Editing Saint Basil's Cathedral (section)

==== 1800–1848 ====
[[File:Red Square in Moscow (1801) by Fedor Alekseev.jpg|thumb|Red Square before the [[Fire of Moscow (1812)|great fire of 1812]] ([[Fyodor Alekseyev]], 1802)]]

Paintings of Red Square by [[Fyodor Alekseyev]], made in 1800–1802, show that by this time the church was enclosed in an apparently chaotic cluster of commercial buildings; rows of shops "transformed Red Square into an oblong and closed yard."<ref name=S146>Schmidt, p. 146</ref> In 1800 the space between the Kremlin wall and the church was still occupied by a [[moat]] that predated the church itself.<ref>The moat, fed with waters of the [[Neglinnaya River]], was built in 1508–16 – Komech, Pluzhnikov p. 268</ref> The moat was filled in preparation for the coronation of [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]] in 1801.<ref>Schenkov et al., p. 57</ref> The French troops who [[French invasion of Russia|occupied Moscow in 1812]] used the church for stables and looted anything worth taking.<ref name=SC70/> The church was spared by the [[Fire of Moscow (1812)]] that razed [[Kitai-gorod]], and by the troops' failure to blow it up according to [[Napoleon]]'s order.<ref name=SC70/> The interiors were repaired in 1813 and the exterior in 1816. Instead of replacing missing ceramic tiles of the main tent, the Church preferred to simply cover it with a tin roof.<ref name=SC72>Schenkov et al., p. 72</ref>

The fate of the immediate environment of the church has been a subject of dispute between city planners since 1813.<ref name=S130>Schmidt, p. 130</ref> Scotsman [[William Heste|William Hastie]] proposed clearing the space around all sides of the church and all the way down to the [[Moskva River]];<ref name=S132>Schmidt, p. 1,32</ref> the official commission led by [[Fyodor Rostopchin]] and Mikhail Tsitsianov<ref>Schmidt, p. 129</ref> agreed to clear only the space between the church and [[Lobnoye Mesto]].<ref name=S132/> Hastie's plan could have radically transformed the city,<ref name=S130/> but he lost to the opposition, whose plans were finally endorsed by Alexander I in December 1817<ref name=S132/> (the specific decision on clearing the rubble around the church was issued in 1816).<ref name=SC70>Schenkov et al., p. 70</ref>

Nevertheless, actual redevelopment by [[Joseph Bove]] resulted in clearing the rubble and creating Vasilyevskaya (St. Basil's) Square between the church and Kremlin wall by shaving off the crest of the Kremlin Hill between the church and the [[Moskva River]].<ref name=S149/> Red Square was opened to the river, and "St. Basil thus crowned the decapitated [[hillock]]."<ref name=S149>Schmidt, p. 149</ref> Bove built the stone terrace wall separating the church from the pavement of Moskvoretskaya Street; the southern side of the terrace was completed in 1834.<ref name=K402/> Minor repairs continued until 1848, when the domes acquired their present-day colours.<ref name=K401/>