The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour near Moskva river, Moscow.
The Tsar asked for a flamboyant Neoclassical design full of Freemasonic symbolism, and architect Aleksandr Lavrentyevich delivered it.
He had the blueprints alteredthe new design took after Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
It took another forty years before the last scaffolding was taken down.
The cathedral was consecrated in 1883.
The old Cathedral of Christ the Saviour between 1883 and 1918.
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Big Stone Bridge in Moscow, circa 1905.
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was a marvelous building.
Nicholas I employed some of the best Russian painters to embellish the interior.
This itself took twenty years.
The ground floor of the gallery was made into a memorial dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon.
The upper floor was occupied by church choirs.
The giant dome of the cathedral was plated with a thin layer of gold.
The Bolsheviks carried an aggressive attitude towards religionthey did not believe it.
Specifically, they did not like the Church controlling the state.
So the first thing they did after coming to power was to eliminate religion and promote atheism.
The grand Cathedral standing near the Kremlin became an ugly sight.
Still it survived another ten years.
But in 1931, on the orders of Joseph Stalin, the magnificent building was dynamited out of existence.
The demolition of the original Church of Christ the Saviour, in 1931.
The Palace of the Soviets
Meanwhile, plan was afoot for another building.
Stalin wanted this building to be the emblem of the Union and a celebration of the triumph of communism.
The top 100 meters was to be a statue of Lenin.
Construction began sometime in the late 1930s.
A large circular pit was excavated and the old cathedral foundation was dug out.
But the Soviets remained hopeful, especially Boris Iofan, the Jewish Soviet architect who designed the building.
His drafts remained unused, and in 1958, the entire project was scrapped.
The one-of-a-kind circular pool had a diameter of 130 meters and capacity of twenty thousand people.
The pool was open all round the year, even during winter.
The water temperature was regulated, so that the pool was cool in summer and hot in winter.
It became very popular during the initial years, attracting 24 million visitors during the first decade.
Over a million Muscovites donated money for the project.
In 1994, the Moskva Pool was demolished and reconstruction of the cathedral commenced.
The completed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was consecrated in 2000.
The new Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
Photo credit:PixHound/Shutterstock.com
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour from the opposite bank of the Moskva River.
A footbridge across the river connects the cathedral to the other bank.
Photo credit:Lids123 / Shutterstock.com
