Savior on 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 forgotten. Now, restored, it attracts thousands of visitors with its grandeur and originality.
The beginning of the story
Savior on Blood in St. Petersburg was built in memory of Emperor Alexander II. In the distant 1881, on the spot where the temple was later erected, tragic events occurred. On March 1, Tsar Alexander II was heading to the Field of Mars, where a military parade was to take place. As a result of a terrorist act committed by the Narodnaya Volya I.I. Grinevitsky, the emperor was mortally wounded.
By order of Alexander III, the Church of the Savior on Blood was erected at the site of the tragedy, where regular services for the slain were to be performed. So the name of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the official name of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, was assigned to the temple.
The decision to erect a temple
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 contest was announced so many times) did Alexander III choose the project that seemed most suitable to him. Its author was Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignatius.
Savior on Blood in St. Petersburg was built on donations that were collected by the whole world. Contributions were made not only by Russians, but also by citizens of other Slavic countries. The walls of the bell tower after the construction were crowned with many coats of arms of various provinces, cities, counties, which donated savings, all of them were made of mosaics. A gilded crown was installed on the main cross of the belfry as a sign that the august family made the biggest contribution to the construction. The total amount of construction amounted to 4.6 million rubles.
Cathedral building
The church was founded in 1883, when the construction project had not yet been finalized. At this stage, the main task was to strengthen the soil so that it would not be eroded, because the Griboedov Canal was nearby, and also lay a solid foundation.
The Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg began to be erected in 1888. Gray granite was used for cladding the basement, the walls were laid out of red-brown brick, drafts, window frames, curtain rods were made of Estland marble. The basement was decorated with twenty granite boards, on which the main decrees and merits of Alexander II were listed. By 1894, the main arches of the cathedral were erected; by 1897, nine chapters were completed. Most of them were covered with colorful bright enamel.
Temple decoration
The walls of the temple, domes, towers are completely covered with amazing decorative patterns, granite, marble, jewelry enamel, mosaic. White arches, arcades, kokoshniks against a background of decorative red brick look special. The total area of the mosaic (inside and out) is about six thousand square meters. Mosaic masterpieces were made according to the sketches of the great artists Vasnetsov, Parland, Nesterov, Koshelev. The north side of the facade represents the mosaic “Resurrection”, on the south there is a panel “Christ in Glory”. From the west, the facade is decorated with the painting “The Savior Not Made by Hands”, and from the east you can see the “Savior the Blessing One”.
Spas-na-Krovi in St. Petersburg is somewhat stylized as the Moscow Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. 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 chapters and four little chapters of a slightly smaller size. The southern and northern façades are decorated with kokoshniki pediments, and the eastern side is decorated with three rounded aspids with golden heads. From the west there is a bell tower with a beautiful gilded dome.
Inside beauty
The main place of the temple is an inviolable fragment of the Catherine’s canal. It includes paving slabs, cobblestone pavement, part of the grill. The place where the emperor died was decided to be left untouched. To implement this plan, the shape of the embankment was changed, and the foundation of the temple moved the channel of the canal by 8.5 meters.
The most majestic and significant in St. Petersburg can safely be called the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Photos are a confirmation of this. Under the bell tower exactly at the place where the tragic incident occurred, is the "Crucifixion with the coming." The unique cross is made of granite and marble. On the sides are placed icons of saints.
The interior decoration - the decoration of the temple - is very valuable and far superior to the exterior. The mosaics of the Savior are unique, all of them are made according to the sketches of famous masters of the brush: Kharlamov, Belyaev, Koshelev, Ryabushkin, Novoskoltsev and others.
Further story
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 the temple was closed in 1930 by the will of fate or because of turbulent historical changes. The building was handed over to the Society of Political Prisoners. Over the years, during the Soviet era, the decision was made to destroy the temple. Perhaps war prevented this. The leaders at that time were facing other important tasks.
During the terrible Leningrad blockade, 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 falls 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. In these years, the cathedral begins to gradually revive. The restoration was slow, only in 1997 as a museum of the Savior on Spilled Blood began to receive visitors.
In 2004, after more than 70 years, Metropolitan Vladimir served a divine liturgy in the church.
Today, everyone who visits St. Petersburg seeks to visit the Savior on Spilled Blood. Opening hours of the museum allow you to do this at any time in the summer from 10 to 22 hours, in the winter from 10 to 19.
Savior on Blood (Yekaterinburg)
If we talk about the suffering that the Romanov family suffered, one cannot but mention the temple in Yekaterinburg. It was in this city that the august family spent their last days, the descendants at the place of their death and built the Savior on Spilled Blood. A map of the city indicates that the cathedral was erected on the site of Ipatiev’s house. According to history, this house was confiscated by the Bolsheviks from engineer Ipatiev. Here the Romanov family was kept 78 days. July 17, 1918 all the martyrs were shot in the basement. During the years of Soviet power, the memory of the royal family was trampled and blackened. In 1977, by order of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the house was demolished, B.N. Yeltsin. In his memoirs, he called this event barbarism, the consequences of which cannot be corrected.
The construction of the temple
Only in 2000, at the scene of tragic events, the immediate construction of the temple began. The official name is the Temple Monument on Blood in the name of All Saints. It was in this year that the family of Nicholas II was glorified. Already in 2003, on July 16, the grand opening and lighting of the temple took place.
The construction, whose height is 60 meters, has five domes, the total area is three thousand square meters. Russian-Byzantine architectural style emphasizes the rigor and grandeur of the building. The complex consists of the upper and lower temple. The upper temple is a symbol of an unquenchable lamp, lit in memory of the tragedy that occurred here. The lower memorial temple is located in the basement. It includes a shooting room, where there are genuine remains of Ipatiev’s house. The altar is located directly on the spot where the Romanov family tragically died. A museum was immediately created where exhibits dedicated to the last days of the life of the royal family are exhibited.
Every year on the memorial night of July 17, an all-night liturgy is held in the church, ending with a procession (25 km) to Ganina Yama - bodies were brought to this abandoned mine after being shot. Thousands of pilgrims come here annually to pay tribute to the Royal Martyrs and to worship the shrine.