It is said that Ivan the Terrible gouged out the eyes of the architect who designed St. Basil’s Cathedral!

Talk about earning your nickname...Russian tsar Ivan IV was such a merciless, fearmongering ruler that these sort of urban legends were started about him! He was rumored to have removed Postnik Yakovlev’s eyes so that he could never create anything as beautiful as his cathedral. However, this is widely thought to be myth because Yakovlev supposedly designed churches in Staritsa, Murom, Sviazhk, and maybe Vladmir after St. Basil’s was erected.

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