St. Petersburg -- The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

St. Petersburg, Russia's window onto Europe, is decidedly European in architecture and flavor.  However, there is one building here that clearly is from the Russian Orthodox school...and it is called the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.  The reason for the name?  In Tsar Alexander II (reigned 1855 -- 1881) emancipated the serfs in Russia.  This made him beloved by most, but angered many as well.  On 2 March 1881, he was assassinated on this site in St. Petersburg.  His son, Alexander III, built this church on the site of his father's death. therefore we have the "spilled blood" portion of the name of the church.  The church was started in 1883 and finally finished in 1907.

The Northern face.

The southern face is at the head of the Griboedov Canal.

The outside facade has many different sections, this one has the banner of each of the provinces of Russia.

This is the cupola which stands over the EXACT spot on which Tsar Alexander II was killed.

To include the spot of death inside the church, the Church had to be extended into the canal.

One of the reasons for the length of construction was that the ENTIRE interior surface is made up of mosaics.

Mosaics are preferred over painting in Russia due to the incredible changes in humidity and temperature, which makes paintings need restoration almost regularly.

It's hard to tell from this mosaic, the there are two methods of mosaic creation.  The quicker method is to create the picture, then reverse the sketch and create the mosaic by putting the colors "down".  The more difficult, but producing a more painting-like feel to the mosaic, is by creating the mosaic as it would appear to the viewer.  The best mosaic makers could only produce one square meter a year this way.

In the dome, the Pankrator

New term for me...Iconostasis.  It is the door/wall that separates the congregation from the altar.