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Reiseleitung in Moskau
Excursion to Saint Basil's Cathedral with private tour guide.
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Church of Saint Basil
Saint Basil made the miracles, predicted disasters, rescued suffering people and helped with advices to everybody – from the tsar to the common man. The Tsar Ivan the terrible respect and was even afraid of the saint since he was seer and read people’s thoughts. The lower church was attached to the Intercession cathedral in 1588 above the burial place of Saint Basil by the order of the tsar Fedor Ioanovich after the canonization of the saint.
Why is Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat called Saint Basil’s Cathedral? In every church the service took place only once a year, in the Memorial Day in memory of which the church was consecrated or in honor of the holiday or the day of successful conquest of Kazan. In the Church of Saint basil the service took place every day in summer and winter and the title of the church was given to the whole cathedral. Now divine services take place in the church on holidays and on Sundays.
Itineraries in Moscow (see more)
Who is Saint Basil?
Saint Basil was born in peasant family in about 1469 (in the village Elohovo near Moscow), he was born on the church porch where his mother came to prey. His parents, peasants sent him to study shoe mastery. After 16 years and till the death, he accomplished exploit of foolishness for Christ, without shelter and clothes, exposing himself to the greatest privations. He didn’t wear the clothes all the year round, spent the nights in the weather, kept to fast and suffered privations. He constantly unmasked the lie and hypocrisy. The contemporaries noted that he was the only person whom the tsar Ivan the Terrible was afraid of. He honored and was afraid of Basil the Blessed. Basil the Blessed died on August 2, 1552. Ivan the Terrible and boyars carried his coffin and metropolitan Makariy performed the burial. Body of Basil was buried at the cemetery of Trinity church on the Moat (where now church is situated).
Architecture
The cathedral is of cubic form without pillars; it’s spanned by cross-shaped vault and is crowned with small light drum with head.
Painting
Oil painting of the church is performed to 350 years from the beginning of construction of the cathedral (1905). In the dome there is an image of Christ Pantocrator, in the drum – forefathers, in the crosses of vaults
- the Deisis (Image of Edessa, Mother of God, John the Forerunner), in the sails of the vault – Evangelists with symbols.
On the western wall there is temple image “Intercession of the Theotokos”. In the upper tier there are images of saint patrons of regnant house: Fedor Stratilat, John the Forerunner, saint Anastasia, martyr Irina. On the northern and southern walls there are scenes from the life of Saint Basil: “Miracle of rescue in sea” and “Miracle about fur coat”.