St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. It was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. It is said that Ivan had the architects blinded so that they could never again design a building so beautiful. The multi-tented church with onion spires is traditionally perceived to be the symbol of Russia's unique position between Europe and Asia. In 1588, Czar Fedor Ivanovich added a chapel on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Foot for Christ, a Russian orthodox saint after whom the cathedral was named.