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January 6, 2007
onion domes
anyone who played tetris would remember the iconic St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow - so colourful, childlike and simply fantastical. the domes remind me of marshmallows and other delicious candies - something that came right out of willy wonka's chocolate factory.
i've always wondered why domes appeared in russian architecture. i assumed they were solely part of the muslim culture. only after a little wiki-ing did i discover that russian orthodox churches always have onion domes, and that it is not unique to St Basil's Cathedral.
there are several theories about the domes. one is that it represents candles. another says that the domes always comes in threes - to represent the holy trinity. if it's a solo dome it represents jesus. domes that comes in fives represents jesus and the four evangelists. different colours symbolises various aspects of christianity.
here's a collection of the bulbous beauties :
posted by nyx at January 6, 2007 1:29 PM
Comments
Russia is most fascinating. Beautiful girls, lovely architecture and mostly their cool jumping russian dance that appear in the tetris game too. I still remember the tetris tune..
Posted by: Robert at January 6, 2007 2:33 PM
how can you forget the onion domes in putrajaya?
Posted by: Anonymous at January 29, 2007 5:37 PM
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