St Basil’s Cathedral with its multicolored domes is the most
famous image of Russia,
standing on the edge of Moscow’s Red
Square. Its striking design was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible
to commemorate his victorious military campaign against the Tartar Mongols at Kazan
in 1552. Legend has it that Ivan was so overwhelmed by its beauty that he had
the architect blinded to prevent him from creating anything to rival it. The
cathedral comprises a central chapel surrounded by eight red brick tower-like
chapels, each crowned with a different colored and uniquely patterned
onion-shaped dome. The church escaped demolition many times during the city’s
turbulent history. Upon the beginning of the Soviet regime the cathedral was
closed and later turned into a museum. The interior is a dimly lit labyrinth of
corridors and delicately decorated chapels, one of them housing a priceless
16th century screen decorated with icons that shields the inner sanctuary.
Tretyakov Gallery
The Tretyakov Gallery houses a collection of some of the
great masterpieces of traditional Russian art from before the Revolution. It
also has the world’s finest collection of Russian icons from the 11th to the
17th centuries. The most famous of these icons is the
12th-century Vladimir Virgin. There are
also works by Theophanes the Greek, Dionysius and Andrey Rublyov, some of Russia’s greatest icon painters. The gallery’s collection of
paintings, graphics and sculptures covers Russian art from the 18th to the 20th
century. The gallery was named after its founder, Pavel Tretyakov, an art collector
who donated about 2,000 works of art from his private collection to the city of
Moscow, forming the basis of the
collection to which state acquisitions were later added. He also donated his
own house, which became the original site of the art gallery.