Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Assumption Cathedral
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Assumption Cathedral
On the northern side of Sobornaya pl, with five golden helmet domes and four semicircular
church of prerevolutionary Russia and the burial place of most of the heads of the Russian
Orthodox Church from the 1320s to 1700. A striking 1660s fresco of the Virgin Mary faces
Sobornaya pl, above the door once used for royal processions. If you have limited time in
the Kremlin, come straight here. The visitors' entrance is at the western end.
In 1470 Russian architects Krivtsov and Myshkin were commissioned by Ivan the Great
to replace the old dilapidated cathedral, which dated from 1326. As soon as the ceiling was
put up, one of the walls collapsed. During Soviet times, history books said this calamity was
the result of bad handiwork, but today revisionist history indicates that an earthquake caused
the collapse. Either way, Krivtsov and Myshkin lost their jobs, and Italian architect Aristotle
Fioravanti was given a crack at it. After the foundation was completed, Fioravanti toured
