St. Basil's Cathedral

We parked the bus and walked up the hill to Red Square - Krasnaya Ploschad. The word "krasnaya" in Russian means "red" but it also means "beautiful". It is indeed a beautiful place. We in America think of military parades and Communist leaders on the reviewing stand above Lenin's tomb when we think of Red Square but the days we were there it had the atmosphere of a family park. A temporary ice rink had been built on one side of the Square in front of the Gum Department store with a huge decorated tree towering over it and it reminded me of the skating rink at Rockefeller Center in New York at Christmas.

The first building we saw as we entered the square was St. Basil's Cathedral, the building with the magnificent multi-colored onion domes pictured above (and yes, I was there!). It's really nine churches, not one. Each dome is a separate church and the name is far more complicated than just "St. Basil's". If you're interested in the history of this beautiful church you can Google the name and you will find several interesting pages about it.