Moscow · Kitai-Gorod · Russia

Red Square

squarehistorycathedralSovietgoogle verified

easy

10/10

best: early morning

overwhelming, historic, iconic

A local would say...

Ivan the Terrible blinded the architects after they finished this cathedral — to make sure they could never build anything more beautiful.

The palpable centre of Moscow and of Russia itself — a vast grey rectangle flanked by Lenin's Mausoleum, the ornate red State History Museum, the GUM shopping arcade, and the extravagantly onion-domed St Basil's Cathedral, whose architects Ivan the Terrible blinded after completion to prevent them building anything comparable. The square has been the stage for czarist coronations, Soviet military parades, and the events of modern history. Nothing else quite prepares you for standing in it.