Moscow: the Red Square, St. Basil Cathedral and surroundings (II)

duvinca (72)in Pinmapple • last month

Hello people!

Let's discover more about one amazing city, Moscow, the capital of Russia, where there are many interesting and beautiful areas to see and enjoy. And always better in a sunny day, although in very cold days we can also see all in other perspective, but it's hard to be a tourist or just to walk around when the thermometer marks too many degrees below zero!
So let's see all in a relaxed way with a very pleasant and warm weather and we see this time the most important point of the city: The Red Square. We all have heard about it, right?

The Red Square

We start with the large square, because it is very large, the largest in Europe in fact, and around it we find iconic buildings and places that we can visit.

Add that many of the photos were taken days before the celebration of May 9, the Victory Day holiday there, and you can see some decorations to celebrate that date on the monuments.

At the same time we enjoyed the beautiful architecture of the different elements that make up the entire architectural complex, once we entered through one of the main doors, and suddenly, a unique space with very beautiful clock towers, a small but very busy and crowded pink Orthodox church, and much more...

State Historical Museum

One of the most important buildings within the square is on the right as soon as you enter and attracts attention, it is the State Museum of History (which I also visited and will show soon), in the second photo we see the building but with the decorations for the celebration of the mentioned holiday.

Lenin's grave

And many know that the body of Lenin, that communist president, is present there, embalmed and ready for many visits. Well, on one side we find the entrance door to said tomb, where sometimes you can see lines of people, waiting to enter to see... a corpse? Personally, it is not what interests me the most, seeing all the beautiful things Moscow has to visit.

St. Basil Cathedral

For beautiful places, one of the most iconic cathedrals of all, and on my list of favorites, Saint Basil's Cathedral, which stands out for its colorful, cheerful and striking ornamentation, and of course for its typical Russian architecture, with the domes Onion shaped, but these are colored.

You can visit it inside, and in addition to a strange smell, we discovered that it is almost a museum more than a place of worship, due to the large number of frescoes and paintings, a lot of art that we discover as we go through the different rooms and spaces. Oh, and from some window we look outside and have a good view of the entire Red Square.

Again on the outside, we look at the thousands of details, shapes and colors, because that façade and the entire construction are impressive.

In winter

As I said at the beginning, it is always better to visit these places with good weather and plenty of sunlight, but it is not always possible, or sometimes we also like to see things in a different light and with a different feeling. Feeling of cold, because we know that in Moscow it is very cold in winter, and taking your hand out of your pocket and taking off a glove to take a photo is almost a risky activity if we are not used to it.

But we see again in another environment the Cathedral of Saint Basil and part of the square, below zero, although with not too much snow. We have to take photos quickly and go somewhere to warm up and warm our hands!

GUM shopping mall

From the same perspective as at the beginning, to the left, on that side between the small church and the cathedral, we see a long and elegant gallery, a good place to enter and discover that it is a luxurious shopping center named GUM.
It has a beautiful classical architecture and decorations as well and where you can have an ice cream, walk around and look at many expensive windows of famous stores.

Surroundings and views

At the end we walk around the surroundings through busy streets, but on the other side, after passing the cathedral, we cross the Moskva River bridge, and thus we get a panoramic view in which the Kremlin churches and St. Basil's Cathedral appear on the horizon. on top of the wall or stand out in the landscape due to their color.

On the other hand, in the center area, more decorations for the celebration of the party, with a map of Russia, and other things. There is a good atmosphere, and of course, as I already showed in the previous post about the Kremlin next door, many colorful tulip gardens, which make that sunny day of visiting Russia even more charming.

Here is the previous post: Moscow: around and inside the Kremlin area (I)