St. Basil's Cathedral

    St. Basil's is the famous 'onion domed' cathedral adjacent to the Red Square in Moscow, Russia.  It was constructed in 1554 on top of a stone church with a small cemetery on the side.  Behind it is the Kremlin.

   The towers, located along the diagonals, are devoted to various events of the Kazan campaign: north - west church of the Grigory Armyansky (day of capture of the Arskaya tower). South - east church of Alexander Svirsky (route of 30,000 group Tatar cavalry under the command of the Tatar prince Japanchi); north - east church of the Three patriarchs of Alexandria - the memory day of these saints is marked the same day as the memory day of Alexander Svirsky. Southwest church of Varlaam Hutynsky is the only church, which is not connected with the events of the campaign.

    The central temple consists of tetrahedron, octahedron and is completed by an octahedral light drum with gilded head. There is a covered gallery around the bottom circle. Vaults of the promenade lean on the massive columns with decorative pediments on the top. Transition from the octahedron to a tent is decorated with the set of kokoshniks. Four towers - churches, located on the sides of the world, consist each of three octahedrons, narrowed by ledges, and a drum with the figured head. Four small churches on diagonals are tetrahedrons.