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Cathedral Of Christ The Savior In Moscow

Cathedral of Christ the Savior

View of the facade of the building from the park

Local Name
Contact	55 26 '39 "North 37 21 '43 "East / 55.444053, 37.362021
Country	Russia
City	Moscow
Worship	Russian Patriarchate
Type	Orthodox Church
Construction begins	1839
Work Completed	1883
Architect (s)	Konstantin Thon
Style (s) dominating (s)	Russo-Byzantine

change

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (in Russian : ), located in Moscow , was built first between 1839 and 1883 in terms of the Russian architect Konstantin Thon in memory of the victory of Russia on Grand Army of Napoleon ^I (in 1812 ). Destroyed under Stalin in 1931, it was rebuilt exactly between 1995 and 2000.

Summary

1 History
2 Architecture
- 2.1 The original cathedral
  - 2.1.1 External Facades
  - 2.1.2 Inner space
- 2.2 Since Reconstruction
3 Trivia
4 Gallery
5 Related articles
6 External links

History

Design and construction

On 25 December 1812 , the day of the defeat of Napoleon's army in Russia, Emperor Alexander ^I ordered from Vilna construction in Moscow, a cathedral dedicated to Saint Saviour, "in gratitude to Divine Providence , which allowed Russia to be saved from the destruction which threatened ". The Patriotic War , regarded by many as a divine warning against the "gallomanie" who had seized Russian society since the early ^eighteenth century , the father of a surge of patriotism in all social strata of the country, which explains much of the architectural projects proposed to the emperor, who sought the unity of all Christianity and Russian history.

Choice of architect

Project architect Vitberg on the hill Sparrows

Initially, this was the project architect Aleksandr Vitberg having a three-storey building and three altars dedicated respectively to the Nativity , the Transfiguration and the Ascension , which was accepted. The first stone of the cathedral was laid symbolically 12 October 1817 , the fifth anniversary of the expulsion of French troops from Moscow on the Hill Sparrows , which was five years before the last troops of Napoleon. However, following the death of Alexander ^I, which occurred on ¹ December 1825 , Vitberg was accused of squandering state funds for failing to take necessary measures against the looting of the site, and was exiled to Vyatka in the Urals.

The new emperor, Nicolas ^I. , organized a new competition in April 1829 , which was won by the famous architect Petersburg Konstantin Thon , previously director of the Grand Kremlin Palace , and whose style, so called "Russian-Byzantine," left no not indifferent to the emperor. Thon proposed a new location for the construction of the cathedral: the Alexeevski hill , located near the Moscow River and facing the Kremlin , and which then contained the nunnery St. Alexis since the days of Ivan the Terrible (one it was transferred to Krasnoe Selo in 1837 to make way for the cathedral).

Construction

The first stone of the building was laid on 10 September 1839 , the ^25th anniversary of the end of the Patriotic War. The construction lasted 44 years, and was financed entirely by the crown and by public donations. In spring 1880 , the architect Tuna, then dying, was brought on a stretcher to contemplate his work. He died on 25 January 1881 , two years before the consecration of the cathedral, whose date was postponed to 26 May 1883 , when the coronation of Alexander III , following the attack on 1 March 1881 which killed Alexander II. The ceremony paid tribute to the few veterans of the War of 1812 still alive, and the 1812 Overture of Tchaikovsky , written specially for this occasion, it was interpreted.

Head of patriarchy

The cathedral was the seat of the celebrations of the centenary of the Patriotic War in 1912 and the tercentenary of the dynasty of the Romanovs in 1913. The building then obtained the status of seat of patriarchy , and 5 November 1917 , for the first time since the abolition of the patriarchate by Peter the Great , he was elected a patriarch in the person of Tikhon. The cathedral remained thereafter the center of Orthodoxy in Russia.

Wrecking the 5 December 1931

Demolition and Reconstruction

Following the Bolshevik revolution , the proposed construction of a Palace of Soviets on the site of the cathedral had resulted in the demolition thereof, the 5 December 1931. The construction of the gigantic palace (should measure about 500 m) was finally interrupted by the Second World War in 1941 , and 1958 , saw the empty space to build a outdoor swimming pool ( Pool Moskva ), the most wide world.

In February 1990 , the Holy Synod petitioned the Russian government to rebuild the cathedral to its original location. In September 1994 , the pool was dismantled by decree of President Boris Yeltsin , and 7 January 1995 , the first stone of the new Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was laid by the Patriarch Alexy II. The monument was finally dedicated on 19 August 2000.

Architecture

The original cathedral

Cathedral in 1903

The cathedral was built by the Russian architectural traditions, modeled on the ancient cathedrals of the Kremlin and the Church of the Ascension of Kolomenskoye. The main dome symbolizes Jesus Christ , and is surrounded by four minor domes housing the bell, symbolizing the four apostles, evangelists. The shape is traditional domes of Moscow's medieval churches ^fifteenth to ^seventeenth centuries.

External Facades

The carved facade of the cathedral was made of marble white of Protopopovo and staircases in granite red in Finland , even when told to use only original Russian materials to build the building. The cubic shape of the cathedral is representative of the heavenly kingdom, the four walls representing the four walls of the heavenly city. The facades were each decorated with high relief chosen by Metropolitan Filaret , Metropolitan of Moscow at the start of construction. These high-reliefs are enshrined among other celestial forces, great men of the Orthodox and the historical events that marked the Russian Orthodox religion. The angles of the walls contain bas-reliefs, representing scenes from the Old Testament , which were made by sculptors Klodt , Loganovski and Ramazanov. The gold ornament from outside the cathedral was in turn the work of I. Dahl, son of the great lexicographer Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl.

Interior space

View from Inside ( 1883 ), by Fyodor Klages

Inside, the marble from Italy skirted the local stone, such as the porphyry or labrador green. The original interior decor was created by the great Russian painters of the era, which included Briullov , Kramskoy , Surikov or Vereshchagin. The interior of the cathedral is divided into three parts: the sanctuary , the upper gallery and ambulatory.

As is tradition, the altar , situated in the sanctuary, is oriented towards the east, where the Eden. The apse , the concave wall of the sanctuary is a representation of the cave of Bethlehem. Above a sanctuary is painted a dove , symbolizing the Holy Spirit blesses the altar. Inside the shell is a representation of the Nativity scene by Vereshchagin, and below a depiction of the Last Supper , by Semiradski. Other paintings surround these central representations, of which six are the work of Vereshchagin. Finally, behind the altar, is a cathedra , symbolizing the seat of Christ and serving as headquarters for the Patriarch during the Divine Office. The cathedra is one of the relics that survived the destruction of the cathedral.

Main iconostasis ( 1902 )

The nave is separated from the sanctuary by the iconostasis main, which, contrary to the custom whereby the iconostasis is low, while height was built by Metropolitan Filaret's desire to be in agreement with the imposing appearance the cathedral. Konstantin Thon opted for an octahedral iconostasis consists of four registers, surmounted by a pyramidal roof in bronze gilt crowned with a cross.

The lower register that holds within it the Holy Door, symbolizing the entrance to the heavenly kingdom , which are shown the Annunciation and the four evangelists apostles. The second registry consists of icons devoted to the celebration of Lord and Lady. The third is, in turn, consist of icons representing the Church of the New Testament. The fourth, called the register of the Prophets, contains an icon depicting the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus surrounded by the prophets of the Old Testament.

Since Reconstruction

Following the destruction of the cathedral by the Soviets , the hill Alexeevski was totally destroyed, and it was therefore necessary to rebuild a stylobate to recreate the immense cathedral. This allowed the construction of underground rooms forming part of the cathedral, which was especially created in a historical museum. The present cathedral is also distinguished by the former high-bronze reliefs that decorate the facades of the cathedral, while the originals were made of marble. These originals (pictured below) are now preserved in the Donskoy Monastery.

Fragments retained high reliefs of the original cathedral (Donskoy Monastery)
Fragments retained high reliefs of the original cathedral (Donskoy Monastery)
Fragments retained high reliefs of the original cathedral (Donskoy Monastery)

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge

Trivia

The first day of the demolition of the Convent of St. Alexis, the worker in charge of dismantling the cross of the church was killed by falling from the building, which was interpreted by the people as a bad omen associated with the failure the building of the cathedral on the hill Sparrows.
Remains of a mammoth were found in the soil of the hill Alexeevski during the work, what people interpreted as a sign of longevity of the religious building.