The Tsars' Cathedrals

What of the cathedrals? Our tour turned the corner by the Palace of Congress to enter a paved area of no extravagant dimensions. It is studded at angles, apparently at random, and with no concern for orientation, with cathedrals. The effect is not like that of planting St Paul's, Durham, Winchester, and Salisbury cathedrals at tangents around Grosvenor Square. These Russian cathedrals are tightly planned and each occupies a relatively small ground area; a cathedral for each season in the imperial life, rather than the headquarters of a diocese. Not one of them is as exotic as that ultimate fantasy, the Cathedral of St Basil in Red Square itself. Ivan the Terrible's extravagance of blood-coloured brick rising to a forest on onion domes, shaped and coloured like boiled sweets around an encrusted central spire was not meant to be imitated. In fact, with their largely white walls and gold and silver domes, the slightly earlier Kremlin cathedrals do not absolutely compel from the exterior. 'To build these cathedrals' calls out the guide, 'the tsars invited the greatest Italian architects of the Renaissance'. You are astounded.