The Cathedral of Intercession on the Mound (Russian: Собор Покрава что на Рву or simply Pokrovskiy Cathedral, better known as the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed or St. Basil's Cathedral) is a multi-tented church on the Red Square in Moscow traditionally perceived as symbolic of the unique position of Russia between Europe and Asia.
The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built between 1555 and 1561 in Moscow to commemorate the capture of Khanate of Kazan. In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Fool for Christ (yurodivy Vassily Blazhenny), a Russian Orthodox saint after whom the cathedral was popularly named.
Saint Basil's is located at the southeast end of Red Square (55°45′08.88″N, 37°37′23.00″E), just across from the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin. Not particularly large, it consists of nine chapels built on a single foundation. The cathedral's design follows that of contemporary tented churches, notably those of Ascension in Kolomenskoye (1530) [1] and of St John the Baptist's Decapitation in Dyakovo (1547)
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