St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, Russia

With its multicolored spires and domes of assorted shapes and sizes, St. Basil's Cathedral is easily one of Moscow's most recognizable icons as well as one of the world's most photographed landmarks.

Located at one end of the Red Square next to the Kremlin, the cathedral was built to commemorate the capture of the Tatar strongholds of Kazan and Astrakhan. Ivan the Terrible ordered the cathedral's construction in the mid-16th century, and legend holds that Ivan put out the architect's eyes so that he would be unable to build another cathedral more glorious than St. Basil's. Designed to resemble the shape of a bonfire in full flame, the architecture is not only unique to the period in which it was built but to any subsequent period. For various reasons, both Napoleon and Stalin wanted to destroy the cathedral but fortunately did not succeed. Known for its various colors, shapes and geometric patterns, St. Basil's Cathedral houses nine different chapels that are all connected by a winding labyrinth of corridors and stairways. On the lower floor, St. Basil's Chapel contains a silver casket bearing the body of St. Basil the Blessed.