Google logotype on Tuesday was dedicated to the 450th anniversary of St.Basil's Cathedral

A Google Doodle marked on Tuesday, July 12, 2011  the 450th anniversary of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Russia. The famous Russian landmark, which features nine multi-colored onion-shaped domes and is located outside of the Kremlin in Moscow’s Red Square, replaces the “l” in Google’s famous logo.

Google has dedicated its logotype to the Russian church for the second time. First time the cathedral was at its main page in winter during Christmas holidays.

Russia opened on this day an exhibit dedicated to St. Basil, marking the end of a decade-long restoration that cost 390 million rubles ($14 million), according to the AP. The cathedral was built in 1561 by Czar Ivan the Terrible to celebrate his victory of Mongol rulers, but is best known as the burial site of St. Basil, a religions eccentric – or “holy fool” – who was one of Ivan’s biggest critics.

"This cathedral is a shrine and a symbol of Russia," Deputy Culture Minister Andrey Busygin told the AP. "It's a miracle it survived at all."

Supposedly, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the building destroyed, but heavy rains put out the burning fuses in the 1800s. Later, the cathedral took heavy damage in the 1917 Bolshevik takeover of the Kremlin.

It was later converted into a museum to save it from destruction by early Communist leaders who destroyed thousands of religious buildings and saw it as an "obstacle" to Stalin’s military parades. The cathedral also suffered from weather damage and neglect for years.

The foundation of the cathedral has also been tested by tanks driven during Soviet military parades, the construction of underground infrastructure, the paving of Red Square with cobblestones, and even the vibrations from nearby outdoor rock concerts.

St. Basil’s Cathedral seems to have been designed based on the New Jerusalem of the Bible, as described in the Book of Revelation.

Source: Interfax Religion, SearchEngineWatch