A Candy Cathedral

Post date: 22-Oct-2009 14:38:28

Yes, a cathedral made of real candy would be fabulous and St. Basil's Cathedral (Pokrovsky Cathedral) is the closest I've found. It's located in Red Square and was built in 1555 to 1561. The swirls look like various flavors or ice cream swirled together on top of a cone. Colin said the spiring swirls remind him of spinning tops that are about to take flight. It's the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen and is my favourite building in Moscow. However, it wouldn't be worth building it if you really had your eyes poked out after it was built which is what Ivan the Terrible is said to have done to the two people who designed the building so that they could never build anything more beautiful than this church. Insane. There is also a wishing fountain near the cathedral and Colin composed the beautiful picture below.

Bowl of ice cream anyone?

We also saw this amazing building in Red Square. There is a mall called GUM in the square too and we did a bit of shopping there. The line up was too long to see Lenin's body so we decided to skip that.

We also visited the Kremlin and saw the amazing churches in Cathedral Square. We were able to go into two of them. The Archangel Cathedral (1505-1508) houses tombs of great princes and local prince Tsars.

The Assumption Cathedral 1475-1479 was the country's central place of worship and where the Russian Tsars and emperors were crowned.

In the Kremlin (fortress), the armoury chamber impressed us. It is in the oldest museum and the building was built from 1844-1851. We saw the bone scepters and various other treasures that were used by Tsars. We also saw super wide dresses that you couldn't fit through a modern doorway wearing, a play silver tea set that Nicholas I played with, Alexander I's metal diamond studded frame for his crib and various Tsar crowns that were on top of fir hats. Man of the treasures were made of ostrich eggs, sea shells and coconut. Photos were not permitted and there was pretty tight security, but we managed to sneak a few pictures. I blocked while Colin snapped with our tiny silent camera. My heart pounded each time a stern face guard looked at us. Most people in Russia are very serious all the time and don't return the smiles that I give them.

Here are some more pictures of our first two days in Moscow:

The Tsar Cannon 1586 is 5.34 meters long and weighs 40 tons.

Laundry the cheap way.

I couldn't find a rubber duck, so I bought the nesting dolls instead.

Weird odd cabbage broccoli looking flowers.

You can view our 181 pictures of the motherland here: