St. Basil's Cathedral At the Southern end of Red Square, just outside the Kremlin, sits the cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. Perhaps on the most familiar and glorious sites associated with Moscow and the Kremlin. In 1552, Czar Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible, commissioned two Russian architects to build a magnificent cathedral in celebration of the Russian victory over the Tartars. The architects clustered together eight individual churches. Each with its own cupola or dome, around one central belfry to create this cathedral. Each church was dedicated to the saint on whose feast day, the eight major victories over the Tartars were won. Today, St. Basil's is part of the State Historical Museum. Its interior is undergoing restoration. Luckily, its spectacular exterior is there for all to see.