Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (Moscow)

 cathedral, pilgrimage, 2000_construction, Russian Orthodox Church, revealed object of cultural heritage (Russia), tourist attraction

On 25 December 1812, Tsar Alexander I declared to build a Cathedral in honor of Christ the Saviour to signify Russians' gratitude to Divine Providence for saving the State from the doom that overshadowed Her (Russia) and as a memorial to the sacrifices of the Russian people in the war.

Interior of the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow (1883).In the meantime Alexander I was succeeded by his brother Nicholas. Profoundly Orthodox and patriotic, the new Tsar disliked the Neoclassicism and Freemasonry of the project selected by his brother. He commissioned his favorite architect Konstantin Thon to create a new design, taking as his model Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Thon's Neo-Byzantine design was approved in 1832, and a new site, closer to the Moscow Kremlin, was chosen by the Tsar in 1837.

The Cathedral had taken many years to build and did not emerge from its scaffolding until 1860. Some of the best Russian painters (Ivan Kramskoi, Vasily Surikov, Vasily Vereshchagin) continued to embellish the interior for another twenty years. The Cathedral was consecrated on 26 May 1883.

Remnant of the original Cathedral, preserved at Donskoy Monastery, Moscow. The monument of Lenin was perched atop a dome with his arm raised in blessing.

On 5 December 1931, by order of Stalin's minister Kaganovich, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (the largest Orthodox Church ever built) was dynamited and the original marble high reliefs were preserved and are now on display at the Donskoy Monastery.

With the end of the Soviet rule, the Russian Orthodox Church received permission to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 1990 with the initiation of a construction fund in 1992 and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was consecrated on 19 August 2000.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zj7ttUF7L0

3D historical panorama 1867 year 360°:
www.360cities.net/image/moscow-time-machine-1867-2017

3D panoramas 360°:
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