CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE SAVIOR

Description

Essentials about the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in brief

The monumental and unmissable Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the left bank of the Moskva River is one of the most impressive churches in Russia. The cathedral is the central house of worship of the Russian Orthodox Church and, with a height of 103 meters, also the tallest Orthodox sacred building in the world.

The history of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

The idea of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior has had a very eventful history. The reason for its construction was Russia’s victory over Napoleon Bonaparte in the so-called Patriotic War of 1812. With the construction of a monumental Orthodox cathedral, which in its dimensions was to dwarf all previous Russian church buildings, the then Tsar Alexander I wanted to express gratitude for the hard and loss-won victory and at the same time demonstrate the power and the superior greatness of the Russian Empire. Incidentally, the construction of church buildings as a sign of gratitude for Russia’s historic victories had a centuries-old tradition in the tsarist empire: the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, for example, was built to mark the expulsion of the Polish-Lithuanian occupiers, and St. Basil’s Cathedral, also on Red Square, was built to commemorate the victory over the Tartars.

The planning the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Because of the intended monumentality of the new cathedral to be built, it was initially planned to erect it on the 70-meter-high Sparrow Hills, which would make the cathedral visible from practically everywhere within Moscow. The architectural competition was won in 1813 by the hitherto unknown Swedish painter and architect Alexander Witberg. His design envisaged a church building that was unique for Russia at that time, with extensive column-supported portals and a height of almost 250 meters, whose dome construction was to be reminiscent of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and also of St. Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral, which had been completed shortly before. Under the portals of the cathedral, all the fallen of the War of 1812 were to find their final resting place.

The first construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

In 1817, the ceremonial laying of the church’s foundation stone finally took place. However, Witberg’s design could never be realized. On the one hand, the building ground on the Sparrow Hills later proved to be too soft and unstable for a building of this scale, and on the other, Witberg was accused of disloyalty in the procurement of building materials and banished in 1826. Construction work on the Sparrow Hills was therefore suspended at the end of the 1820s.

The new construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

After the failure of the first project, the renowned Russian-German architect Konstantin Thon presented Tsar Nicholas I with a new design for the church building in 1832. As a site for the cathedral, his project envisaged a plot of land directly on the left bank of the Moscow River in almost immediate proximity to the Kremlin. Architecturally, the new design differed considerably from the old one: the cathedral was to be based on the traditional Russian Byzantine style of construction for Orthodox sacred buildings and thus fit harmoniously into the overall picture of Moscow’s city center.

In the same year, the tsar approved Thon’s design. However, since there was still a women’s convent on the site at the time, the start of construction was delayed by several years. The foundation stone was finally laid in 1839. Due to the high complexity of the design and the difficult geological conditions, it took a full 44 years to complete the cathedral. The solemn consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was originally planned for 1881, as the cathedral was already largely completed at that time. However, the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in March of that year prevented the ceremony. It was not until two years later that the dedication took place together with the coronation of his successor, Alexander III.

The destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

In 1917, the cathedral survived the seizure of power by the Communists in the course of the October Revolution. A few years later, however, its fate was sealed after it was decided to build the monumental Palace of Soviets on the site. Unlike the Cathedral of the Savior, this structure was to architecturally represent not the old tsarist empire, but the new Soviet Union, reaching a hitherto unimaginable height of 415 meters worldwide. The church building, which was to make way for the new palace, was then closed and cleared out. After simple demolition of the cathedral proved too costly, it was blown up in 1931.

Construction of the Palace of Soviets, which began in the mid-1930s, ultimately never went beyond completion of the foundations, as it repeatedly stalled due to the foundation soil being far too loose for such a gigantic structure, and was finally halted for the time being with the start of the war against Nazi Germany. After the end of the war, the project of building the palace lost its original high priority and was completely abandoned after Stalin’s death. Instead, the foundations were used for the construction of the Moskva open-air swimming pool. Completed in 1960, the outdoor pool was the largest of its kind in the world.

The reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

With the increasing resurgence of Orthodox culture in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s in the wake of perestroika, there were increasing public calls for the rebuilding of the Cathedral of the Savior and its restoration as Russia’s religious center. In 1990 a civic initiative for the reconstruction was formed and in 1992 a foundation was established to collect donations. After the demolition of the swimming pool, the foundation stone for the new cathedral was laid in 1995.

In order to keep the reconstruction as true to the original as possible, not only old drafts and sketches were used, but also memories of contemporary witnesses and numerous photos of the old building from archives. Since the foundation walls were not made of individual bricks as originally, but of reinforced concrete, the reconstruction was completed in five and a half years much faster than the construction of the original. In December 1999, symbolically on the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, the new cathedral was opened to the public for the first time.

The architecture of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Like the original building, the reconstructed cathedral was built in a historicist, so-called pseudo-Russian style, a widespread style, especially for Moscow of the late 19th century, which follows traditions of Old Russian architecture combined with elements of Byzantine architecture. The Old Russian component of the cathedral’s construction can be seen above all in its facade: These include the arched windows (60 in all) and gates (three on each side) typical of Russian Orthodox church buildings of the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as the decorative spear-shaped ornaments (five on each side) and the four pointed bell towers with onion-shaped dome roofs.

The dome construction, on the other hand, comes from the Byzantine church building tradition. The roof is crowned by a total of five domes, of which four smaller ones are arranged in a symmetrical manner around the large central dome with a diameter of 30 meters. The large and the four small domes are supposed to symbolize Jesus Christ and the four evangelists Mark, Matthew, John and Luke.

When the cathedral was built in the 19th century, its facade was additionally decorated on all four sides with ornaments that included over 100 sculptures depicting motifs from the Old Testament and Russian history. Authors of these sculptural images were renowned sculptors of that time. During the reconstruction the ornaments were reproduced in a similar form by contemporary sculptors.

The interior of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

The interior of the cathedral reaches a ceiling height of 79 meters in the area of the main dome and can accommodate up to 10,000 people. Particularly striking about the interior is the painting of its interior walls. In total, the frescoes inside the church, which depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments as well as Orthodox saints, cover an area of a good 22,000 square meters. The largest fresco, up to 16 meters in diameter, is located directly under the main dome and depicts the Trinity.

The new building of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior differs from the original in one respect: in the basement of the cathedral there is the Church of the Transfiguration of Christ, which was built in 1996 in memory of the women’s convent that existed on this site until 1839. In addition to the Church of the Transfiguration, the basement houses a museum that informs visitors about the history of the cathedral, its construction, destruction and reconstruction, and offers guided tours of the building and the bell towers for groups of visitors. The museum also houses parts of the original frescoes that decorated the interior walls before their demolition in 1931.

The viewing platform of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

For all those who are not particularly enthusiastic about churches, there is nevertheless a good reason to visit the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and that is the church’s observation deck. From the roof of the cathedral, from a height of 40 meters, you can enjoy a magnificent view of the center of Moscow lying at your feet.