Premises to the semiotic analysis of the Cathedral Pokrova-na-Rvu (protection of the holiest theotokos on the moat)

This paper considers some assumptions and the footing for semiotic analysis in architecture. First of all the authors shall consider premises to explore architecture in the context of culture, as a kind of «key» to the intellectual and symbolic picture of the world for a certain period of history, namely the period of the reign of Ivan IV when the Cathedral Pokrova-na-Rvu (Protection of the holiest theotokos on the Moat) was constructed, being a source of medieval visions of the sacred and the profane.