RUSSIA: ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL IN RED SQUARE MAY COLLAPSE UNLESS URGENT RECONSTRUCTION WORK IS CARRIED OUT

Record ID: 216664

  • Title: RUSSIA: ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL IN RED SQUARE MAY COLLAPSE UNLESS URGENT RECONSTRUCTION WORK IS CARRIED OUT
  • Date: 23rd February 1996
  • Summary: (MOSCOW, RUSSIA, FEBRUARY 23-26, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV ST.BASIL'S CATHEDRAL 0.15 2. SCU THE CATHEDRAL 0.27 3. CU VARIOUS OF THE CRACKS ON THE FACADE OF CATHEDRAL 0.48 4. SV TOURISTS COMING INTO THE CATHEDRAL 1.03 5. SV VARIOUS OF INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL 1.38 6. SCU AN ARTIST OUTSIDE THE CATHEDRAL DRAWING IT
  • Embargoed: 9th March 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8FFXR6YWI7CGDJHCLRNZSUIH4
  • Story Text: St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, one of Moscow's most popular landmarks, may be threatened with collapse unless reconstruction works are undertaken in the near future.

    Ultrasonic land-surveying tests performed over the last few years have revealed cracks in the cathedral's foundation and a slight vertical deviation of its bell tower.

    As a result, St. Basil's Cathedral requires urgent restoration works. Its foundations were strengthened in 1953, but recent archeological works near Red Square have affected the foundations further.

    According to Alexander Shkurko, the Director of the Historical Museum of Moscow, the restoration works of the Cathedral would require up to 10 million U.S. dollars, the lion's share of the impoverished government's funds for the maintenance of historical monuments in Moscow.

    But he said the cathedral's problems were not as bad as those faced by Italy's leaning tower of Pisa.

    St. Basil's, built more than 400 years ago by architects Barma and Postnik, was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible. It was completed in 1560 to commemorate the victory over the Tatar Khanate -- one of the most persistent enemies of the 16th-century Russian state.

    Meanwhile, not far from the ancient St Basil's, the new Christ the Saviour Cathedral is nearing completion.


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