Travel Guide on Church of our Savior on the Spilt Blood

The Church of our Savior on the Spilt Blood is a St Petersburg icon that stands on the Griboedov canal and is covered with 7000 square meters of multicolored mosaics. It was built on the site where Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by terrorists.

The church, built in the style of Russian churches from the 16th and 17th centuries by Alfred Parland, contrasts dramatically with the surrounding Baroque, Classical, and Modernist architecture.

The large shrine, created exactly in the area where Alexander II was mortally wounded, is one of the most noteworthy characteristics of the Church of our Savior on the Spilt Blood, and it occupies a distinctive location inside the church's interior. According to Parland's design, it was completed in July 1907. The shrine is supported by four gray violet jasper columns.

Little rectangular columns rise above the shrine, connecting the carved stone awning and the exquisite mosaic icons depicting the Romanov family's patron saint. The columns are supported by a frieze and cornice, as well as a stone-carved pediment with jasper vases in the corners.

The mosaic icon collection of the Cathedral of Our Savior on the Spilt Blood is outstanding and diverse. Several icons were constructed using academic painting, modernist style painting, and Byzantine icon painting traditions.

Michail Nesterov's design was used to make the large icon of St. Alexander Nevsky. Victor Vasnetsov designed the icons for the main iconostasis, including the Mother of God with Child and the Savior.

Nikholay . Kharlamov designed the Pantokrator (Almighty) mosaic panel, which is located on the platform of the central cupola and represents Christ extending a blessing with his right hand while carrying the gospels in his left. The framed icon mosaic decorations were finished by Alfred Parland and Andrey Ryabushkin.

Top reasons why you must visit Church of our Savior on the Spilt Blood

• It's an iconic place in St Petersburg.

• Give you an impression of authentic Russian architecture in the most European city in Russia.

• Do not take plenty of time to go around and listen to your guide inside the church but you remember it forever.

• Fantastic mosaics cover the church from up to down.

• Take the chance to listen to the choir singing in the church with perfect acoustics; they usually arrange such performances at the end of the day (though not every day).

• Open an awful reason by which the church was constructed.

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