Moscow's architecture is world-renowned.

Moscow is also well known as the site of Saint

Basils Cathedral, with its elegant onion domes, as well as the Cathedral of Christ the
Savior and the Seven Sisters. The first remlin was !uilt in the middle of the "#th
centur$.
Medieval Moscow's design was of concentric walls and intersecting radial thoroughfares.
This la$out, as well as Moscow's rivers, hel%ed sha%e Moscow's design in su!se&uent
centuries.
The remlin was re!uilt in the "'th centur$. (ts towers and some of its churches were
!uilt !$ (talian architects, lending the cit$ some of the aura of the renaissance. )rom the
end of the "'th centur$, the cit$ was em!ellished !$ increasing num!ers of masonr$
structures such as monasteries, %alaces, walls, towers, and churches.
The cit$'s a%%earance had not changed much !$ the "*th centur$. +ouses were made of
%ine and s%ruce logs, with shingled roofs %lastered with sod or covered !$ !irch !ark.
The re!uilding of Moscow in the second half of the "*th centur$ was necessitated not
onl$ !$ constant fires, !ut also the needs of the no!ilit$. Much of the wooden cit$ was
re%laced !$ !uildings in the classical st$le.,'-.
)or much of its architectural histor$, Moscow was dominated !$ /rthodo0 churches.
+owever, the overall a%%earance of the cit$ changed drasticall$ during Soviet times,
es%eciall$ as a result of 1ose%h Stalin's large-scale effort to 2moderni3e2 Moscow.
Stalin's %lans for the cit$ included a network of !road avenues and roadwa$s, some of
them over ten lanes wide, which, while greatl$ sim%lif$ing movement through the cit$,
were constructed at the e0%ense of a great num!er of historical !uildings and districts.
4mong the man$ casualties of Stalin's socialist reforms was the Sukharev Tower, a
longtime cit$ landmark, as well as numerous mansions and commercial !uildings lining
the ma5or streets. The cit$'s newfound status as the ca%ital of a dee%l$ secular,
totalitarian nation, made religiousl$ significant !uildings es%eciall$ vulnera!le to
demolition. Man$ of the cit$'s churches, which in most cases were some of Moscow's
oldest and most %rominent !uildings, were destro$ed6 some nota!le e0am%les include the
a3an Cathedral and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. 7uring the "88-s, !oth were
re!uilt. Man$ smaller churches, however, were lost.,'".