Perhaps no other architectural symbol so vividly conjures up the image of Russia as St. Basil's. Originally dubbed "Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin," this remarkable structure was erected as a memorial to Ivan the Terrible between 1555 and 1561 to comemorate his defeat of the Tatars and the conquest of Kazan. The name was changed in the seventeenth century when a chapel was built over the grave of the ascetic St. Basil the Blessed. The central church, capped by a pyramidal tower, stands amidst eight smaller churches with colorful onion domes.

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