Picture Day Friday: St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

Just in time for the Olympics...

The Russian Orthodox St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square is also known as The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat and the Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was consecrated on July 12, 1561 and secularized in 1929. The cathedral is said to be the geometric center of Moscow. The building is shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, a design that has no analogues in Russian Byzantine architecture from the fifth to the fifteenth century, according to architect writer Dmitry Shvidkovsky. It is a "strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design."



Fireworks explode above St Basil's cathedral during the Spasskaya Tower international military and music Festival in Red Square in Moscow.