The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg is an Orthodox Memorial Church of the Resurrection of Christ, constructed in memory of Emperor Alexander II who was mortally wounded in an attack in this place on March 1, 1881. The cathedral was built as a monument to Tsar-Martyr. The cathedral is located in the historic center of St. Petersburg, on the banks of the Griboyedov Canal near Mikhailovsky Garden and the Konyushennaya Square, not far from the Fields of Mars. The height of the nine-domed cathedral is 81 meters, capacity  - 1600 people. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg is a museum and a monument of Russian architecture. The first thing you notice when entering the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg is a wonderful mosaic carpet of its icons and ornaments covering the entire inner space, from the base to the main dome. It is the only Orthodox Cathedral, mosaic decoration of which is 7065 square meters, one of the largest mosaic collections in Europe. Of the variety of mosaics and mosaic compositions should be noted the works done using the originals by V. Vasnetsov, M. Nesterov, A. Ryabushkin, N. Kharlamov, V. Belyaev. As the interior decoration of the cathedral were used semiprecious stones, the iconostasis, the walls, and the floor of the building are faced with. Particularly significant in the cathedral, was the place, where there was an attempt on Emperor Alexander II. Over the fragment of the stone pavement, there was built a canopy — a special construction, which was supported by columns of gray and purple jade. The top of the canopy is crowned with a topaz cross. Under the canopy, the relics of the cathedral are kept — a part of a lattice of the Catherine Canal and stones of the stone pavement, on which mortally wounded Emperor Alexander II fell down. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is the first church built on the spot where the emperor of the state died. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is a model of the late stage of evolution of the Russian style. The building is a collective image of the Russian Orthodox Church, based on samples of Moscow and Yaroslavl of the first half of the XVII century.