page_title: Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
section_title: Rebuilt cathedral
hierarchical_section_title: Cathedral of Christ the Saviour / Rebuilt cathedral
caption_attribution_description: English: Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow. View from southeast, across the Moscow River. Français&#160;: La cathédrale du Christ-Sauveur à Moscou, vue depuis l'autre rive de la Moskva, au Sud-est. Русский: Собор Христа-Спасителя, Москва. Вид с юго-востока, через реку Москву.
context_page_description: The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow, Russia, on the northern bank of the Moskva River, a few hundred metres southwest of the Kremlin. With an overall height of 103 metres, it is the third tallest Orthodox Christian church building in the world, after the People's Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest, Romania and Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
  The current church is the second to stand on this site. The original church, built during the 19th century, took more than 40 years to build, and was the scene of the 1882 world premiere of the 1812 Overture composed by Tchaikovsky. It was destroyed in 1931 on the order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The demolition was supposed to make way for a colossal Palace of the Soviets to house the country's legislature, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Construction started in 1937 but was halted in 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union during World War II. Its steel frame was disassembled the following year, and the Palace was never built. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the current church was rebuilt on the site between 1995 and 2000.
context_section_description: 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 architect Aleksey Denisov was called upon to design a replica, but was soon fired from the project because of disagreements with the Mayor’s office. When construction was well under way, he was replaced by Zurab Tsereteli, who introduced several controversial innovations. For instance, the original marble high reliefs along the walls were replaced by modern bronze ones, which have few, if any, parallels in Russian church architecture.
  
  A construction fund was initiated in 1992 and funds began to pour in from citizens in the autumn of 1994, and about one million Muscovites donated money for the project. In this year the Moskva Pool was demolished and the cathedral reconstruction commenced. 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.
  Below the new church is a large hall for church assemblies. The cathedral square is graced by several chapels, designed in the same style as the cathedral. A footbridge across the river from Bersenevskaya embankment was constructed between 21 June 2003 and 3 September 2004 (photo). On the slope of the hill to the right of the cathedral are the monumental statues of Alexander II and Nicholas II.
caption: The rebuilt cathedral, view across the Moscow River.
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