Event: Russia - Moscow

St Basil's Cathedral

When:	Daily; not Tue
Where:	St Basil's Cathedral
Costs:	Rbl75-Rbl100
Opening Hours:	10am-5.30pm

Gaudy and garish, the multicoloured cupolas of St Basil's Cathedral rising out of Red Square have been one of Moscow's most striking and enduring symbols for five centuries.

Built between 1555-1557 to mark Ivan the Terrible's successful campaign against the Tartars, St Basil's was orginally called the Cathedral of the Intercession. It was given the additional name because St Basil - a pauper prophet said to have foretold the fire of Moscow in 1547 - was reputed to have been buried there some 50 years after its construction was completed.

There are in fact eight individual "churches" capped by a cupola and joined together via the central belfry. Each church is dedicated to the saints on whose feast days the conquests against the Tartars were won.

St Basil's has been a branch of the State History Museum and now houses a museum to explain the cathedral's story historically and architecturally. It also charts the rise of the 16th century Russian army and exhibits a macabre selection from its primitive armoury. Ancient Russian icons of the 15th - 16th centuries (belonging to the Novgorod and Moscow art schools) are also on display alongside examples of 16th and 17th century embroidery and fabrics.

In front of St Basil's stands a monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, heroes of the Russian army during in the 17th century.