SAINT BASIL’S CATHEDRAL
RED SQUARE, MOSCOW
In this fantastic night-time capture by iwillbehomesoon, we see the iconic Saint Basil’s Cathedral in the Red Square, Moscow, Russia. The former church, which is now a museum, was built from 1555–61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. [source]
The building is shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, a design that has no analogues in Russian architecture. As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union’s anti-theist campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely and forcefully secularized in 1929 and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. [source]
