The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was built by decree of Emperor Alexander I in gratitude to God for the victory of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812. The temple was erected according to the project of the architect K.A. tone. It took almost 50 years to build the temple, it was consecrated in 1883.

The facades of the cathedral were decorated with marble high reliefs depicting figures on biblical subjects and Russian history. The leading sculptures A. Loganovsky, N. Ramazanov, P. Klodt took part in the design of the facade of the temple. The rich interior decoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior consisted of paintings and decorations made of labrador stones, porphyry and marble. The temple was painted by artists V. Vereshchagin, V. Surikov, I. Kramskoy, A. Markov and others.

On December 5, 1931, by order of Joseph Stalin, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was blown up; the majestic temple did not fit into the new state ideology of the Soviet government. On the site of the temple, it was supposed to build the Palace of Soviets - a giant tower topped with a 100-meter statue of V. I. Lenin. However, the plans for the construction of the Palace building were violated by the war of 1941-1945.

In the 1958-1960s, the foundation pit dug under the foundation of the Palace was used to build the Moskva outdoor swimming pool. The pool has been in existence for over 30 years. In the late 1980s, there was social movement for the revival of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. On the feast of the Nativity of Christ on January 7, 1995, the laying of the newly reconstructed Cathedral of Christ the Savior took place. Thanks to the incredibly fast pace of construction works already in 2000, the fully built temple was consecrated.

The reconstructed Cathedral of Christ the Savior has a lower Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord that did not exist before, 177 marble slabs with the names of the dead, wounded and awarded officers of the Russian army, dates and descriptions of all battles have been restored Patriotic War. The iconostasis-chapel of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (the height of the iconostasis together with the tent is 26.6 m). The mass of the largest bell is 29.8 tons.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior can accommodate up to 10,000 people. In horizontal section, it resembles an equilateral cross over 85 meters wide. The height of the lower block is about 37 meters, the height of the drum is 28 meters, the height of the dome with the cross is 35 meters. The total height of the building is 103 meters, the internal space is 79 meters, the thickness of the walls is up to 3.2 meters, the volume of the building is 524,000 cubic meters. meters. The mural area of ​​the temple is more than 22,000 sq. meters, of which more than 9000 sq. meters of gilding with gold leaf.

The temple has a museum with the main exposition dedicated to the history of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Of particular interest are the authentic exhibits that miraculously survived the explosion, the foundation board of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1839, works of monumental, fine and decorative art: fragments of preserved frescoes, sketches of wall paintings, an exposition dedicated to Russian Orthodoxy. The surviving marble fragments of the high reliefs of the temple blown up in 1931 are on inside at the walls of the Donskoy Monastery.

For tourists, excursions are conducted around the complex of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, visitors will get acquainted with the interior decoration, the history of creation, the tragic destruction and revival of the temple. Tourists will be able to climb to the observation deck and see the panorama of Moscow, the view of the Moscow Kremlin from a height of 40 meters. Here you can also buy souvenirs, take photos and videos about the most interesting excursion.

Temple where you can study history

Passengers at the Moscow metro stations "Kropotkinskaya" or "Okhotny Ryad" will certainly be very surprised if they are told what kind of marble the lobbies of these stations are lined with. The fact is that this is the marble of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, blown up in 1931. After Stalin personally gave the order to demolish it and build the Palace of Soviets on this site, it was decided to transfer " construction material» the main cathedral of Russia for various household needs.

The first floor of the Moskva Hotel, still memorable to many, was faced with red granite from the stairs of the cathedral. And marble benches were installed at the Novokuznetskaya metro station.

One of the church bells was moved to the tower of the Northern River Station in Khimki. And in one of the rooms of the main building of Moscow State University on the Sparrow Hills, there are still several columns that were once taken from the altar of the temple.

St. Alekseevsky Monastery, on the site of which the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was later built. Painting by Karl Rabus, 1838 According to a popular but unreliable folk legend, they were forced to move to a new place against the wishes of its inhabitants. The abbess of the monastery, not wanting to move, allegedly first tied herself with chains to an oak tree in the monastery courtyard, and then cursed this place. They also say that when Nicholas I came to the monastery and began to personally convince the nuns of the need to move, then at the end of the unsuccessful persuasion, the same abbess suddenly prophesied to him: “Sir, you will get a puddle here.” However, no curse, apparently, was not. It is not supported by any historical documents and evidence. Such stories are rather myths, with which, post factum, they tried to explain the subsequent tragic fate of the temple.

This is how the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was supposed to look according to the project of A. L. Vitberg

Grand opening of the monument to Alexander III in 1912 (destroyed in 1918). The military parade is hosted by Emperor Nicholas II

In the Donskoy Monastery, where the new authorities opened the Anti-Religious Museum, several high reliefs from the facades of the temple were transferred. There are still fragments of the statue of St. George the Victorious and the Old Testament prophetess Deborah, as well as the bas-relief “Sergius of Radonezh blesses Dmitry Donskoy for the Battle of Kulikovo”, which was damaged by the explosion.

There are facts that are completely amazing: when in the late 1990s they conducted overhaul Tretyakov Gallery, they began to change the worn marble steps that led to the wardrobe. What was the surprise of the workers when reverse side dismantled steps, they saw the names of the heroes of 1812 engraved. The steps to the cloakroom were made of marble from the memorial plaques of the temple. The memory of the heroes of the spirit, the warriors who laid down their lives for their faith and Fatherland, has been trampled underfoot for decades by the unknowing visitors of the Tretyakov Gallery. These steps are now in the temple museum. In addition, part of the memorial plates with the names of heroes from the district gallery of the temple were crushed into small gravel and sprinkled with it on the paths in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and in other metropolitan parks. The meaning of this action was definitely not economic, but symbolic. So in the 1930s, on a still fresh revolutionary wave, they wanted to forever destroy the memory of old Russia and its great victories.

Bench from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior at the Novokuznetskaya metro station. Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

In memory of a miracle

On December 25, 1812, on the day of the Nativity of Christ (according to the old style), the last Napoleonic soldiers crossed the Neman River on ice, forever leaving the borders of Russia. On the same day, the Supreme Manifesto of Emperor Alexander I was issued on the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow * "in commemoration of gratitude to the Providence of God, which saved Russia from the death that threatened her." It so happened that the most critical trials that have befallen Russia over the past two hundred years turned out to be connected in one way or another with the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Our country has been on the verge of death more than once in the last two centuries, but has risen again, no matter what. And every time it looked like a real miracle. It was a miracle that Russia was saved from an enemy invasion in 1812, when Russia was able to initially oppose the 600,000-strong Napoleonic army with less than 200,000 of its soldiers and officers. In memory of this miracle, they decided to erect the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The real miracle was the salvation of Russia in the Great Patriotic War. By the way, it was precisely its beginning that prevented the completion of the communist Palace of Soviets on the site of the blown up temple. It was also a miracle that the temple, seemingly lost forever as a result of the October Revolution, was restored in just a few years after the fall of communist power.

But the first time it was built for a very, very long time. Between the decree of Emperor Alexander I on the construction of the temple and its consecration in 1883, seventy years passed.

Unsuccessful attempt

Few people know that at first the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was planned to be erected on Sparrow Hills, a kind of “crown of Moscow”, from where it would tower over the capital and be visible from everywhere.

Its construction was entrusted to the young architect Karl Magnus (after the adoption of Orthodoxy - Alexander Lavrentievich) Vitberg. He designed a three-tiered building with three thrones. The first temple, the lowest one, was supposed to become the tomb of Russian soldiers, where requiems would be constantly held. After reviewing Witberg's project and addressing the architect, Alexander I exclaimed: "You made the stones speak!"

Exactly on the fifth anniversary of the expulsion of the French from Moscow, on October 12, 1817, between the Smolenskaya road (the enemy entered Moscow along it) and the Kaluga road (he left the capital along it), the solemn laying of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior took place on Sparrow Hills.

However, Vitberg, a favorite of Alexander I (it was not without reason that he was his godfather at baptism and gave him his name), after the death of the emperor, they are undeservedly accused of embezzlement and, after lengthy proceedings, they are exiled to Vyatka.

They also refuse to build a temple on Sparrow Hills. Firstly, due to subsidence of soil on the banks of the Moscow River and the danger of a landslide. Secondly, fears were expressed that due to the remoteness from the center of the capital, the magnificent building would be empty most of the time. In addition, Witberg's project was full of mystical symbolism, very close to the worldview of Alexander I, but alien to the views of the new Russian tsar, who did not share the mystical passions of his brother.

The first life of the temple

Nevertheless, Nicholas I did not forget the “vow” of Alexander I. The design of the new temple was entrusted to Konstantin Andreevich To-n-u, the famous author of the Moscow and Nikolaevsky twin stations in both Russian capitals, the embankment in St. Petersburg with the famous sphinxes in front of the Academy Arts and the Armory in the Kremlin.

The emperor approves a hill next to the Big Stone Bridge for new construction. The place was chosen because of its proximity to the Kremlin, and also because from it the Cathedral of Christ the Savior would be visible from all parts of Moscow. The Alekseevsky convent located here is transferred to Krasnoe Selo (now it is the area of ​​​​the Krasnoselskaya metro station).

On September 10, 1839, the solemn laying of the new church took place. It was performed by St. Philaret of Moscow himself, whose relics now rest in the church.

It was built almost 44 years. The whole of Russia collected money for it. In the churches there were mugs with the inscription "To build a temple to the Savior Christ in Moscow."

Twenty years after the start of construction, the outer scaffolding was removed from the building, and for the first time the temple appeared before Muscovites in all its grandeur and splendor. It truly reigns over the capital - its golden domes are visible even dozens of miles from the center of Moscow.

By 1881, work was being completed on the interior painting of the temple, as well as on the construction of the embankment and the square in front of the temple. It was painted by the best artists of Russia - V. Surikov, F. Bruni, I. Kramskoy, V. Vereshchagin, and others. Authors of facade sculptures based on scenes from Old Testament and Russian history were Baron P. Klodt, A. Loganovsky, N. Ramazanov. The theme of the paintings of the most important parts of the building - the main dome and its belt, small vaults and the iconostasis - was personally approved by St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow.

And on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, May 26 (June 8), 1883, the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior takes place, specially timed to coincide with the coronation Alexander III. In the northern corner of the temple there are a few veterans of the Patriotic War with the Orders of St. George on their chests. For the first time, P. I. Tchaikovsky’s overture “1812”, specially written for this festival, sounds.

The temple received the status of a cathedral, and its clergy were equated with the clergy of the capital St. Isaac's Cathedral. Since then, many important events have taken place under its arches. historical events. It, for example, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Patriotic War and the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.

After February Revolution in August 1917, the All-Russian Local Council opened in the temple, which two months later elected Metropolitan Tikhon of Moscow as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Then the Russian Church, after a 200-year break, regained its Patriarch.

But already three months later, in November 1917, at the insistence of Patriarch Tikhon, prayers were performed here for the appeasement of Russia. At the end of the funeral of the victims of revolutionary battles in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a Cathedral prayer was served for all those who died in bloody clashes.

"Farewell, keeper of Russian glory!"

After the October Revolution, the fate of the temple was sealed. Back in December 1922, at the First Congress of Soviet Deputies, which proclaimed the creation of the USSR, S. M. Kirov proposed instead of the “palace of bankers, landlords and tsars” to erect a “new palace of workers and working peasants”. It should appear, Kirov said, in Moscow "on the most beautiful and best square" and become "an emblem of the coming power, the triumph of communism not only here, but also there, in the West."

Explosion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, 1931. Photo by Itar-TASS. They planned to destroy not only the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. According to the general plan of Moscow in 1935, they were going to demolish almost all the buildings in the district and create around a huge square that would connect the Palace of Soviets with the Kremlin. Neither the church of Elijah the Obydenny near Ostozhenka, nor the “fairy tale house” in Soimonovsky passage, nor other remarkable buildings should have remained. However, they all remained intact and survived to this day. Together with the temple, only two churches were destroyed - the Praise of the Virgin (next to it) and the Holy Spirit (on Gogolevsky Boulevard).

In March 1924, the Pravda newspaper received a letter from a certain student Balikhin from the Association of New Architects with a proposal to demolish the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in order to put a monumental building in its place, which would also be a monument to Lenin. From that moment began the countdown to the destruction of the temple.

The press, led by the Union of Militant Atheists, is unleashing a wild campaign to discredit the architectural merits of Russia's main cathedral. It is pejoratively compared with a samovar and Easter cake, they claim that it allegedly “does not represent artistic value”, that the temple is a “thick poisonous mushroom”, “eating juices” of Zamoskvorechye, created to “glorify mass human extermination (meaning the war of 1812. — Ed.), in which the workers and peasants did not show any unparalleled zeal.

In August 1931, work began on dismantling the temple and clearing the surrounding area. And at noon on December 5 of the same year, the first powerful explosion was heard, then the second. But the Cathedral of Christ the Savior continued to stand almost unscathed. Only the third explosion finished him off.

Less than 50 years passed from the consecration of the temple to its destruction.

Unfulfilled utopia

Two years after the explosion, the project of the Palace of Soviets by architect B. M. Iofan was adopted (co-authors V. A. Shchuko and V. G. Gelfreikh). Its scale can amaze the imagination of any person. A gigantic building 420 meters high would be crowned by a huge statue of Lenin (twice as high as the American Statue of Liberty). For comparison, the height of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was 104 meters (that is, the temple was four times lower than the planned "miracle palace"!). Thus, on the site of the temple to the God-man, a communist universal “temple” was supposed to appear symbolically opposed to it, which instead of a cross would be crowned with the figure of a man-god.

According to the project, the Palace of Soviets was supposed to be 4 times higher than the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. They planned to destroy not only the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. According to the general plan of Moscow in 1935, they were going to demolish almost all the buildings in the district and create around a huge square that would connect the Palace of Soviets with the Kremlin. Neither the church of Elijah the Obydenny near Ostozhenka, nor the “fairy tale house” in Soimonovsky passage, nor other remarkable buildings should have remained. However, they all remained intact and survived to this day. Together with the temple, only two churches were destroyed - the Praise of the Virgin (next to it) and the Holy Spirit (on Gogolevsky Boulevard).

Outdoor pool "Moscow", built on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Saint Sergius blesses Prince Dmitry Donskoy for the Battle of Kulikovo. High relief of the destroyed Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Sculptor A. Loganovsky. And the same high relief after the destruction of the temple. Photo www.xxc.ru.

The Palace of Soviets was to become the tallest building in the world. It was supposed to be the center of the new Moscow - the capital of world communism, a utopian paradise on Earth. Its two halls - the Big and the Small - were supposed to accommodate 15,000 and 6,000 people, respectively. It was planned to place a library in the giant head of Lenin, the size of a 5-story building, and the index finger of the statue of the leader of the world proletariat was 4 meters long. The Palace of Soviets began to be built in the first half of the 1930s, but they only managed to lay the foundation. The Great Patriotic War is not up to the construction of the giant Palace of Soviets. In the autumn of 1941, when the Germans rushed to the capital, metal constructions from construction went to manufacturing anti-tank hedgehogs for the defense of Moscow.

After the war, the project is frozen due to lack of funds in a country recovering from a war of extermination. The idea of ​​the Palace of Soviets, together with the belief in a more or less near victory of communism throughout the world, was gradually fading away. As a result, the authorities decided to limit themselves to the construction of the Palace of Congresses in the Kremlin, and in 1958, on the site of the unbuilt palace, they built the outdoor swimming pool "Moscow" according to the project of architect D.N. Chechulin. By the way, if something more serious, say, residential buildings, were built on the site of the destroyed temple, then it would be very difficult to restore the temple in the post-Soviet period.

New life for the temple

In the late 1980s there is a public movement for the restoration of the temple. The writers Vladimir Soloukhin, Vladimir Krupin and Valentin Rasputin, composer Georgy Sviridov did a lot for its revival.

In February 1990, the Holy Synod of the Russian Church blessed the revival of the temple and turned to the Government of Russia with a request to allow it to be rebuilt in its original place. And four years later, the builders dismantled the pool and began installing the foundation of the temple.

Since the Church alone, despite numerous donations from parishioners, was unable to build the temple, the Moscow Government took an active part in its construction. An agreement was reached that it was transferred not to the ownership of the Church, but to municipal property in which it remains to this day.

Already in April 1996, crosses were hoisted on the heads of the temple, and bells cast at the ZIL factory rang on the domes. August 19, 2000 His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II performed the Great consecration of the temple. That is, less than six years passed from the beginning of construction to the consecration of the temple.

In the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, unique shrines are stored: a particle of a robe (tunic) of the Lord Jesus Christ, a particle of a robe Holy Mother of God And nail from the Cross on which the Savior was crucified. Also in the temple are particles of the relics of John the Baptist, the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, the Monk Mary of Egypt, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, Prince Alexander Nevsky, Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, as well as the relics of other saints and ascetics of the Church. Photo by Vladimir Eshtokin

Cathedral of Christ the Savior - main cathedral Russia. It accommodates several thousand people. The height of the temple is the same as in the last century - 104 m, and the thickness of the walls is 3.2 m. Its rector is the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (the representative of the Patriarch in the temple is the dean of the temple, Archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev). Patriarchal services are held here at Christmas, Easter and other Great holidays of the Russian Orthodox Church. Here, at the Council of Bishops in August 2000, Nicholas II and his family were canonized as Holy New Martyrs of Russia. Here the relics of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called were exhibited for veneration (June 2003) and the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God returned from America (June 2004). Here, in November 2011, the Holy Belt of the Most Holy Theotokos was put up for worship by numerous pilgrims. Also in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior at the Local Council in 2009, the election of a new Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia and his enthronement took place.

In preparing the article, materials from the book "Temple of Christ the Savior" were used. St. Petersburg, publishing house "P-2", 2011. 157 p.

The Cathedral of the Moscow diocese and the entire Russian Orthodox Church - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was built as a memorial church dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812.

The idea of ​​erecting a temple in honor of Russia's victory over Napoleon's army belonged to General of the Army Mikhail Kikin and was transferred to Russian emperor Alexander I.

At the end of 1812, Alexander I issued a manifesto on the creation of the temple in commemoration of "gratitude to the Providence of God, which saved Russia from the death that threatened her."
On October 24 (12 according to the old style) of October 1817, the solemn laying of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior took place on Sparrow Hills, but the project was not implemented, as there were problems associated with the fragility of the soil, which has underground streams. After the death of Alexander I in 1825, the new Emperor Nicholas I ordered that all work be suspended, and in 1826 construction was stopped.

On April 22 (10 according to the old style) of April 1832, Emperor Nicholas I approved the new design of the Temple, drawn up by the architect Konstantin Ton. The emperor personally chose a place for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior - on the banks of the Moscow River, not far from the Kremlin, and in 1837 established a special Commission for the construction of a new Temple. The Alekseevsky convent and the Church of All Saints, located on the site where the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was supposed to be built, were dismantled, the monastery was transferred to Krasnoye Selo (now Sokolniki).

22 (10 old style) September 1839 of the new temple.

In September 1994, the Moscow government decided to recreate the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in its former architectural forms.

On January 7, 1995, on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, together with the mayor of the capital Yuri Luzhkov, laid a memorial capsule in the foundation of the temple.

The temple was built in less than six years. The first construction work began on September 29, 1994. On Pascha 1996, the first Paschal Vespers was celebrated under the vaults of the church. In 2000, all internal and external Finishing work have been completed.

On August 19, 2000, on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord, Patriarch Alexy II performed the Great consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The architectural concept of the complex of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was developed by the Mosproekt-2 Department together with the Moscow Patriarchate. The project manager and chief architect is Academician Mikhail Posokhin. Works on the reconstruction of artistic decoration were performed by the Russian Academy of Arts, headed by its president Zurab Tsereteli, 23 artels of artists participated in the painting. The reconstruction of the sculptural decoration of the facades of the temple was carried out under the guidance of Academician Yuri Orekhov with the assistance of the Sculptor Foundation. The bells were cast at the I.A. Likhachev (AMO ZIL).

The reconstructed temple is reproduced as close as possible to the original. During the design and construction work, information from the 19th century was used, including sketches and drawings. The modern temple is distinguished by its stylobate part (ground floor), erected on the site of the existing hill-base. In this building, 17 meters high, there is the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the hall of Church Councils, the meeting room Holy Synod, refectory chambers, as well as technical and office premises. Elevators are installed in the columns of the Temple and in the stylobate part.
The walls and load-bearing structures of the temple are made of reinforced concrete, followed by brick cladding. For exterior finish Marble from the Koelga deposit (Chelyabinsk region), plinth and stairs from red granite from the Balmoral deposit (Finland) were used.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior - the largest cathedral in Russia Orthodox Church It can accommodate up to 10,000 people. The total height of the building is 103 meters, the internal space is 79 meters, the thickness of the walls is up to 3.2 meters. The mural area of ​​the temple is more than 22 thousand square meters.

The temple has three thrones - the main one, consecrated in honor of the Nativity of Christ and two side altars in the choir stalls - in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (southern) and the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky (northern).

Among the main shrines of the temple are a particle of the robe of Jesus Christ and the Nail of the Cross of the Lord, a particle of the robe of the Most Holy Mother of God, the holy relics of Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, the head of St. and Michael of Tverskoy, St. Mary of Egypt. In the temple there are miraculous images of the Mother of God of Vladimir and the Mother of God of Smolensk-Ustyuzhenskaya.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is the Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church. The rector of the temple is Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the dean is Archpriest Mikhail Ryazantsev.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Turning to history of the creation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, first of all, it should be noted that it is connected with the victory of the Russian army over the thousands of troops of Napoleon.

Emperor Alexander I, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ in 1812, when there was not a single soldier of the Napoleonic troops left on Russian soil, issued a Manifesto, which spoke of the need to create a church named after Christ the Savior in the Mother See in honor of the victory in the Patriotic War.

Muscovites were inspired by such a joyful message. And so it happened, it was built in gratitude to the Almighty for intercession and support in a difficult period for Russia, it was also evidence of the extraordinary courage of the Russian people. But the construction of the temple did not begin immediately, only a few years later and already during the reign of Nicholas I, who personally determined the place on the banks of the Moscow River in the center of the capital, intended for the construction of such an important structure.

The project of the temple was created by professor of architecture K.A. Tone and designed in the Russian-Byzantine style. The solemn laying ceremony of the temple took place in 1829, however, the construction was completed only in 1882 during the reign of Alexander III.

In May 1883, the consecration ceremony of the temple took place. Its height was 103 meters, it was 1.5 meters higher than St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. was supposed to accommodate 10 thousand people.

IN Orthodox churches Russia's dominating is the iconostasis. But this was not always the case, initially the iconostasis served as a barrier separating the altar from the entire room. The gates of the iconostasis (3 doors) lead directly to the altar. Each such door has its own name, for example, the Royal Doors, these are those that are located directly in front of the throne, the South Gate is located to the right of them, and the North Gate is to the left.

The iconostasis in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior has an octagonal shape; it is a carved iconostasis-chapel, reminiscent of a wonderful fairy-tale palace in miniature.

With its snow-white walls and golden domes, majestic and significant for the people, it immediately became a symbol of spirituality and Orthodoxy in Russia. The walls of the temple were painted by the famous artists of that time Vereshchagin, Surikov, Kramskoy. People came from everywhere to see the majestic building, especially since it was next to the Kremlin on the Moskva River embankment and created a very interesting white and red architectural ensemble.

Explosion of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

In the tragic year for the life of the temple in 1931 Soviet authority decided that the largest church in the Russian Orthodox Church has no place in the center of the Mother See. And on December 5, the temple was blown up and the memory of the great victory in the war against Napoleon and the feat of the Russian people was destroyed. The first explosion of enormous force could not destroy the majestic structure, and only on the second attempt did the temple collapse. It took the builders almost a year and a half to dismantle the wreckage of the temple. In its place, it was planned to erect a colossal Palace of Soviets with a huge figure of Lenin. However, the construction, which began in 1937, was never completed due to a change in the foreign policy situation and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941. Then the constructions metal frame of the future House of Soviets, ready for installation, were given to create anti-tank hedgehogs that were supposed to protect the city.

The war ended, and for a long 13 years a huge hole gaped on the site of the temple, on the site of which a pool with the name "Moscow" was built in 1958.

Rebuilding the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

And only in 1990 the construction of the temple began anew, it lasted almost 10 years, and in 2000 it was consecrated. The new temple is a complete copy of the once barbarously destroyed temple. Only the paintings inside the temple, as well as the lost icons, chandeliers and stucco molding, could not be reproduced in their original form.

But the main iconostasis, which is rightfully considered one of the most valuable relics in the whole world, was reproduced according to the model of the past and has a height of 26.6 m and the shape of an octagonal chapel. It is carved from the purest white marble and appears to be made of porcelain. The four-tiered iconostasis of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is crowned with a gilded bronze dome, inside there is a throne, and all the crosses and many elements are gilded. To this day, work is underway to decorate the interior of the temple and its iconostasis.

The atmosphere of the temple makes an indelible impression, its majesty does not crush, but rather makes you feel like a part of something very bright and significant.

Modern Cathedral of Christ the Savior- this is a whole complex which includes the "upper" and "lower" temples.

The "Upper Church" - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior itself contains three thrones, the main of which was erected in the name of the Nativity of Christ, the southern - Nicholas the Wonderworker, the northern - Prince Alexander Nevsky.

The "lower temple" is the Church of the Transfiguration, which was created in memory of Alekseevsky convent which used to be located here. Three altars of the Church of the Transfiguration: the main one - the Transfiguration of the Lord, two small ones - the Tikhvin Icon Mother of God and Alexis the man of God.

To date, it is fully operational, as well as a museum - a branch of the Historical Museum of Moscow.

The revived temple is 10 years old, if we count from the moment of its consecration in 2000. There is one interesting legend that the place under the temple is cursed.

Back in the 16th century, on Chertolsky Hill, where the temple is located, there was a female Alekseevsky monastery transferred from the old place, the founder of which in the 14th century. Metropolitan Alexei was the mentor of Dmitry Donskoy. When it was decided to build the Cathedral of Christ the Savior here, the ancient buildings of the Alekseevsky Monastery were mercilessly destroyed, and the nuns themselves were transferred to Krasnoye Selo. It was then that the abbess of this monastery cursed the place where her monastery was destroyed and predicted that each building on this site would not have more than 50 years of life.

Of course, this is just an unfounded legend and some kind of completely un-Christian one, but initially the temple stood for 48 years, later the construction did not go well at all, and the swimming pool on this site lived only 30 years.

No matter what motivates you to visit Cathedral of Christ the Savior, you will not regret your decision for a single minute, because this is the very place that you definitely need to visit.

Romanchukevich Tatiana
for women's magazine website

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The laying of the temple was made on December 12, 1817 on Sparrow Hills between the Smolensk and Kaluga roads. But this project, conceived in majestic classical forms, was never realized - by decree of the Senate of May 11, 1827, construction was stopped.

The second competition held in 1829 did not give the expected result, and in 1830 Nicholas II handed over the design of the temple to K.A. Ton, who managed to harmoniously combine the idea of ​​the temple with its appearance and worthy location - the territory of the Alekseevsky Monastery. In 1837, a Commission for the construction of the temple was appointed, a year later construction work began.

The construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was a significant event for Moscow: its architecture drew a clear line between two eras in the architecture of Moscow - the outgoing classicism in the version of the post-fire Moscow Empire style and the emergence of the Russian style to renew the historical center of Moscow.

Using in the project the type of a traditional five-domed church with a characteristic pozakomar covering, dating back to Byzantine models, Ton supplements it with a number of elements that were associated only with Moscow prototypes of the 15th-16th centuries. These are the keel-shaped zakomar, and the arcade-columnar belt at the level of the windows of the second tier, and, finally, encircling the main volume of the temple, repeating the shape of an equal-ended cross plan, a bypass gallery, turned from a traditional ambush into the Museum of the War of 1812. And if the symbolism of forms in Witberg's unrealized project was based on Christian dogma, then in Ton's project the theme of a national memorial church, a museum church and a votive church erected in a place consecrated by custom - in the center of Moscow, next to the ancient Kremlin - is programmatically and definitely stated.

The massive cuboid volume of the temple, the grandeur of which is due to the proximity of the Kremlin, received the same design on four of its facades: they are distinguished only by the theme of sculptural decoration. The facades are decorated on the outside with 48 reliefs, the authors of which were sculptors A.V. Loganovsky, N.A. Ramazanov, P.K. Klodt. The reliefs decorating the doors of the portals of the cathedral are made according to the models of F.P. Tolstoy.

The interior decoration of the temple was carried out according to a new project, the work on which was headed by architects A.I. Rezanov and L.V. Dal. Turning to the traditional, “belt” scheme of painting ancient Russian churches, they subordinated it to the proportionality of architectural divisions, abandoning the decor typical of classicism with the use of order elements. Subject compositions fit into ornamental frames, subordinated to the forms, lines and outlines of the surfaces of the walls intended for painting. In the ornamental breakdown of the walls of the temple were used different breeds marble and decorative painting. Narrative compositions telling about the earthly life of Christ, located above the level of the choir, were performed by artists A.T. Markov, I.N. Kramskoy (main dome), P.V. Basin and N.A. Koshelev (central drum, arches of small domes), F.A. Bruni and P.S. Sorokin (sails and kliros), V.V. Vereshchagin (niches at the base of four pylons), as well as G.I. Semiradsky, V.D. Fartusov, V.E. Makovsky and others.

The iconostasis, which is a unique composition in the form of a marble octagonal chapel crowned with a gilded bronze tent, was located along the axis of the main entrance in the eastern part of the main cross of the temple. Its height, together with the tent, was 26.6 m. The icons on royal doors and in the four tiers of the iconostasis were painted mainly by T.A. Neff. The chapel simultaneously served as an iconostasis and played the role of a canopy over the altar.

The main volume of the temple was surrounded by a two-tier gallery, on the first floor of which a museum was arranged. There are 177 marble slabs on its walls; information about the main events of the hostilities of 1812, the highest orders, rescripts were carved on their surface, and the names of the soldiers - defenders of the Fatherland were immortalized. In the second tier, on the choirs, there were additional thrones of the temple.

On December 5, 1931, the temple was blown up. A number of frescoes were removed and transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery. Several high reliefs from the facades of the temple were transferred to the Museum of Architecture (mounted in the walls of the Donskoy Monastery). In 1990, its restoration began, during the construction the drawings of Ton and his assistants stored in the Museum of Architecture were used. The new temple was erected on a huge stylobate, inside of which there was a lower church in the name of St. Nicholas of Myra, the Museum of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and a hall church councils. The newly built temple was consecrated in 2000.