Editing Saint Basil's Cathedral (section)

== Sacral and social role ==
[[File:Vasnecov Moskva Pri Ivane Groznom Krasnaya Ploscshad.jpg|thumb|Trinity Cathedral under construction ([[Apollinary Vasnetsov]], 1902)]]

=== Miraculous find ===
On the day of its [[consecration]] the church itself became part of Orthodox [[thaumaturgy]]. According to the legend, its "missing" ninth church (more precisely a [[sanctuary]]) was "miraculously found" during a ceremony attended by Tsar [[Ivan IV]], [[Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow|Metropolitan Makarius]] with the divine intervention of <!-- [[Saint Tikhon]] (Please link to the CORRECT St Tikhon, not the XX century one.) -->Saint Tikhon. Piskaryov's Chronist wrote in the second quarter of the 17th century:

{{blockquote| And the Tsar came to the dedication of the said church with [[Anastasia Romanovna|Tsaritsa Nastasia]] and with Metropolitan Makarius and brought the icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker that came from [[Kirov, Kirov Oblast|Vyatka]]. And they began to offer a prayer service with [[Holy water|sanctified water]]. And the Tsar touched the base with his own hands. And the builders saw that another sanctuary appeared, and told the Tsar. And the Tsar, and Metropolitan, and all the clergy were surprised by the finding of another sanctuary. And the Tsar ordered it to be dedicated to Nicholas ...
| Piskaryov Chronicle, 1560 (7068 per [[Byzantine calendar]])<ref>{{lang|ru|И прииде царь на оклад той церкви с царицею Настасиею и с отцем богомольцем Макарием митропалитом. И принесоша образы чюдотворныя многия Николу чюдотворца, кой прииде с Вятки. И стали молебны совершати и воду святити. И первое основание сам царь касается своима руками. И разсмотриша мастеры, что лишней престол обретеся, и сказаша царю. И царь и митропалит, и весь сунклит царьской во удивление прииде о том, что обретеся лишней престол. И поволи царь ту быти престолу Николину...}} – {{cite web | url=http://www.krotov.info/acts/17/azaryin/b61c.htm | title=Piskaryov Chronicle, part 3 | year=1978 | publisher=[[Full Collection of Russian Chronicles]] | language=ru}}</ref>}}

=== Allegory of Jerusalem ===
[[File:Shestviye na oslyati.jpg|thumb|Palm Sunday procession (Dutch print, 17th century).]]

Construction of wrap-around ground-floor arcades in the 1680s visually united the nine churches of the original cathedral into a single building.<ref name=K402/> Earlier, the clergy and the public perceived it as nine distinct churches on a common base, a generalized [[allegory]] of the Orthodox Heavenly City similar to fantastic cities of medieval [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniatures]].<ref name=K402/><ref>Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 128, provides a summary of studies of the [[ideology]] of the cathedral</ref> At a distance, separate churches towering over their base resembled the towers and churches of a distant [[citadel]] rising above the [[defensive wall]].<ref name=K402/> The abstract allegory was reinforced by real-life religious rituals where the church played the role of the biblical [[Temple in Jerusalem]]:

{{blockquote| The capital city, Moscow, is split into three parts; the first of them, called [[Kitai-gorod]], is encircled with a solid thick wall. It contains an extraordinary beautiful church, all clad in shiny bright gems, called Jerusalem. It is the destination of an annual [[Palm Sunday]] walk, when the [[Grand Prince of Moscow|Grand Prince]]<ref>The style of [[Grand Prince of Moscow]], used by Petreius, has been in disuse for nearly seventy years, replaced by the style of [[Tsar]].</ref> must lead a [[donkey]] carrying the Patriarch, from the Church of Virgin Mary to the church of Jerusalem which stands next to the citadel walls. Here is where the most illustrious princely, noble and merchant families live. Here is, also, the main muscovite marketplace: the trading square is built as a brick rectangle, with twenty lanes on each side where the merchants have their shops and cellars ...
| [[Peter Petreius]]| History of the Great Duchy of Moscow, 1620<ref>{{lang|ru|Эта столица Москва разделяется на три части, первая из них называется Китай-город и обнесена толстой и крепкой стеной. В этой части города находится чрезвычайно красивой постройки церковь, крытая светлыми блестящими камнями и называемая Иерусалимом. К этой церкви ежегодно, в Вербное Воскресенье, великий князь должен водить осла, на котором из крепости едет патриарх, от церкви Девы Марии до церкви Иерусалима, стоящей перед крепостью. Тут же живут самые знатные княжеские, дворянские и купеческие семейства... }} – Petreius, pp. 159–160. Petreius visited Moscow in 1601–1605 and described the city as it existed before the [[Time of Troubles]].</ref>}}

{{blockquote| Templum S. Trinitatis, etiam Hierusalem dicitur; ad quo Palmarum fest Patriarcha asino insidens a Caesare introducitur.<br />Temple of Holy Trinity, also called Jerusalem, to where the tsar leads the Patriarch, sitting on a donkey, on the Palm Holiday.
| [[Legend (map)|Legend]] of ''Peter's map of Moscow'', 1597, as reproduced in the [[Atlas Maior|Bleau Atlas]]<ref>Komech, Pluzhnikov, graphic supplement.</ref>}}

The last [[donkey walk]] ({{lang|ru|хождение на осляти}}) took place in 1693.<ref name=B181>Bushkovitch, p. 181</ref> {{ill|Mikhail Petrovich Kudryavtsev|ru|Кудрявцев, Михаил Петрович}} noted that ''all'' [[Crucession|cross processions]] of the period began, as described by Petreius, from the Dormition Church, passed through [[Spasski clock|St. Frol's (Saviour's) Gate]] and ended at Trinity Cathedral.<ref name=K85>Kudryavtsev, p. 85</ref> For these processions the Kremlin itself became an open-air temple, properly oriented from its "[[narthex]]" ([[Cathedral Square, Moscow|Cathedral Square]]) in the west, through the "[[Royal Doors|royal doors]]" (Saviour's Gate), to the "[[sanctuary]]" (Trinity Cathedral) in the east.<ref name=K85/>

=== Urban hub ===
[[File:Alexeev Moskvoretskaya ulitsa.jpg|thumb|Intercession Cathedral looms over the streets of [[Zaryadye]] ([[Fyodor Alekseyev]], 1802).]]

Tradition calls the Kremlin the centre of Moscow, but the geometric centre of the [[Garden Ring]], first established as the Skorodom defensive wall in the 1590s, lies outside the Kremlin wall, coincident with the cathedral.<ref name=K11>Kudryavtsev, p. 11</ref><ref name=K104/> Pyotr Goldenberg (1902–71), who popularized this notion in 1947, still regarded the Kremlin as the starting seed of Moscow's radial-concentric system,<ref>For a graphic introduction of L. M. Tverskoy's concept of concentric Moscow (1950s), see Schmidt, p. 11 and related annotations.</ref> despite [[Alexander Chayanov]]'s earlier suggestion that the system was not strictly concentric at all.<ref name=K11/>

In the 1960s Gennady Mokeev (born 1932) formulated a different concept of the historical growth of Moscow.<ref>A popular explanation of Mokeev's theory, in Russian: {{cite journal | author=Mokeev, G. Ya. | title=Moskva&nbsp;– pamyatnik drevnerusskogo gradostroitelstva (Москва&nbsp;– памятник древнерусского градостроительства) | journal=[[Nauka i Zhizn]] |date=September 1969 | url=http://rusarch.ru/mokeev2.htm }}</ref> According to Mokeev, medieval Moscow, constrained by the natural boundaries of the [[Moskva River|Moskva]] and [[Neglinnaya River|Neglinnaya]] Rivers, grew primarily in a north-easterly direction into the [[posad]] of [[Kitai-gorod]] and beyond. The main road connecting the Kremlin to Kitai-gorod passed through St. Frol's (Saviour's) Gate and immediately afterwards fanned out into at least two radial streets (present-day Ilyinka and Varvarka), forming the central market square.<ref name=K14>Kudryavtsev, p. 14</ref> In the 14th century the city was largely contained within two balancing halves, Kremlin and Kitai-gorod, separated by a marketplace, but by the end of the century it extended further along the north-eastern axis.<ref name=B31>Brunov, p. 31</ref> Two secondary hubs in the west and south spawned their own street networks, but their development lagged behind until the [[Time of Troubles]].<ref name=K15>Kudryavtsev, p. 15</ref>

Tsar Ivan's decision to build the church next to St. Frol's Gate established the dominance of the eastern hub with a major vertical accent,<ref name=K15/> and inserted a pivot point between the nearly equal Kremlin and Kitai-gorod into the once amorphous marketplace.<ref>Brunov, p. 37</ref> The cathedral was the main church of the posad, and at the same time it was perceived as a part of the Kremlin thrust into the posad, a personal messenger of the Tsar reaching the masses without the mediation of the boyars and clergy.<ref>Brunov, p. 49</ref> It was complemented by the nearby [[Lobnoye mesto]], a [[Podium|rostrum]] for the Tsar's public announcements first mentioned in chronicles in 1547<ref name=K403/> and rebuilt in stone in 1597–1598.<ref name=K403/> [[Conrad Bussow]], describing the triumph of [[False Dmitriy I]], wrote that on 3 June 1606 "a few thousand men hastily assembled and followed the [[boyars|boyarin]] with [the impostor's] letter through the whole Moscow to the main church they call Jerusalem that stands right next to the Kremlin gates, raised him on Lobnoye Mesto, called out for the Muscovites, read the letter and listened to the boyarin's oral explanation."<ref>{{lang|ru|...спешно собралось несколько тысяч человек, проводили боярина с письмом через всю Москву до главной церкви, называемой Иерусалимом, что у самых кремлевских ворот, возвели его там на Лобное место, созвали жителей Москвы, огласили письмо Димитрия и выслушали устное обращение боярина}} – {{cite web | url=http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus13/Bussow/frametext3.htm | author=Conrad Bussow | author-link=Conrad Bussow | title=Chronicon Moscovitum ab a. 1584 AD ann. 1612 | language=ru | year=1961 }}</ref>