St. Basil Church is situated in Russia’s historical Red Square in Moscow. In 1552 Russian Ivan the Terrible had captured Kazan and in its memory he had built this beautiful church in between the period 1552 to 1561 and later in 1561 with full ceremony this church was opened.
In its life span of 450 years this church has witnessed innumerable battles, oppositions and several army troops. Many a times the problematic issues relating towards its existence has been faced. It is also said that French Emperor Napoleon wanted to take away St. Basil church to France but during those times no such technology was available through which it could have been taken to France. Napoleon then ordered its army to destroy away St. Basil church so that it could not be there with anyone. The army had prepared its canons ready to blast away the church but as they were about to do so then it start raining heavily cooling the canons. After the rains had stopped and so had the soldiers too changed off their minds. This had also increased more beliefs and faith in this church. During Soviet reign the government had ordered to demolish this church in order to make grounds for army parade. People agitated against governments this decision and so did they raised their voices for the government to change its decision and so had the government agreed to the people. In 2011, one unknown person had thrown a smoke bomb inside the church but no damage had been caused to the church.
St. Basil Church Russia Photo Gallery
According to Russian rumors the craftsmen who had built St. Basil church were made blind so that they could not again make as beautiful building as this church building. The church’s bright color and its building of red stones have added stars to its beauty. Its art and skills are matched with the skills and art found in the churches of Jerusalem. Saint Basil Church is a group of nine churches; all the churches have nine domes of onion shaped; eight domes are standing around the central dome. The central dome is of Basil’s grave and this dome from on seeing from above looks like a star shaped dome. The interior and the exterior decoration of the church have a vast difference; the interior decoration is just okay with narrow galleries where the devotees do not even have enough space for sitting.
In 1918, Bolshevik’s planners had closed down this church and had arrested its pope, bells were taken down and all the other religious items were taken under their control. In 1930, Red Square’s Lazar Kaganovich had prepared a plan for demolishing this church. He had prepared an outline for its demolishing giving the reason that it was a hindrance between the army’s March pass; he had shown this outline plan to Stalin who had given his acceptance to it. When architect Baranovsky came to know about this plan of Lazar then he went and sat down in front of the church. He had taken a vow that if this miracle church would be demolished then he would let his head chopped. Finally the decision of demolishing the church was taken back but Stalin punished Baranovsky for opposing his orders by giving him imprisonment of five years.
