copper onion

This is one of the onion domes (a dome whose diameter is larger than the diameter of the drum on which it is based) of St Vladimir's Ukranian Orthodox Church in Calgary.

St Vladimir seems to have been a curious character. After a rather dissolute youth involving hundreds of concubines and military conquests he converted to Christianity and married the daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople. On returning to Kiev with his bride he established many churches and baptized a large proportion of the population. It is almost 1000 years since he died.