a common bypass gallery and are connected by internal corridors.
Domes of the Intercession Cathedral
At first, twenty-five domes were installed on the Intercession Cathedral, symbolizing the Lord and the elders who are near his throne. Subsequently, only ten of them remained: one is located above the bell tower, the other rises above the chapel of St. Basil the Blessed, the rest - each above its own temple. Moreover, they all differ from each other: not only the pattern of the large domes is unique, but also the finish of each drum.
Scientists put forward the assumption that initially the domes had a helmet-like shape, but were soon replaced by an onion shape, the current color appeared only in the middle of the 19th century, and until the 17th century. the temple had golden domes.
Temple today
Judging by the descriptions, throughout history, St. Basil's Cathedral has been rebuilt and changed its appearance more than once (frequent fires, which were not uncommon in the city, contributed to the need for frequent repairs).
For the first time, the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed was on the verge of extinction in 1812, when the French, leaving the capital of Russia, mined it (although, for some reason, they could not blow it up, but they plundered the church). When the war ended, the Intercession Cathedral was not only restored, but from the side of the river its wall was decorated with a cast-iron fence.
The temple experienced the saddest times in the XX century. In 1918, the Bolsheviks shot the rector of the church, John Vostorgov, for "anti-Semitic propaganda." Three years later, all valuables were removed from the cathedral, and the building was transferred to the Historical Museum. For some time, it was an active church, until in 1929 the services were banned, having removed all the bells (services in the cathedral were resumed only in 1991).
The second time the temple was on the verge of extinction was in 1936, when the restorer Pyotr Baranovsky was asked to measure the temple in order to later demolish it. In response, the architect categorically stated that this idea was insane and criminal, and threatened to commit suicide if it was carried out. Immediately after that, an arrest followed, but the church was not touched: she had too many defenders. Therefore, when he was released six months later, the temple stood in the same place.
