The Cathedral of Christ the Savior (I)

Czar Nicholas I in the early 19th century ordered that a cathedral be built in the place of Alekseevsky Convent. 44 years after beginning construction, in 1883, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was completed. On May 23, 1883, the cathedral was consecrated, preceding the coronation of Alexander III. 

The life of this cathedral was short relative to its construction—it took nearly have a century to complete—but was nevertheless a sight of great cultural significance. P. I. Tchaikovsky’s famous 1812 Overture, for instance, debuted itself to the world outside of the church just one year prior to the opening of the church itself (in August of 1882). A symbol of Russia’s beauty and greatness, the fact that the symphony debuted in front of the building links them culturally in a way that 

The building itself boasted new and cutting-edge techniques in terms of its adornment, showing off a technique of gold electroplating. 

On December 5, 1931, the Bolsheviks demolished the cathedral for the sake of building a massive Soviet Palace, that theoretically would feature a massive statue of Vladimir Lenin. 

The Soviet Palace was never built, however. World War II commenced when the progress of the palace had made it as far as the base of the building. In the place of the original Cathedral of Christ the Savior ended up being a public swimming pool for the city as a means of bringing the community together (a socialist gesture). It was nearly a century later before anyone thought to reconstruct the once-grand cathedral, which brings us to this page of this exhibit.