Cathedral of Christ the Saviour The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour ( , " Khram Khrista Spasitelya " ) is a cathedral in Moscow , Russia , on the northern bank of the Moskva River , a few blocks southwest of the Kremlin . With an overall height of , it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world . Design . When Napoleon Bonaparte retreated from Moscow , Emperor Alexander I signed a manifest , 25 December 1812 , declaring his intention to build a cathedral in honor of Christ the Saviour " to signify Our gratitude to Divine Providence for saving Russia from the doom that overshadowed Her " and as a memorial to the sacrifices of the Russian people . It took some time for actual work on the projected cathedral to get started . The first finished architectural project , by Aleksandr Lavrentyevich Vitberg , was endorsed by Alexander I in 1817 . It was a flamboyant Neoclassical design full of Freemasonic symbolism . Construction work was begun on the Sparrow Hills , the highest point in Moscow , but the site proved insecure . In the meantime Alexander I was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I . Profoundly Orthodox and patriotic , the new Tsar disliked the Neoclassicism and Freemasonry of the project selected by his brother . He commissioned his favourite architect Konstantin Thon to create a new design , taking as his model Hagia Sophia in Constantinople , Turkey . Thon ' s Russian Revival design was approved in 1832 , and a new site , closer to the Moscow Kremlin , was chosen by the Tsar in 1837 . A convent and church on the site had to be relocated , so that the cornerstone was not laid until 1839 . Construction . The cathedral took many years to build and did not emerge from its scaffolding until 1860 . The painting were overseen by Evgraf Sorokin and thereafter some of the best Russian painters ( Ivan Kramskoi , Vasily Surikov , Vasily Vereshchagin ) continued to embellish the interior for another twenty years . The cathedral was consecrated on 26 May 1883 , the day before Alexander III was crowned . Although Tchaikovsky ' s " 1812 Overture " was written with the building ' s completion in mind , it did not debut here . The inner sanctum of the church ( naos ) was ringed by a two - floor gallery , its walls inlaid with rare sorts of marble , granite , and other precious stones . The ground floor of the gallery was a memorial dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon . The walls displayed more than 1 , 000 square metres of Carrara bianca marble plaques listing major commanders , regiments , and battles of the Patriotic War of 1812 ( with the lists of awards and casualties appended ) . The second floor of the gallery was occupied by church choirs . The giant dome of the cathedral for the first time in history was gilded using the technique of gold electroplating , replacing the older and insecure technique of mercury gilding . Demolition . Under the state atheism espoused by the USSR , many " church institution [ s ] at [ the ] local , diocesan or national level were systematically destroyed " in the 1921 - 1928 antireligious campaign . As a result , after the Revolution and , more specifically , the death of Vladimir Lenin , the prominent site of the cathedral was chosen by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin as the site for a monument to socialism known as the Palace of the Soviets . This monument was to rise in modernistic , buttress ed tiers to support a gigantic statue of Lenin perched on top of a dome with his arm raised in the air . The economic development in Russia during the 1930s required funds , of which the government was short . On 24 February 1930 , the economic department of the OGPU sent a letter to the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee asking to remove the golden domes of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral . The letter noted that the dome of the church contained over 20 tons of gold of " excellent quality " , and that the cathedral represented an " unnecessary luxury for the Soviet Union , and the withdrawal of the gold would make a great contribution to the industrialization of the country . " The People ' s Commissariat of Finance did not object to this proposal . On 5 December 1931 , by order of Stalin ' s minister Kaganovich , the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was dynamited and reduced to rubble . It took more than a year to clear the debris from the site . Some of the marble from the walls and marble benches from the cathedral were used in nearby Moscow Metro stations . The original marble high relief s were preserved and are now on display at the Donskoy Monastery ( see the ) . For a long time , these were the only reminders of the largest Orthodox church ever built . The construction of the Palace of Soviets was interrupted owing to a lack of funds , problems with flooding from the nearby Moskva River , and the outbreak of war . The flooded foundation hole remained on the site until , under Nikita Khrushchev , it was transformed into the world ' s largest open air swimming pool , named Moskva Pool . Rebuilt cathedral . In February 1990 , the Russian Orthodox Church received permission from the Soviet Government to rebuild the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour . A temporary cornerstone was laid by the end of the year . The restorer Aleksey Denisov was called upon to design a replica of extraordinary accuracy . A construction fund was initiated in 1992 and funds began to pour in from ordinary citizens in the autumn of 1994 . In this year the pool was demolished and the cathedral reconstruction commenced . About one million Muscovites donated money for the project . There are still arguments about the reconstruction . First the project was supervised by architect Aleksey Denisov . Soon he was fired from the project because of disagreements with the Mayor ’ s office . When construction was well under way , Denisov was replaced by Zurab Tsereteli , who introduced several controversial innovations . For instance , the original marble high reliefs along the walls gave way to the modern bronze ones , which have few , if any , parallels in Russian church architecture . The lower church was consecrated to the Saviour ' s Transfiguration in 1997 , and the completed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was consecrated on the Transfiguration Day , 19 August 2000 . A footbridge across the river from Balchug was constructed between 21 June 2003 and 3 September 2004 ( ) . On the slope of the hill to the right of the cathedral are the monumental statues of Alexander II and Nicholas II . The cathedral square is graced by several chapels , designed in the same style as the cathedral itself . In 2000 the cathedral was the venue for the Canonization of the Romanovs when the last Tsar Nicholas II and his family were glorified as saints . On 17 May 2007 , the Act of Canonical Communion between the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia was signed there . The full restoration of communion with the Moscow Patriarchate was celebrated by a Divine Liturgy at which the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia , Alexius II and the First Hierarch of ROCOR , Metropolitan Laurus , concelebrated the Divine Liturgy for the first time in history . The first Russian President Boris Yeltsin , who died of heart failure on 23 April 2007 , lay in state in the cathedral prior to his burial in Novodevichy Cemetery . In 2009 the cathedral was visited by Metropolitan Jonah ( Paffhausen ) , former primate of the Orthodox Church in America , who celebrated the Liturgy with Patriarch Kirill I . Metropolitan Jonah later described the event stating that with a congregation of approximately 2 , 500 the church was only half full . There were about 16 bishops present for the ordination of a new bishop that day . Below the new church is a large hall for church assemblies .