Buildings commissioned by despots and dictators are often statements of pride masquerading as religious piety, and the candy-coloured twirling domes of St Basil the Blessed's Cathedral in the heart of Moscow are no different.
The church was originally named the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin when it was commissioned in the mid-1550s by the first tsar of all the Russias: Ivan IV, or Ivan the Terrible as we know him. It commemorated his conquest of the Islamic city of Kazan, a notable win in his push to conquer lands previously held by the Mongol Empire.
It was renamed St Basil's after a miracle worker who had been one of the very few men to publicly reprimand the tsar for his tyrannical behaviour and who was canonised in 1588. Ivan's fury worsened as he aged and he routinely ordered the torture and slaughter of any suspected enemies—he even killed his own son during an argument.
Legend has it that Ivan had the architect of the cathedral blinded so that he wouldn't be able to create anything more beautiful, and while this is probably a myth, it speaks volumes of what people believe Ivan was capable of.
The cathedral is an extraordinary structure with eight claustrophobically small chapels huddled around an incredibly tall central nave. The whole thing was built from a new material—brick, which covers a timber frame. Four of the chapels are raised up on platforms to symbolise their position between heaven and earth. The ornate onion domes were based on the dome of the grand mosque in Kazan and these quickly became the fashion for all Orthodox churches.
But it's the colour that really astonishes. It was added a century or so after the cathedral's completion and is based on a colourful description of heaven found in the Bible's Book of Revelation. Strong pigments covered the exterior in a rainbow of colour and inside the bare brick walls were adorned with floral designs. An iconostasis—the screen that divides each chapel from the main sanctuary—gleamed with the rich gold of its many icons.
This luscious style became the blueprint for orthodox churches across Russian communities during the 19th century and many liken its fabulous colours to the sumptuous creations of Carl Fabergé, the tsar's jeweller.
Today St Basil's seems a world away from the atrocities meted out by Ivan the Terrible and remains as a flamboyant adjunct to the solemn mass of the Kremlin next door. Stalin wanted to demolish it but it's now a museum, a symbol still of autocratic power in a city that seems to relish it.
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