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INTERCESSION CATHEDRAL
1555-61
This is also called the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed after the fool-in-Christ who was buried by the cathedral about fifty years after its building was completed. The most famous and important of the old Russia'a memorial buildings, the Intercession Cathedral was erected in 1555-61 to commemorate the great Russian conquest of the Khanate of Kazan. It was a kind of memorial to all those who had perished in the long struggle to liberate the Russian land from foreign overlordship. And it was built by two fine self-taught masters, Postnik and Barma.
Intercession Cathedral
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For more than four centuries this "fairy-tale in stone" has delighted people with its unique forms and colours. Many foreigners have tried to understand the architectural secret of this edifice on Red Square. A German traveller, who visited Moscow in the last century, at first described the Intercession Cathedral as something very alien to the European mind, but on closer inspection he realized that instead of being a disorderly labyrinth, this ultra-national architectural work was a model of order and regularity.
Even one of the creators of modern architecture, the rationalist Le Corbusier, who strongly opposed decorative elements in architecture, called the Intercession Cathedral "a whole revelation in the sphere of art".
This fantastic stone building grew up in Red Square by the main entrance into the Kremlin. Blending artistically with the Kremlin cathedrals, bell-tower and towers, it adorned the square and gave it a festive air. The cathedral's composition is unusual. On a slight elevation, which drops steeply down to the River Moskva, is the semibasement with eight pillar-towers grouped round the central tent roof. The building is made of brick, and the foundations, socle and certain decorative details are of white stone.
Early sources tell us that Ivan the Terrible ordered the builders to erect a memorial cathedral consisting of eight churches. Each of them was dedicated to the church festivals and saints on whose days the main victories of the Kazan campaigns (1545-52) took place. However, Barma and Postnik managed to convince the Tsar that it would be better to have a nine-domed cathedral which would continue, as it were, the Russian tradition of five domes that always produced a balanced centric composition.
The broadest side of the cathedral faces Red Square itself, thus creating a most effective architectural completion of the square's ensemble on the south side. Almost all the cathedral domes can be seen from the square. They differ in size and design. The central octagonal pillar on its unusual "starry" base with rusticated co lumns at the corners is dedicated to the feast of the Intercession which coincided with the capture of Kazan. It is topped by a decorative tent roof bearing a small gilded dome. The main theme on which the cathedral's decoration is based, is frequently repeated tiers of kokoshniks. These are supplemented by machicolations, niches and "arrows" over the windows.
Originally the facades and domes of the Intercession Cathedral were not painted different colours. The carved decorative details of white stone stood out boldly on the red-brick walls. The sixteenth-century monument received its riot of colour in the two following centuries. The chapel and tent-roofed bell-tower also built in that period made the cathedral look more picturesque.
The memorial nature of the edifice is stressed by the plain interiors, which were not adorned with frescoes as a rule, but only ornamental painting. In the opinion of some specialists, Barma and Post-nik treated the cathedral more as an object of veneration than a place of workship. The whole of Red Square was seen as a church, and the Intercession Cathedral was to be its sanctuary. Thus, after the cathedral was built icons were carried out of it on important church festivals and services were held in front of them in Red Square.
Before the extra tiers were added to the Ivan the Great Bell-Tower, the Intercession Cathedral was the tallest building in Moscow (65 metres) and exceptionally popular with the people.
For more than four centuries this remarkable edifice has survived numerous fires, natural disasters and enemy invasions to delight and astound all who look upon it.
In 1929 the cathedral became a branch of the State History Museum.
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