St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

The Russian Princess Olga ruled Kiev and was baptized around the year 950. Her grandson Vladimir was eventually baptized and summoned missionaries from the East to establish churches and monasteries. Under the rule of Vladimir and later of his son Yaroslav, the foundations of a Russian church were set in place. Much later, after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in the sixteenth century, the church of Russia began to consider itself the third vital center of historical Christianity and declared Moscow "the third Rome."