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Thursday, 12.07.2007
Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ (Church of the Saviour on the Blood)
After all the baroque and classicist architecture, this cathedral brings home to you again that St. Petersburg is a Russian city. The neo-Russian style was all the rage when Tsar Alexander III commissioned Alfred Parland to build a cathedral “in the purest Russian style of the 17th century”.
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Parland mastered the commission perfectly, and today the Cathedral momentarily transports the viewer from St. Petersburg to Red Square.
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The church was erected from 1883 to 1907 on the exact spot where Alexander II had been assassinated in 1881. This accounts for its second name: Church of the Saviour on the Blood.
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The spot where the assassination took place was actually integrated into the church interior, explaining its salient position on the banks of the Griboyedov canal. Part of the canal bed was even incorporated in the foundations.
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Nearest metro station: Nevsky Prospekt/Gostiny Dvor
Opening hours 11.00am – 6.00pm
Closed: Wednesdays
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The numerous mosaics adorning exterior, interior, and even the floors are of the highest artistic quality, and regarding quantity, they occupy 7000m². Such recognised artists such as Vasnezov, Nesterov, Vrubel und Ryabushkin supplied the drawings for the mosaics.
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In the west part of the building under the bell tower, a stone canopy marks the exact spot of the assassination. Seven steps have been sunk down into the church’s floor at this spot, and at the bottom you can see some of the paving and a fragment of the railing from the Catherine Canal.
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Today, the cathedral is purely a museum (a branch of St. Isaac’s); no church services are held. The high admission charge scares off many visitors – sometimes, however, its possible to bargain, and for instance get three tickets for the price of two.
(sb/rUFO)
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