Saint Basil's Cathedral
Landmark
The church with the coloured onion domes on Red Square.
Saint Basil's Cathedral stands on Red Square in Moscow. Tsar Ivan the Terrible had it built between 1555 and 1561, to celebrate a victory in war.
It is really nine small churches under one roof: eight around a tall one in the middle. Each has its own tower and its own dome, and no two domes have the same pattern or colours.
- finished
- 1561
- churches in one
- 9
- World Heritage since
- 1990
- 1
The bright colours were added later. At first the church was mostly white, with golden domes.
- 2
A legend says the tsar had the architect blinded so that he could never build anything as beautiful again. It is almost certainly not true.
- 3
Since 1928 it has been a museum.
Question 1 of 2
How many churches are there under its roof?
- Wieliczka Salt MineA mine in Poland where salt was dug for seven hundred years, with a church carved out of salt.
- DanubeThe river that flows through more countries than any other.
- Brandenburg GateThe gate in Berlin that stood for a divided city, and then for a united one.
- Hagia SophiaAlmost 1,500 years old, and for a thousand years the largest church in the world.
It is in Russia.
Read about Russia