Cathedral of Christ the Savior: history of construction. Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior (history of construction and demolition) When the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was restored

On this day 130 years ago, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was consecrated by Emperor Alexander III, who had just ascended the throne. In honor of this anniversary, we decided to take a closer look at the history of the Temple.

And it all began December 25, 1812, when the last soldier of Napoleon’s army was expelled from Russia, Emperor Alexander I, in honor of the victory of the Russian army and in gratitude to God, signed the Highest Manifesto on the construction of a church in Moscow in the name of the Savior Christ and issued “ The Highest Decree to the Holy Synod on the establishment of the holiday on December 25, in memory of the deliverance of the Church and the Russian Power from the invasion of the Gauls and with them the twelve languages».

The idea of ​​​​building a memorial temple resurrected the ancient tradition of votive temples, erected as a sign of gratitude to God for the victory granted and in eternal remembrance of the dead.
Already in 1813, an official competition was announced for the design of the memorial temple, in which outstanding architects of the time took part. By December 1815, about 20 projects had been submitted to the competition.
Most of the projects had a high degree of homogeneity. The thought and imagination of the architects of that time worked within the framework of strictly defined concepts determined by the ideas of Empire architecture. Participants in the competition for the design of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior were mainly inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Pantheon.

The project, designed by Giacomo Quarenghi, is similar to the Pantheon, especially its main façade with an eight-column portico of the Corinthian order and a ceremonial staircase in front of it.

Voronikhin's project gravitates towards St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.

Voronikhin also used forms associated with Gothic - pointed openings and decorative elements characteristic of the Western European Middle Ages.

But the Emperor approved the project presented by the architect A.L. Vitberg, who managed to put into classical forms a meaning that expressed the national idea, as well as interpret an event in national history based on the system of universal values ​​of Christianity.

Witberg’s ideas about the temple come down to three main points: “ 1st, so that its colossal magnitude corresponds to the greatness of Russia; 2nd, so that, free from slavish imitation, it should have something original in its character, a style of strict original architecture; 3rd, so that all parts of the temple are not just arbitrary forms of architectural necessity, not a dead mass of stones, but express the spiritual idea of ​​a living temple - a person in body, soul and spirit».
Vitberg proposed building a temple between the Smolensk and Kaluga roads, on the Sparrow Hills, which Alexander I poetically called the “crown of Moscow.”

The reasons for choosing the location were also the Emperor’s desire to build a temple outside the city, since in Moscow “ there is not enough space required for an elegant building" This was consistent with both the favorable geographical location (the Maiden Field, spread out at the foot of the Sparrow Hills, would have made it possible to see the entire temple from afar), and the fact that the Sparrow Hills are located between the paths of the enemy, who entered Moscow along the Smolensk road and retreated along the Kaluga road.

According to Vitberg, the temple was supposed to become triple, i.e. " the temple of the body, the temple of the soul and the temple of the spirit - but since man, being triplicate, is one, so the temple, despite all the triplicity, must be one" Thus, the idea of ​​a triple temple becomes central to Witberg's project.
He works, striving, " so that all the external forms of the temple are an imprint of the internal idea" The idea of ​​the triple temple and the fact that Witberg was able to put into classical forms a meaning that expressed the national idea, as well as interpret an event in national history based on the system of universal values ​​of Christianity, helps him win the competition.

Vitberg designs the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in three parts and vertically. Located above each other:
- an underground church in the name of the Nativity of Christ, with a parallelepiped in plan resembling a coffin (requiem services were supposed to be held here continuously);
- cruciform ground - in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord, symbolizing the mixture of light and darkness in the human soul, as well as the combination of good and evil in human life. The middle temple was supposed to be decorated with many statues;
- round top - in the name of the Resurrection of Christ.

The high bank of the Sparrow Hills is interpreted by the architect as the natural foot of a grandiose structure. The underground temple was supposed to be built in the thickness of the coastal slope, designing the passages in the form of solemn staircases framed by colonnades.

When summing up the results of the competition, the Emperor said with favor to Vitberg: “ I am extremely pleased with your project. You guessed my desire, satisfied my thoughts about this Temple. I wanted it not to be just a pile of stones, like an ordinary building, but to be animated by some religious idea; but I did not expect to receive any satisfaction, I did not expect anyone to be animated by it, and therefore I hid my desire. And so I considered up to 20 projects, some of which were very good, but all of them were very ordinary. You made the stones speak».
The groundbreaking ceremony - exceptionally beautiful and solemn - took place October 12, 1817, five years after the French spoke from Moscow, and was accompanied by an unprecedented spiritual upsurge.

A. Afanasyev - Historical image of the celebration that took place at the foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

A.S. Kutepov - Project of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, g main façade and adjacent area on the top platform of Vorobyovy Gory, 1831

In the project of architect assistant E.G. Malyutin proposed to build the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the very center of Moscow, in close proximity to the Kremlin, but on the opposite side from the Moscow River - on a huge square stretching from Vozdvizhenka to Znamenka and from the Alexander Garden to the Arbat Gate.

What attracted attention in the project was the original, rare in the architecture of classicism, four-lobed plan. One of the two project options provided for a direct connection of the area of ​​the Cathedral of Christ the Savior with the help of a bridge thrown across the Alexander Garden with the Kremlin.

Project A.I. Melnikov was typical of classicism - a five-domed majestic temple, round in plan, surrounded by a colonnade, with four 8-column porticoes.

A.I. Melnikov - Project of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on the upper platform of the Sparrow Hills, western facade, 1831.

I.T. Tamansky proposed placing the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in close proximity to the Kremlin - on the opposite side of the Moscow River on Tsaritsyn Meadow.

The main axis of the ensemble, oriented towards the Kremlin's Cathedral Square, is emphasized by a pier located on the river bank. In front of the temple, Tamansky proposed erecting an equestrian monument to Emperor Alexander I, in the center of the roundness of each side of the oval - a triumphal gate, symbolizing "the two extreme points of the great cause - the capture of Paris and Moscow, renewed in the glory and greatness of its Fatherland." Tamansky proposed decorating the obelisks or pyramids standing inside the colossal oval square with bas-reliefs with inscriptions.

I.T. Tamansky - General plan and design of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Tsaritsyn Meadow, 1829

I.I. Charlemagne - Project of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Sparrow Hills, 1831

N. Benoit - General view of the excavation of earth for the foundations of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the facade of the temple and the former Alekseevsky Monastery

General plan of the construction site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior designed by K.A. Tones. April 10, 1832

Plan of the area near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, 1870s.

Various items related to the foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, September 10, 1839.

In 1860, the outer scaffolding was dismantled, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior appeared before Muscovites in its grandeur for the first time.

By 1881, work on the construction of the embankment and the square in front of the Temple was completed, andExternal lights are also installed. By this time, work on the interior painting of the Temple had come to an end.

Opposite the main entrance, in the eastern branch of the cross, a unique composition iconostasis is being designed in the form of a white marble octagonal chapel topped with a bronze tent. The unusualness of the iconostasis, which had no analogues or predecessors in ancient Russian and post-Petrine architecture and remained the only one of its kind, was that it had the appearance of a tented temple, the type of which was widespread in Rus' in the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries.

The sculptural and picturesque decoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior represented a rare unity - on all the walls of the Temple there were figures of holy intercessors and prayer books for the Russian land, those domestic figures who worked to establish and spread the Orthodox faith, as well as Russian princes who laid down their lives for freedom and the integrity of Russia.

All more or less valuable things were adapted to the “needs of the national economy.” Gold from the domes (and there was more than four hundred kilograms of it on the main one alone) was washed off chemically at the plant named after. V. Menzhinsky, the bells were melted down.

Only one bell from the tower clock survived intact because seven years later it was built on the upper platform of the Northern River Station. To resolve issues with interiors, a special Commission for the confiscation of artistic values ​​was created. This commission ordered the preservation of one work each by artists V. Surikov and G. Semiradsky (“The Last Supper”).

Several high reliefs made by sculptors A. Loganovsky and N. Ramadanov were embedded in the fortress wall of the Donskoy Monastery. "Urban legends" say that many parts of the Temple, thoroughly remodeled, can be found in the subway, and in parks, and in the lobbies of administrative buildings...

The opening of the Palace of the Soviets was supposed to take place in 1933, but by 1941 only a reinforced concrete foundation more than 20 meters deep had been laid and a metal frame had been erected to approximately the height of the sixth floor.

Palace of Soviets project

In 1941, the Great Patriotic War broke out, and beams made of special strength DS steel had to be used to make anti-tank hedgehogs, and then part of the frame had to be dismantled to restore damaged railway bridges. After the war, all that remained of the grandiose construction project was an abandoned pit, the recesses in which began to fill with water. In the early 1950s, crucian carp appeared in the pit lakes...
In 1958, during Khrushchev’s godless “thaw”, according to the project of the architect D. Chechulin, the Moscow swimming pool appeared as a monument to the desecration and oblivion of national glory and history, which did not fit into the templates of the tasks of the “builders of communism”.

Pool "Moscow"

Restoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

On August 19, 2000, an event of historical proportions occurred in Moscow. On this day, in the restored Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Patriarch Alexy II performed the Great Consecration of the Cathedral.
The history of the largest cathedral in modern Russia began in the distant 19th century. At the end of 1812, Emperor Alexander I issued a decree on the creation of a temple-monument dedicated to the victory in the Patriotic War. But a full 25 years passed from the decree to the foundation, and the temple took almost 44 years to be built and was consecrated only in 1883. The architect of the cathedral was K. Ton, a large group of artists worked on the picturesque design of the temple for 23 years, among whom were famous painters G. Semiradsky, V. Surikov, K. Makovsky and others. At the ground floor level, the building was surrounded by a corridor - the first war museum 1812, where all the battles, distinguished units and their commanders, the names of the dead and awarded officers were immortalized on white marble boards. High reliefs by sculptors A. Loganovsky, N. Ramazanov, P. Klodt were placed on the facades.
By decision of the Soviet government, on December 5, 1931, the temple was blown up, and in its place they decided to build the tallest building on the planet - the Palace of the Soviets. But instead of the Palace, on the site of the Temple, they managed to build only the Moscow outdoor swimming pool, which functioned from 1960 to 1994.
In September 1994, the Moscow government decided to recreate the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in its previous architectural forms. In record time, in just 5.5 years, the Temple was completely restored. It has become the largest cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church and can accommodate up to 10 thousand people.
Academician M. Posokhin became the main architect and leader of the restoration project. 23 artels of artists under the leadership of the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Z. Tsereteli worked on recreating the artistic decoration. The sculptural decoration of the facades was recreated under the leadership of Academician Yu. Orekhov with the assistance of the Sculptor Foundation.
Now let’s see how accurately the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was restored to the original:
1. The height of the 19th century building was 48.5 fathoms (about 103.5 m), and the height of the restored temple with a dome and cross is 103 m.
2. The planes of the walls of the first temple were plastered, and decorative carvings and sculptures were made from white stone from a quarry in Kolomensky district. Instead of the original white stone cladding, the building received marble, and the gilded roofing of the roofs (except for the domes) was replaced with a coating based on titanium nitride. These changes led to a change in the color scheme of the facade from warm to cooler.
3. Decorative elements of the first temple were made of marble and marble chips, which led to several cases of collapse of parts at the beginning of the 20th century. Artificial stone was chosen for the decoration of the new temple.
4. In the first temple, the floor was made of marble, jasper and stones brought from countries that lost the war of 1812 - France, Italy. For the modern temple, marble was brought from the same quarries.
5. Of the paintings of the 19th century, only a small part of Semiradsky’s paintings has survived; the image of the Savior by Sorokin remains. And Klages’s painting “Interior View of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior” has been preserved, where you can see some of the paintings. All photos taken at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century are black and white. The temple was recreated using these postcards.
6.K. The tone fulfilled the desire of Emperor Alexander I - the decoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior became a chronicle of the Patriotic War, the Temple was read like a book. The modern church also traces the history of the Patriotic War of 1812: in the corridor on marble slabs all wartime manifestos are listed, all 71 battles are described in chronological order, and a manifesto on the expulsion of the enemy on December 25, 1812 is placed opposite the altar. On the southern and western sides there are descriptions of 87 battles that took place abroad and manifestos about the capture of Paris, the deposition of Napoleon and the establishment of peace in Europe.
7. On the walls of the restored temple, not marble ones appeared (the originals were preserved in the Donskoy Monastery), but bronze high reliefs.
8. The modern Cathedral of Christ the Savior is a complex of the “upper temple” - the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the “lower temple” - the Transfiguration Church and the Stylobate part, which houses the temple museum, the hall of Church Councils, the hall of the Supreme Church Council, refectory chambers, as well as technical and office premises.
The revival of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is not only the restoration of a destroyed church building, first of all, it is the restoration of the greatest monument of Russian history and culture, the restoration of gratitude and memory to the courage of Russian soldiers who defended the Fatherland.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow is the largest cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church and its main symbol. The tragic history of the temple, as if in a mirror, reflects the entire history of the relationship between the authorities, the people and the church in the 20th century.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Our days.

Olga Vaganova/AiF

History of creation

The idea of ​​building a cathedral Cathedral in the name of Christ the Savior arose after the final Russian victory over Napoleon's army in 1812. The construction of the church revived the ancient Russian tradition of votive churches, built as a sign of gratitude for the victory.

December 25, 1812 Alexander I signed the Manifesto on building a church in Moscow. As a result of the competition, the project of the artist Alexander Vitberg won, according to which the temple was three times larger than the current one, topped with a gigantic colonnade and included the Pantheon of the dead.

It is interesting that the architect was a Lutheran, but for the sake of implementing the project he converted to Orthodoxy.

Construction of the cathedral began on Sparrow Hills, where one of the royal residences, the Vorobyovsky Palace, used to be located. The construction was supervised by Vitberg himself, whose inexperience in such matters led to large-scale embezzlement.

The emperor who ascended the throne in 1825 Nicholas I stops construction due to unsuitability of the soil, and the managers are accused of embezzlement and put on trial.

The territory on the banks of the Moscow River, on Chertolye (Volkhonka), occupied by Alekseevsky Convent. The monastery is being demolished, and according to legend, the abbess of the Alekseevsky monastery curses the builders with the words: “This place will be empty.” This is how it will happen later.

Becomes the architect of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Konstantin Ton- author of the Leningradsky Station and the Grand Kremlin Palace. He designed the cathedral in the then officially accepted Russian-Byzantine style, which met the tsar’s tastes.

In 1837, the ceremonial foundation of the church took place, and construction began in 1839 and lasted almost 44 years, until the end of the reign of the next emperor - Alexandra II.

In 1860, the outer building of the temple was built, and work began on finishing the interior. The design of the cathedral was carried out by artists Vasily Surikov, Ivan Kramskoy, Vasily Vereshchagin and other members of the Academy of Arts. In the lower gallery of the temple there were marble slabs with the names of fallen soldiers and with the names of all the battles of the Patriotic War of 1812.

The solemn consecration of the cathedral took place in 1883 under Alexandra III. The temple becomes the center of not only religious, but also social and cultural life of the country. Coronations, anniversaries and national holidays are held here.

The first design of the temple by the architect Vitberg.

In 1917, during the revolution and the unfolding Civil War, the church, after a 200-year break, restored the institution of the Patriarchate. A new Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia is elected in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Tikhon. Thus, the temple becomes the center of the country’s church life and the turmoil that befell it.

In 1918, by a special decree, the government stopped funding churches. Since its construction, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior has not been repaired; colossal funds were required to restore it and maintain its vital functions. Then the Brotherhood of the Temple was organized, which, with the help of private donors, managed to extend its work for a short time.

In 1922, Patriarch Tikhon was arrested, and the temple was handed over to the “renovationists” - opponents of the Patriarch. Then the idea of ​​building Palace of the Soviets, one of the most famous unrealized architectural projects in history. The tallest building in the world was supposed to become a symbol of victorious socialism, and it was decided to build it on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

In the summer of 1931, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee passed a resolution: “due to the allotment of the site, the temple should be liquidated and demolished.”

On December 5, 1931, two explosions were carried out - after the first explosion, the temple stood. According to the recollections of witnesses, powerful blows shook not only nearby buildings, but were felt several blocks away. It took almost a year and a half just to dismantle the rubble left after the explosion.

Frame of the temple explosion. 1931

Construction of the Palace of Soviets, which began in 1937, had to be stopped due to the outbreak of war. The building was dismantled, as building materials were needed for the manufacture of anti-tank hedgehogs and other defensive structures. The idea of ​​building the Palace of the Soviets was finally abandoned in 1956.

In the post-war years, large-scale construction took place in the capital, against the backdrop of which the huge wasteland in the center of Moscow, on Volkhonka, looks ridiculous. In its place, it was decided to make an outdoor swimming pool with heated water for winter swimming.

So, in 1969, in the capital, on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a Pool "Moscow". It will operate until the early 1990s and will close due to wear and tear of communications.

Swimming pool "Moscow". 1980

Restoration of the temple

During Perestroika, in the late 1980s, a popular referendum was organized for the revival of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Thousands of Soviet people put their signatures for the restoration of the church. At the same time, the first funds appeared to raise funds for the construction of the cathedral. But at the government level, a corresponding decision was made only in 1994.

Donations for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior come from hundreds of thousands of citizens, as well as from Russian and foreign companies.

The project for the new temple was developed by a group of architects led by Mikhail Posokhin and Alexei Denisov, who was later replaced by a sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.

Tsereteli made significant changes to the appearance of the building, distinguishing it from the historical one: instead of white stone cladding, marble appeared, a stylobate part was added, marble high reliefs on the facade replaced bronze compositions.

In 2000, after all the work was completed, the new temple was consecrated Patriarch Alexy II. In memory of the Alekseevsky Monastery that previously existed on this site, the lower church in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord with the chapels of Alexy the Man of God and the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God was consecrated in the sub-church.

Today, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is the second largest Orthodox cathedral in the world and the first in height.

Solemn services are held here with the participation of top officials of the state. A piece of the Holy Fire from Jerusalem is delivered here on Easter night.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior - when was it founded and what is its history? Is it true that this is now the tallest Orthodox church in the world? What did the first Cathedral of Christ the Savior look like and when was it destroyed? Who is the architect of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior? Where is this cathedral located in Moscow?

We answer all the most popular questions and tell you the most important facts!

Cathedral of Christ the Savior: briefly the most important

The current Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow is, in fact, the third.

The first Cathedral of Christ the Savior - designed in 1817. It should have looked completely different from the current one (and frighteningly different), and it should have stood in a completely different place. Its construction stopped as soon as it began.

The second one was erected in 1883, looked almost exactly like the current one, and was destroyed by the Soviet authorities in 1931.

The current Cathedral of Christ the Savior was completed by 2000.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior - dimensions

This is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, and in terms of height it is the first of all.

Height of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior- 103 meters, that’s almost 40 floors in a residential building. (besides it, only St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg and, according to some sources, the Trinity Cathedral of Tsminda Sameba in Tbilisi are higher than one hundred meters)

By capacity(10,000 people) it is among the top five in the world.

By area- 60 by 60 meters - this majestic temple is also one of the largest in the world (larger: Tsminda Sameba in Tbilisi - 77 by 65 meters; and the Church of St. Sava in Belgrade - 91 by 81 meters).

At the same time, the first Cathedral of Christ the Savior was supposed to be an even larger-scale structure, and a completely different architectural style.

The first Cathedral of Christ the Savior

The height of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is now 103 meters. Impressive. But the height of the cathedral, which was originally planned in the 19th century, was supposed to be even greater - 240 meters!

And it was supposed to be not so much a temple as a monument to the fallen soldiers in the War of 1812. A whole complex that included both the cathedral and the infrastructure around it - colonnades, pantheons (including those for monarchs).

Did it look like an Orthodox church? No, absolutely. It was not even designed by an Orthodox person, but by a Lutheran, Karl Witberg (although, in order for the construction to take place, he nevertheless converted to Orthodoxy).

How could all this even happen?

Perhaps because Alexander I, who announced the competition, was a fan of Western architecture? It was under him that the project of St. Isaac’s Cathedral was developed, which also has nothing in common with Russian tradition...

The construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was stopped at the foundation stage. Partly because there were major miscalculations in the organization, partly because of the unreliability of the soil, and partly because of the massive waste that emerged. Vitberg himself was arrested for this and sent into exile.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior before destruction

In 1837, construction began on the new Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The architect was Konstantin Ton (he is responsible for many large projects - including the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Armory Chamber - one of the largest architects in Russian history).

That cathedral looked almost exactly the same as the current one and was located in the same place as the current one - on Volkhonka, on the banks of the Moscow River.

There is no longer any “Latin” architecture in this project. The cathedral is huge, majestic, innovative in some things (how could it be otherwise with such dimensions?), but absolutely in the spirit of Russian traditions. At this time, Nicholas I was already ruling Russia. It is believed that he personally chose this project for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

This temple, like the first project, was erected in memory of the soldiers who fell in the battles of 1812 and was equally both a temple and a monument to them, but this time it was a cathedral rather than a memorial complex.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was blown up in 1931: in order to build in its place an even larger-scale structure - the Palace of Soviets - an architectural structure striking in its size with a giant Lenin and a helipad on his arm. The height was planned to be 495 meters - in terms of residential buildings, this is more than 150 floors.

Swimming pool on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (photo)

However, the construction of the Palace of Soviets did not work out. There were many reasons, but all of them were of an exclusively practical nature, and not mystical (as some people believed) - high cost, the outbreak of war, etc....

As a result, an outdoor swimming pool appeared - it seems to be the largest in Europe. It was so large that the fumes caused corrosion on nearby buildings!

The pool on the site of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was called “Moscow”. And it existed from 1960 to 1994.

The current Cathedral of Christ the Savior

The cathedral that we see now was opened on December 31, 1999, and on Christmas Day 2000 the first Liturgy was served there.

The temple was built solely on donations.

Externally, it is an almost complete copy of the former Cathedral of Christ the Savior - with minor exceptions.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior shortly after restoration.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior - location

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is located on Volkhonka Street, almost on the banks of the Moscow River.

Metro near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior - “Kropotkinskaya”, 2 minutes on foot.

You can also walk from the Borovitskaya or Park Kultury stations.

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Initially, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was a symbol of the victory over Napoleon

When Napoleon's troops were defeated in 1812, the inspired Alexander I thought about building a church in Moscow in the name of Christ the Savior. This idea was a gesture of gratitude to the Almighty for the salvation of the Russian people. Subsequently, Alexander I signed the Highest Manifesto on the construction of the temple and issued a decree on the celebration of December 25 as the day of deliverance from enemies. Meanwhile, despite the fact that the very idea of ​​​​building the church belonged to the sovereign, his construction idea was embodied by the Russian army general Mikhail Ardalionovich Kikin. The architectural idea was presented by Alexander Vitberg. Among the many competitive entries, his was the one most suitable for creating a memorial temple.

The project began to be implemented in 1817. Then the ceremonial laying of the temple took place. It took place on the Sparrow Hills, but problems that soon arose related to the fragility of the soil forced the new ruler, Nicholas I, to suspend work. In April 1832, the emperor approved a new design for the temple. This time the architect was Konstantin Ton, and the site for the construction of the temple-monument was the bank of the Moscow River, next to the Kremlin. The Alekseevsky Monastery located on this territory was transferred to Sokolniki, and the Church of All Saints was destroyed. The foundation stone for the new temple took place in September 1839.

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior took more than forty years to build

Overcoming fires, groundwater flooding and foundation collapses, workers built the temple for more than forty years. In 1841, the walls were leveled with the surface of the plinth. In 1846, the vault of the large dome was built. After another three years, the exterior cladding was completed and the installation of metal roofs and domes began. In 1849 the vault of the large dome was completed. In 1860, the outer scaffolding was dismantled, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior appeared before Muscovites for the first time. Already in 1862, a bronze balustrade was installed on the roof, which was missing in the original project. And by 1881, work on the construction of the embankment and the square in front of the temple was completed, and external lanterns were installed. Work on the interior painting of the temple had also come to an end by this time.

On all the walls of the temple there were figures of patron saints and prayer books for the Russian land, as well as Russian princes who gave their lives for the integrity of the country. The names of these heroes were inscribed on marble tablets laid out in the lower gallery of the temple. In general, the sculptural and pictorial decoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior represented a rare unity, expressing all the mercies of the Lord, sent down through the prayers of the righteous to the Russian kingdom for nine centuries. And also those ways and means that the Lord chose to save people, starting from the creation of the world and the Fall to the redemption of the human race by the Savior.

The consecration of the temple took place on the day of the Ascension of the Lord - May 26, 1883. At the same time, Alexander III ascended the throne. In June, in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the illumination of the temple boundary took place, and in July, in the name of St. Alexander Nevsky, the second boundary was consecrated. After this, regular services began to be held in the temple. The choir, established at the temple, soon began to be considered one of the best in the capital.

For some time, on the site of the temple there was a huge swimming pool "Moscow"

All kinds of events, anniversaries and coronations were celebrated on a grand scale in the temple. The main patronal holiday was considered the Nativity of Christ, which until 1917 was celebrated throughout Orthodox Moscow as the day of victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. At the beginning of 1918, during the period of persecution of the church, the temple completely lost support from the authorities, and on December 5, 1931 it was destroyed by the Bolsheviks.

In honor of victorious socialism, the authorities decided to build the Moscow Palace of Soviets on this site. According to plans, this was supposed to be the tallest building in the world, which would become a symbol of the new country. It was assumed that the dimensions of the building would exceed four hundred meters, and a rotating statue of Lenin would be installed on its roof. However, it was not possible to bring the project to life. And after the Second World War, the Moscow swimming pool appeared on the site of the temple monument.

During the years of perestroika, a social movement arose for the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Subsequently, it was decided to restore the temple in its original location and exactly corresponding to the original. The pool was dismantled and construction began in the mid-1990s. The great consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior took place in 2000 and marked the beginning of a new millennium.