Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Timeline

1. December 1812

   Manifesto of Foundation

   After Napoleon's retreat from Russia, Tsar Alexander I decrees the construction of a victory cathedral honoring the war's fallen.

2. 1817

   Groundbreaking on Sparrow Hills

   Vitberg's Neoclassical Masonic design breaks ground but stops over unstable soil and accusations of accounting fraud.

3. 1832

   Thon's Design Approved

   Nicholas I commissions Konstantin Thon to redesign the cathedral in the new Russian-Byzantine style, and the design is approved.

4. 1839

   Cornerstone Laid

   A new site is chosen on the north bank of the Moskva facing the Kremlin, and the cornerstone is laid on September 10.

5. August 1882

   1812 Overture Premiere

   Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture receives its world premiere in a tent outside the still-unfinished cathedral.

6. May 1883

   Consecration

   After forty-four years of construction the cathedral is consecrated on Julian-calendar May 26, the day before Alexander III's coronation.

7. December 1931

   Stalin's Demolition

   On Stalin's order the cathedral is dynamited at noon on December 5 to clear the site for the planned Palace of the Soviets.

8. 1958-1960

   Pool Moskva Opens

   After the abandoned Palace of the Soviets project, the foundation pit becomes the heated outdoor pool Moskva, used by Muscovites for thirty years.

9. December 1990

   Memorial Stone Placed

   During the Perestroika era, a memorial stone declaring the intent to rebuild the cathedral is placed on the site.

10. January 1995

    Reconstruction Begins

    Patriarch Alexei II lays the cornerstone of the rebuilt cathedral on Russian Orthodox Christmas Day, financed by state and private donors.

11. August 2000

    Reconsecration

    Patriarch Alexei II consecrates the full rebuilt cathedral on the Transfiguration feast, the same year the New Martyrs are canonized here.

12. 2007

    Yeltsin's State Funeral

    The state funeral of Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin is held here, marking the cathedral as the principal state ceremonial venue.

13. February 2012

    Pussy Riot Incident

    The feminist punk collective Pussy Riot stages an unauthorized performance here; three members are arrested, drawing international attention.

Detailed History

The history begins on December 25, 1812, when Tsar Alexander I, having driven Napoleon's army from Russian soil, signed a manifesto pledging to build a cathedral as memorial to the Russian people's sacrifices. The first design, by Aleksandr Vitberg, was a flamboyant Neoclassical scheme with Masonic symbolism, broken ground in 1817 on the Sparrow Hills — but unstable soil and Vitberg's exile to Vyatka suspended it. Nicholas I disliked the design and commissioned his favored architect Konstantin Thon to redesign. Thon, taking Hagia Sophia as model while invoking medieval Byzantine churches of Russia, produced a 'Russian-Byzantine' design approved in 1832. In 1837 a new site closer to the Kremlin was chosen, and the cornerstone was laid on September 10, 1839. Construction took forty-four years; the interior frescoes alone required twelve. Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture premiered outside the unfinished cathedral in August 1882, and on May 26, 1883 the cathedral was consecrated the day before Alexander III's coronation. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, state atheism produced an aggressive anti-religious campaign from 1921 to 1928. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin chose the cathedral site for a colossal Palace of the Soviets topped by a gigantic Lenin statue. On February 24, 1930 the OGPU requested removal of the golden domes, noting they held over twenty tons of gold. At noon on December 5, 1931, the cathedral was dynamited. Palace of the Soviets construction began in 1937 but halted with the 1941 German invasion; the steel frame was dismantled, and unstable soil and Stalin's death ended the project. From 1958 the foundation pit became Pool Moskva, the largest open-air heated pool in the USSR, used by Muscovites for thirty years. Under Gorbachev, attitudes softened, and in December 1990 a memorial stone for rebuilding was placed. Yeltsin signed the Moscow Reconstruction Act on July 16, 1992, and the Reconstruction Committee convened on September 7, 1994 with Patriarch Alexei II as chair. The pool was dismantled that autumn, and on January 7, 1995 the cornerstone was laid. The lower chapel of the Transfiguration was consecrated in August 1996, and the full cathedral on August 19, 2000 by Patriarch Alexei II. It now serves as the principal seat of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Cultural Significance

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is the principal seat of the Patriarch of Moscow and at 103 meters is the third tallest Orthodox cathedral in the world. The original nineteenth-century building was the summit of 'Russian-Byzantine' style — referencing medieval lineage including the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin. The interior brought together giants of nineteenth-century Russian national painting — Surikov, Kramskoi, Vereshchagin. It carries a secondary identity as memorial church of the 1812 Patriotic War: over 1,000 square meters of Carrara marble panels list commanders, regiments, and battles, making it a patriotic monument of imperial Russia as much as a religious one. The 1931 demolition was a symbolic act of Soviet anti-religious policy, staging the 'victory of atheism over religion' through the most public destruction possible. Conversely, the 2000 reconsecration became a memorial to the end of the Soviet era, and that year the canonization rites of the New Martyrs — including the Romanov family of Nicholas II — were celebrated here. The cathedral hosted the state funeral of Boris Yeltsin in 2007 and the enthronement of Patriarch Kirill I in 2009. In February 2012, the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot staged an unauthorized performance here, drawing international attention to religious-state relations in modern Russia.

Architectural Details

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is a representative 'Russian-Byzantine' style cathedral with a cruciform plan crowned by five domes — the canonical Russian Orthodox composition of a main dome surrounded by four subsidiary domes. The total height reaches 103 meters (with the main dome and cross alone accounting for 35 meters), the interior floor area is approximately 12,000 square meters, and the building can accommodate around 10,000 worshippers simultaneously. The main dome spans 29.8 meters. The exterior walls are entirely clad in white marble, and the bells were newly cast during the 1990s reconstruction, with the largest weighing about thirty tons. The interior is covered with frescoes by the masters of nineteenth-century Russian national painting, a project that originally required twelve years. A two-story gallery encircling the central nave inlays its walls with rare marble and granite, while the ground-floor gallery displays over 1,000 square meters of Carrara marble panels commemorating the fallen of the 1812 Patriotic War, and the second-floor gallery served as choir loft. The 1990s reconstruction faithfully replicated the original drawings while securing seismic resilience through a reinforced concrete substructure, and the gilded domes were applied via modern electroplating rather than the original mercury-gilding technique.