The temple, built in memory of the death of Alexander II, is considered one of the main attractions of the city on the Neva. But not everyone knows that it holds many mystical mysteries and secrets: about how the temple turned into a morgue and influenced the collapse of the USSR, where the icon is located that can predict the future, and why the crosses were kept under water.
The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful, festive and vibrant churches in Russia. For many years during the Soviet era, it was consigned to oblivion. Now, restored, it attracts thousands of visitors with its grandeur and uniqueness.
The temple was built in memory of Emperor Alexander II. Back in 1881, tragic events took place on the site where the temple was later erected.
On March 1, Tsar Alexander II was heading to the Field of Mars, where a parade of troops was to take place. As a result of a terrorist act committed by Narodnaya Volya member I. I. Grinevitsky, the emperor was mortally wounded.
By order of Alexander III, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was erected at the site of the tragedy, where regular services were to be held for the murdered man. This is how the name of the Savior on Blood, the official name of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, was assigned to the temple.
The main place of the temple is an inviolable fragment of the Catherine Canal.
It includes paving slabs, cobblestones, and part of the grating.
It was decided to leave the place where the emperor died untouched.
To implement this plan, the shape of the embankment was changed, and the foundation of the temple moved the canal bed by 8.5 meters.
Under the bell tower, exactly on the spot where the tragic incident occurred, there is the “Crucifixion with those to come.”
The unique cross is made of granite and marble. On the sides there are icons of saints.
An architectural competition was announced to select the best project for the construction of the temple. The most famous architects took part in it. Only on the third attempt (the number of times the competition was announced) did Alexander III choose the project that seemed most suitable to him. Its author was Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignatius.
The Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg was built with donations collected from the whole world. Contributions were made not only by Russians, but also by citizens of other Slavic countries. After construction, the walls of the bell tower were crowned with many coats of arms of various provinces, cities, and counties that donated savings, all of them were made of mosaics.
A gilded crown was installed on the main cross of the bell tower as a sign that the greatest contribution to the construction was made by the august family.
The total cost of construction was 4.6 million rubles.
The temple was founded in 1883, when the construction project had not yet been finally approved. At this stage, the main task was to strengthen the soil so that it would not be subject to erosion, because the Catherine Canal was nearby (renamed the Griboedov Canal in 1923), and also to lay a solid foundation.
The construction of the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg began in 1888.
Gray granite was used to cover the base, the walls were lined with red-brown bricks, the rods, window frames, and cornices were made of Estonian marble. The base was decorated with twenty granite boards, on which the main decrees and merits of Alexander II were listed. By 1894, the main vaults of the cathedral were erected, and by 1897, nine chapters were completed. Most of them were covered with multi-colored bright enamel.
The walls of the temple, domes, and towers are completely covered with amazing decorative patterns, granite, marble, jewelry enamel, and mosaics. White arches, arcades, and kokoshniks look special against the background of decorative red brick.
The total area of the mosaic (inside and outside) is about six thousand square meters. Mosaic masterpieces were made according to the sketches of the great artists Vasnetsov, Parland, Nesterov, Koshelev. The northern side of the façade features the “Resurrection” mosaic; on the southern side there is the “Christ in Glory” panel. From the west, the façade is decorated with the painting “The Savior Not Made by Hands,” and from the east you can see “The Blessing Savior.”
The Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg is somewhat stylized as Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral. But the artistic and architectural solution itself is very unique and original. According to the plan, the cathedral is a quadrangular building, crowned with five large domes and four slightly smaller domes. The southern and northern facades are decorated with kokoshnik pediments, and the eastern side is decorated with three rounded asps with golden heads. To the west there is a bell tower with a beautiful gilded dome.
The interior decoration - the decoration of the temple - is very valuable and far superior to the exterior. Spas's mosaics are unique, all of them are made according to sketches by famous masters of the brush: Kharlamov, Belyaev, Koshelev, Ryabushkin, Novoskoltsev and others.
The cathedral was opened and consecrated in 1908. It was not just a temple, it was the only temple-museum, a monument to Emperor Alexander II. In 1923, the Savior on Spilled Blood rightfully received the status of a cathedral, but by the will of fate or due to turbulent historical changes, the temple was closed in 1930. The building was transferred to the Society of Political Prisoners. For many years, under Soviet rule, a decision was made to destroy the temple. Perhaps the war prevented this. The leaders at that time were faced with other important tasks.
During the terrible Leningrad siege, the cathedral building was used as a city morgue.
At the end of the war, the Maly Opera House set up a warehouse for scenery here.
After the change of power in the Soviet government, the temple was finally recognized as a historical monument.
In 1968, it came under the protection of the State Inspectorate, and in 1970, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ was declared a branch of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
During these years, the cathedral begins to gradually be revived. Restoration proceeded slowly, and only in 1997 did the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood begin to receive visitors as a museum.
In 2004, more than 70 years later, Metropolitan Vladimir celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church.
And now seven secrets and legends of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
1. Underwater crosses of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
At one time, the location of the temple played an important role in its history: they say that in order to save the decoration of the temple from the Bolsheviks, the townspeople removed the crosses from it and lowered them to the very bottom of the Griboyedov Canal. Subsequently, when the danger had passed, and they began to restore the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, but could not find the crosses that crowned the temple, a curious incident occurred: a random passer-by, who knew the legend, approached the team of restorers and advised them to look for decoration in the water. The workers decided to try and sent a team of divers to examine the bottom - to everyone’s surprise, the crosses turned out to be exactly where the stranger had indicated.
2. A story about how the temple influenced the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Another interesting legend associated with the Savior on Spilled Blood and the materialization of thoughts took place already in the very beginning of the 90s. For a long time, one of the main attractions of the city on the Neva stood in scaffolding for decades, which gave rise to many anecdotes and was even reflected in poems and songs. In the wake of the wave, there was an ironic belief among the townspeople that as soon as the forests were removed from the Savior, the entire Soviet Union would collapse. It may seem like a fable to some, and others will write it off as a coincidence, but the fact remains: in 1991 the temple was “liberated” from scaffolding, and a little later, in August of the same year, the end of Soviet power came.
3. The largest collection of mosaics in Europe.
Many people know that one of the main churches of the Northern capital is a real museum of mosaics, because under its roof is the richest and largest collection of mosaics, on which the most famous domestic masters worked - Vasnetsov, Nesterov, Belyaev, Kharlamov, Zhuravlev, Ryabushkin and others. Mosaics are the main decor of the temple, because even the iconostasis of the Savior on Spilled Blood is mosaic. It may also seem curious that precisely because the works of art took a very long time to make, the opening of the temple and its consecration were delayed for a good ten years.
4. Siege morgue and “Spas-on-potatoes”.
It's no secret that in wartime (and under Soviet rule) the churches and temples of the city worked in an unusual mode for them - cowsheds were equipped somewhere or enterprises were located. So, during the siege, Spas-on-Blood turned into a real morgue. The bodies of dead Leningraders were brought from all over the city to the district Dzerzhinsky morgue, which the temple temporarily became, confirming its historical name. In addition, one of the functions of the attraction in those difficult times was the storage of vegetables - some townspeople with a sense of humor even nicknamed it “Savior on Potatoes”. At the end of the war, the Savior on Spilled Blood was again not returned to its religious function; on the contrary, it began to be used as a storage facility for the scenery of the Maly Opera House, which is now known as the Mikhailovsky Theater.
5. Secrets of numerology and the Savior on Spilled Blood.
The magic of numbers really exists, and the St. Petersburg temple quite successfully proves this - for example, guides who want to add some mystical charm often turn to numerology and talk about the fact that the height of the central structure is 81 meters, which fully corresponds to the year of the death of Alexander II , and another number 63 - not only the height to which one of the domes rises, but also the age of the emperor at the time of the attempt on his life.
6. Mysterious icon.
In addition to the famous ghost of the Griboyedov Canal embankment, there is another mystical and mysterious legend (neither proven nor disproven): supposedly under the roof of the Savior on Spilled Blood there is an icon on which the fatal years for Russian history appeared - it says 1917, 1941 and more . It is believed that the icon has power and is capable of predicting turning points for the history of Russia, because other fuzzy silhouettes of numbers can be seen on the canvas - perhaps they will appear as a new tragedy approaches.
7. Bloody pavement.
It's no secret that the Savior on Spilled Blood was built on the site where the last attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander II took place on March 1, 1881. Naturally, immediately after the tragic events, the City Duma proposed to build a small chapel here, but the new Emperor Alexander III ordered not to limit ourselves to the chapel and to build a magnificent temple on this site.
The sovereign also ordered that an untouched section of the pavement, where his father’s blood was shed, be left inside the future cathedral.
Unbreakable Church
Another belief that has not yet been refuted is that this cathedral cannot be destroyed. One of the striking examples confirming the legend is the story of how in 1941 the authorities decided to blow up the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, calling it “an object that has no artistic and architectural value.” Holes were drilled in the walls and explosives had already been placed there.
But the Great Patriotic War began, so all the explosives were urgently sent to the front.
In the 60s, while examining the domes of the temple, they discovered the only bomb that still hit the temple.
It hit, but didn't explode.
A five hundred kilogram bomb lay in the hands of the Savior.
my photos + materials from open sources used
House 2 A
Years of construction: 1883 - 1907
Perhaps the most popular cathedral in St. Petersburg among foreign tourists, who sincerely consider it an example of “real Russian style.”
The Orthodox memorial single-altar church in the name of the Resurrection of Christ was built in memory of the fact that at this place on March 1 (13), 1881, Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded as a result of an assassination attempt.
Located in the historical center of St. Petersburg on the banks of the Griboyedov Canal, next to the Mikhailovsky Garden and Konyushennaya Square, not far from the Champs of Mars. The height of the highest dome of the temple (81 meters) symbolizes the year of the king’s death, the height of the bell tower (62 meters) symbolizes his age. It is a museum and a monument of Russian architecture.
The Russian Orthodox tradition is to erect church buildings in honor of memorable events. “The Temple in the Name of the Resurrection of Christ” was erected on the site of the mortal wound of Emperor Alexander II, but the people immediately nicknamed it “The Savior on Spilled Blood.”
According to different versions, from 6 to 11 attempts were made on Alexander II from 1866 to 1881. In place of the first one, a chapel was erected near the lattice of the Summer Garden, which was dismantled in the 20th century. There is a legend that after the sixth assassination attempt, Alexander, while in Paris, visited a certain clairvoyant who predicted to him: there would be eight assassination attempts, the last of which would be fatal. Those who are inclined to believe this legend believe that there were exactly 8 assassination attempts.
The assassination attempt that led to the death of the emperor was committed on March 1, 1881, and the very next day the City Duma asked Emperor Alexander III to “allow the city public administration to erect a chapel or monument” to the deceased emperor.
A temporary collapsible chapel at the site of the mortal wound of Alexander II was created according to the design of Leonty Benois in two weeks and consecrated on April 15, 1881. At the same time, a competition was announced to create a temple. However, none of the works noted by the Commission received the approval of Alexander III. The Tsar wished that the temple be built in the style of Russian architecture of Mokva and Yaroslavl of the 16th-17th centuries and that the place of the fatal wound be located inside the temple.
The laying of the foundation of the temple took place in October 1883, although the final design of the cathedral had not yet been approved. In the meantime, a stone pillar was driven into the foundation of the future throne of the temple. A link of the Catherine Canal grating, sidewalk slabs and part of the cobblestone road from the site of the emperor's wound were removed, placed in boxes and transferred to the chapel for storage.
Alfred Aleksandrovich Parland's 1883 project received the Tsar's approval. who led a creative group of architects, experts in monumental painting and Orthodox iconography. The project was revised five times and was approved on May 1, 1887. The project is based on the techniques and forms of Moscow and Yaroslavl architecture rethought by Parland. The temple is a quadrangle with a towering five-domed structure, where the central chapter is designed in the form of a tent 81 meters high. Adjacent to the main volume of the temple from the west is a massive pillar-shaped bell tower extended into the channel of the canal, completed with a bell tower and a wide helmet-shaped dome. At the base of the bell tower there is a chapel with an image of the crucified Christ, located symmetrically to the canopy above the place where the emperor was mortally wounded.
During the construction of the temple, the latest technologies for those times were used: for the first time in St. Petersburg, pile foundations were abandoned. The temple building rests on a solid concrete pad 1.2 m thick, with a base level of 2.5 m from the ordinary level in the canal. In 1899 - 1907, an air heating system was installed in the cathedral. The lighting in the temple was electric from the very beginning. Parland thought in advance about how they would clean the mosaics from dust, wash the windows, and change the light bulbs. He also solved the problem of condensate drainage and the lightning protection system. The construction of the temple took 24 years.
The outside of the church is decorated with the texts of the “acts” of Alexander II, executed on granite boards in gold script. Using them you can trace the most important events in the history of the Russian state during his reign.
The exterior decoration of the temple uses white stone decor against a background of brownish-red facing bricks, numerous tiles on the facades and the drum of the central dome, blue, yellow, white and green tiles covering the tents of the porches and the slopes of the apses. Estonian marble and gray granite were used to decorate the four porches of the cathedral. The surface of the five domes is covered with colored jewelry enamel, the only time in the history of construction that such huge quantities were used. On the facades of the cathedral's bell tower there are 134 mosaics with the coats of arms of Russian cities that contributed funds to the construction of the temple.
The interior of the temple is divided into three naves; The eastern ends of the side naves are choir icon cases, reminiscent in their shapes of ancient Russian low altar barriers. The wide central nave from the iconostasis and solea leads to a tented canopy installed above the site of the king’s mortal wound. The canopy was made according to Parland’s drawings: in the lower part, fragments of the canal embankment, cobblestone pavement, fencing bars and three pavement slabs on which the king’s blood was spilled are reproduced. For the construction of the canopy, Revnevskaya and Nikolaevskaya jasper and Ural coils were used. The composition is crowned with a cross of 112 topazes. More than thirty types of stones were used to create the canopy; it is decorated with Florentine mosaics and Bukhara lapis lazuli.
The interior of the temple uses a mosaic covering with a total area of 7065 square meters, which was assembled over 12 years in the Frolovs’ mosaic workshop, which won the mosaic department of the Academy of Arts, a German and two famous Italian companies in an announced competition. To choose a workshop for a set of mosaics, the competition participants were asked to make one work as a test, which was left outside for a whole year to check how well the mosaic would withstand the unkind St. Petersburg climate. The Frolovs' work, having lain under the snow all winter, stood the test better than other mosaics.
The Savior on Spilled Blood was consecrated on August 19, 1907 and was not initially intended for mass visits: it was maintained by the state and entry to the cathedral was carried out with special passes.
After the revolution, the Savior on Spilled Blood first became an ordinary parish church, and in 1930 it was closed; the issue of its demolition was discussed many times, however, due to the complexity of solving this problem, the decision already made was never put into practice. Over the years, the temple was used as a vegetable warehouse, a morgue (during the Siege), and a warehouse for the decorations of the Mikhailovsky Theater. Only in 1968 did the state recognize the “Savior on Spilled Blood” as an architectural monument and, since by this time the temple was in a state of disrepair, long restoration work began, which lasted 27 years (longer than the work on the construction of the temple!!!). On August 19, 1997 (90 years after its consecration), “Savior on Spilled Blood” was opened to the public. Today, “Savior on Spilled Blood” is a museum (one of the churches included in the “Museum of Four Cathedrals”), and on major church holidays, services are held there.
Decorated like a gingerbread house, the Savior on Spilled Blood or the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on Spilled Blood is very recognizable and loved by both residents of St. Petersburg and tourists.
History of the temple
If the name of the church has this slightly ominous “on the blood”, then you know that it was erected where the king’s murder was committed. And the royal blood, holy for the Russian people, was shed. After all, in the minds of the people, the Tsar was always present as a link between God and the Fatherland.
Savior on Spilled Blood is one of three such churches built on the site of the shed royal blood. The earliest one was built back in the 17th century on the site of the mysterious death of Tsarevich Dmitry, the last of the heirs of Ivan the Terrible. The Church of All Saints Who Shined in the Land of Russia in Yekaterinburg, where the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family were shot, was consecrated already in 2003.
St. Petersburg knows the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood as a monument church erected in the place where Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded by Narodnaya Volya, so it is impossible to talk about the temple without making some brief excursion into the Russian past. From the history course we know the fact that Alexander II, called a liberator and reformer, was killed by Narodnaya Volya, members of the Narodnaya Volya party, who also sought to reorganize the Russian order of that time.
Colored domes of the Savior
Why did they kill him?
The tsarist reforms had the character of a late insight. They changed a lot, but with a delay: dissatisfaction with the authorities seemed to take root and became an integral part of progressive Russian life. And among the Narodnaya Volya it was generally believed that the only means of struggle for social transformation could be murder and terror.
Only so-called individual terror: not mass murders for the purpose of intimidation, like modern extremist organizations do, but directed against specific government officials. You must speak to satraps in their language, i.e. from a position of strength. The well-secret organization fanatically pursued its goal: the elimination of the emperor as a symbol of authoritarian power, precisely through murder.
But the bloody action of the Narodnaya Volya did not find understanding and support among the people: no uprising occurred, on the contrary, people brought flowers to the site of the death of Alexander II, and a temporary monument appeared there. Immediately after the tragedy, the St. Petersburg City Duma asked the new tsar to allow the construction of a chapel or monument to the murdered tsar at the expense of the city. Alexander III ordered the construction of a church that would remind “the soul of the viewer of the martyrdom of the late Emperor Alexander II and evoke loyal feelings of devotion and deep sorrow of the Russian people.”
It took 26 years to create the temple. The temple in the name of the Resurrection of Christ was consecrated on August 19, 1907, already under Emperor Nicholas II, the grandson of the murdered man. This title conveys the idea of the triumph of life and affirms the connection between the martyrdom of the king and the atoning sacrifice of Christ. This idea is reflected by the words from the Gospel of John: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends,” which are present in the interior decoration, as a reflection of the spiritual feat of the king, who freed the peasants and was executed by his own people.
Temple of the Resurrection of Christ
Red-brown brick in the exterior decoration as a symbol of the blood shed by the Savior, white marble trim, kokoshniks and floral decoration of the facade show the joy of the Resurrection of Christ. Church services were held near a marble mosaic crucifix under a golden canopy. Sermons were read here, memorial services were held, and services dedicated to the memory of the martyr Tsar were held. However, they did not baptize or marry, since the church “due to its special significance as a national monument” was not a parish church.
Mosaic crucifix
On a specially built ledge, as if extended into the channel of the canal, there is a bell tower 62.5 meters high with a cross and an imperial crown on top. The bell tower marks the mournful place inside the temple.
You should know. To prevent water from penetrating under the building and to strengthen the soil, for the first time in the construction of buildings and structures in St. Petersburg, a concrete base was made for the foundation instead of traditional piles.
The fate of this cathedral turned out to be bitter and difficult. His contemporaries did not accept it: “an unprecedented architectural monstrosity,” “decorative fanaticism,” said art critic Sergei Makovsky and even called for the destruction of the work of the architect Parland. His fellow members of the World of Art society shared the same opinion. It was believed that this building did not fit into the classicist buildings of St. Petersburg, and it was nicknamed the “bonbonniere”.
You should know. The Soviet authorities also disliked the temple: they repeatedly wanted to demolish the cathedral.
Temple from the canal side
In Soviet times, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg was viewed as a monument to the autocracy as a whole, and therefore its artistic significance was assessed with caution, and even negatively. Representatives of the authorities believed that it was best for the city to get rid of the cathedral with such an ambiguous interpretation: in the 30s they did not want to destroy it, no, they wanted to dismantle it, transfer the mosaic fragments of the interior decoration to museums, and reuse the rare minerals for construction.
The bells were reset and in January 1931 all 14 bells were sent for melting down. At the end of the 30s, the Soviet government decided that this architectural monument was devoid of any artistic and historical value and a decree was passed to blow up the objectionable structure. Special niches for explosives had already been made in the walls, when suddenly the outbreak of war became salvation. The demolitions had to do other work, and the destruction of the church was forgotten. There was a belief in the city: it was impossible to destroy this temple.
Interesting! During the German shelling, they did not camouflage him or try to save him from the shells, but he “survived.” Miraculous fortitude is a characteristic feature of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
Indeed, even a landmine weighing about 150 kg did not cause him much harm and lay for 20 years in the rafters of the central tower. It was discovered only during restoration. And during the winter of the siege, the temple was jokingly called “Savior on Potatoes”, since there was a vegetable storehouse there. Both the living and the dead could be hiding behind the massive walls. The bodies of Leningraders who died of hunger were brought here. Bombs and shells somehow magically flew around the church, completely devoid of any camouflage.
After the war, the memorial structure on the Griboyedov Canal is again in the way: it needs to be removed from the city map in order to build a transport highway. In 1956, authorities talked about demolishing the building to straighten the highway along the canal, but public protests prevented demolition. And only in 1968 the cathedral acquired the status of an architectural monument. Dilapidated and in disrepair, it becomes a branch of the State Museum "St. Isaac's Cathedral". Now a new story of revival has begun.
Temple in the Woods
Canopy over the murder scene
The scaffolding stood near the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood for such an impossibly long time, and so Leningraders wanted them to finally be removed, and the temple to shine with its former beauty, that they became a legend and landmark of the city. Over the years of desolation and desecration, the main place of the temple - the Canopy - was severely destroyed - the cover over the place where the mortally wounded king lay. Behind the gilded grating you can see the cobblestones, sidewalk slabs and part of the canal grate. According to legend, before it was closed in 1930, traces of royal blood could still be seen here. Senya always prayed for the soul of the deceased emperor, and now this tradition has been renewed. Sermons are read here, memorial services are held, and services dedicated to the memory of the martyr king are held.
The most labor-intensive process for the restorers turned out to be the process of restoring the mosaic: it had cracks, scratches, lost the brightness of its colors, and partially lost its smalt coating. Artists first created special painting originals for subsequent mosaic reproduction. The mosaics themselves were made in different styles by such artists as Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov, Andrey Ryabushkin.
You should know. The cathedral contains more than two hundred images of saints, the most revered in Rus'. In the vault of the main dome is the face of the Lord Almighty, his gaze is directed directly at us, the Gospel is revealed before Him with the words “Peace be with you.”
Lord Almighty
The mosaic icon of the Tsar’s heavenly patron, Saint Alexander Nevsky, was made according to sketches by the famous artist Mikhail Nesterov. The saint is depicted praying in his house church. Some of the unique icons have been lost today, but the image of Alexander Nevsky, thanks to restorers, can be seen in its original place.
Several mosaic ornaments were made by Parland himself. Using the technique of Russian mosaic, the coats of arms of Russian cities and counties were conceived and executed on the facade, whose residents donated their personal savings for the construction of the temple.
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The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg has the official name of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ. The mysterious name means: “Spas” is short for the Savior, and “on the blood”, because the building is located at the site of bloodshed. This unique structure of the most beautiful and festive churches in Russia attracts tourists and Russian citizens with its charm and unique mystery. For a long time during the period of Soviet power, the building was in complete oblivion. It is currently a museum and services are held on Saturday and Sunday.
History of the temple
Tsar Alexander II dies as a result of a terrorist attack on him in 1981. By order of the son, a church was erected at the site of the assassination attempt on his father, where services for the murdered man were held. Later, a decision is made to erect the temple structure and a competition is announced for the best city planner, in which the most famous Russian architects participated. As a result of three attempts, the architect of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, Alfred Parland, and Archimandrite Ignatius were chosen.
The temple was built with donations from all citizens of the Russian Empire, and construction lasted twenty-four years. The walls and bell towers are decorated with mosaic coats of arms in honor of the provinces and districts that contributed money to the construction of the temple. A gold crown was installed on the main cross, in honor of the significant contribution made by the imperial family.
Residents of St. Petersburg like to call the cathedral “charmed.” During Soviet rule, the building was repeatedly included in the lists of structures subject to liquidation. Immediately after the revolution, explosives were planted in the building, but destruction never occurred. The temple was looted and the walls with mosaic paintings were damaged. In the early forties of the last century, a decision was made to blow up the temple, but the war began, and the leadership of the Communist Party was no longer interested in the cathedral.
During the Great Patriotic War there was a morgue in the building. But the cathedral itself was not damaged by shelling. After the war, it was a vegetable storehouse and a warehouse for theater decorations. In the seventies, the object was transferred to the St. Isaac's Cathedral Museum and is currently open to visitors.
Architectural style
The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg is a building of Russian architecture of the late 19th century. The building rests on four pillars and differs from other church buildings in the strictness of its relationships and the interweaving of color combinations. In the central part there is a tent in the shape of eight sides, and on the sides there are five onion-shaped domes.
The main tent is smaller than the surrounding ones, which creates the appearance of it being directed upward. The domes are covered with gold jewelry enamel on copper plates, and the patterns are varied. The structure has nine domes of different sizes. It is this composition that makes the cathedral similar to the structure of St. Basil's Church in Moscow.
The eastern part is decorated with gilded domes, in the west there is a bell tower as a symbolic part of the place of the death of the king, which crashes slightly into the embankment canal. To strengthen it on the canal, they used concrete rather than wooden supports. Therefore, the cathedral does not have a main entrance, but the porches are built in the form of a tower.
The architectural ensemble uses symbolic meanings. For example, the height of the central dome is 81 meters, which means the year the king died, and the head of the bell tower is 63 meters high, the number of years the emperor lived.
The temple attracts attention with the beauty and number of decorations:
- platbands,
- kokoshniks,
- tiles,
- colored tiles.
The interior decoration is truly unique in mosaic design by the great artists of that time. More than thirty artists participated in the design; it lasted ten years. The painting was made according to sketches by Vasnetsov, Kharlamov, Ryabushkin, Novoskoltsev.
A large collection of gems was used. This mosaic composition, the largest in Europe, occupies a temple area of more than 7,000 square meters. All patterns are made with the same mosaic covering and ornamentation at a highly artistic level and delight with their unity.
The iconostasis was made in an Italian workshop in Italy from marble of different colors and decorated with rock crystal crosses. The icons were minted from silver and decorated with mosaics.
The cathedral contains a composition of the place where the king was killed. This is a fragment of a lattice, paving slabs, a cobblestone from the pavement. There is a model of the cathedral in a glass vault.
How to get to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
Where is the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood located? It is located at: emb. Griboyedova, 2A, St. Petersburg. You can get there by metro, station prosp. Nevsky. Exit to the channel named after. Griboedova.
Opening hours of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood:
- every day 10:30 - 18:00;
- evening programs 18:00 - 22:30.
Paid entrance.
In the Church of the Savior on Blood, services are held on Saturdays, Sundays and twelve holidays at 08.00. These are the twelve most important holidays in Orthodoxy after Easter.
On October 18, 1883, at the site of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II in St. Petersburg, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was founded. Construction lasted 24 years. Now this monument of Russian architecture is one of the main attractions of the Northern capital and the most beautiful churches in the country. There are many mysterious stories and incredible facts associated with it..
Bloody Stones
Initially, they wanted to build a small chapel on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded. The son of the murdered king, Alexander III, ordered the construction of a spacious and majestic temple here. He ordered that the pavement stones on which his father’s blood had been spilled be preserved inside the temple. These stones remain in the walls of the temple to this day, and along with them - sidewalk slabs and a fragment of the grating of the Catherine Canal (now the Griboedov Canal, editor's note), which remember the day of the Tsar's assassination.
Mysticism of numbers
The height of the central structure of the temple is 81 meters. This number corresponds to the year of the death of Alexander II - 1881. Another dome of the Savior on Spilled Blood rises 63 meters above the pavement. This figure is the age of the emperor at the time of his mortal wound. Historians consider this a mere coincidence, but fans of urban legends are convinced that there is no accident here.
Mosaic collection
The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is also known for its collection of mosaics - one of the largest in Europe. The area of mosaic covering on the walls of the temple is truly impressive - more than 7 thousand square meters! Even the iconostasis is decorated with mosaics. The best artists - Nesterov, Vasnetsov, Ryabushkin and others - more than 30 people worked on the creation of such luxurious decoration. This painstaking work took a lot of time even for such masters and delayed the consecration of the temple for 10 years.
The collection of mosaics in the temple is one of the largest in Europe. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Crosses under water
After the revolution, the Bolsheviks removed the bells from the temple. There is a legend that the city residents decided to hide the crosses so that they would not be sent for melting down. The crosses were lowered to the bottom of the Griboyedov Canal. As it later turned out, the townspeople were not in vain worried about the fate of the temple: the Soviet government three times intended to dismantle the Savior on Spilled Blood, but this intention was never realized. When the temple was no longer in danger, the crosses could not be found. A passer-by told the restorers about their location. His words were confirmed. The crosses were lifted from the bottom of the canal, returned to their place and were no longer removed from the domes.
Siege morgue
During the blockade, the Dzerzhinsky district morgue opened within the walls of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The bodies of Leningraders who died from hunger and artillery shelling were brought here from the city center. After breaking the blockade, the temple was adapted into a vegetable storehouse, thanks to which people began to call it “Savior on Potatoes.” There was no irony in this: potatoes literally saved thousands of Leningraders from starvation.
Projectile under the dome
In 1961, restorers discovered a German high-explosive shell in the central dome of the temple. It has lain here, unexploded, since the Great Patriotic War - for 20 years! A 150-kilogram shell pierced the dome of the Savior on Spilled Blood, but got stuck in the roof ceiling. From here it was extracted by a whole team of former sappers and restorers. The shell was safely removed from the dome and exploded in the Pulkovo Heights area.
Prophetic forests
In 1972, a large-scale restoration of the Savior on Spilled Blood began. It lasted a quarter of a century - 25 years. For two decades, the temple was covered with scaffolding. They even began to make fun of the protracted repairs. Thus, Alexander Rosenbaum performed a song in which he admitted that he dreams of removing the forests from the Savior on Spilled Blood. People joked: when the scaffolding is finally removed from the temple, the Soviet Union will collapse. Interesting, but that's exactly what happened. The forests were removed in 1991.
The Savior on Spilled Blood is often compared to St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. Photo:
