Architecture sights in Moscow
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St Basil’s Cathedral
At the southern end of Red Square, framed by the massive facades of the Kremlin and GUM department store, stands the icon of Russia: St Basil’s Cathedral. This crazy confusion of colours, patterns and shapes is the culmination of a style that is unique to Russian architecture. Before St Basil’s, this style of tent roofs and onion domes had been used to design wooden churches. In 1552 Ivan the Terrible captured the Tatar stronghold of Kazan on the feast of Intercession. He commissioned this landmark church, officially the Intercession Cathedral, to commemorate the victory. From 1555 to 1561 architects Postnik and Barma created this masterpiece that would become the ultimat…
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B
Assumption Cathedral
On the northern side of Sobornaya ploshchad, with five golden helmet domes and four semicircular gables facing the square, the Assumption Cathedral is the focal church of prerevolutionary Russia and the burial place of most of the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church from the 1320s to 1700. A striking 1660s' fresco of the Virgin Mary faces Sobornaya ploshchad, above the door once used for royal processions. If you have limited time in the Kremlin, come straight here.
The visitors entrance is at the western end.
In 1470, Russian architects Krivtsov and Myshkin were commissioned by Ivan the Great to replace the old dilapidated cathedral which was previously here from 1326. A…
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C
Archangel Cathedral
The Archangel Cathedral at the southeastern corner of Soborny ploshchad, was for centuries the coronation, wedding and burial church of tsars. It was built by Ivan Kalita in 1333 to commemorate the end of the great famine, and dedicated to Archangel Michael, guardian of the Moscow princes. By the early 16th century it fell into disrepair and was rebuilt between 1505 and 1508 by the Italian architect Alevisio Novi.
Like the Assumption Cathedral, it is five-domed and essentially Byzantine-Russian in style. However, the exterior has many Venetian Renaissance features - notably the distinctive scallop shell gables and porticoes.
The tombs of all Muscovy's rulers from the 1320s…
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D
Choral Synagogue
Construction of a synagogue was banned inside Kitay Gorod, so Moscow’s oldest and most prominent synagogue was built just outside the city walls, not far from the Jewish settlement of Zaryadye. Construction started in 1881 but dragged on due to roadblocks by the anti-Semitic tsarist government. It was completed in 1906 and was the only synagogue that continued to operate throughout the Soviet period, in spite of Bolshevik demands to convert it into a workers’ club. Apparently, Golda Meir shocked the authorities when she paid an unexpected visit here in 1948. These days the exquisite interior has been completely restored and is open for visitors. The building hosts the Int…
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Church of St John the Warrior
The finest of all Zamoskvorechie’s churches mixes Moscow and European baroque styles, resulting in a melange of shapes and colours. It was commissioned by Peter the Great in thanks for his 1709 victory over Sweden at Poltava. Inside, the gilt, wood-carved iconostasis was originally installed in the nearby Church of the Resurrection at Kadashi (2-y Kadashevsky per 7). The iconostasis was moved when the latter church was closed (it now houses a restoration centre).
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ul Varvarka
Look out for the small churches along ul Varvarka, incongruously surrounded by general concrete sprawl. There is the 17th-century Monastery of the Sign, the Church of St Maxim the Blessed (1698) and St Barbara's Church (1795-1804). While the horrendous Hotel Rossiya has been demolished now, Sir Norman Foster is slated to build Europe's tallest skyscraper on the site, to be completed in 2011.
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