In April 1832 Tsar Nicholay I approved a new project for the Temple, proposed by the architect K.A.Ton, and personally selected the building site- not far from the very centre of Moscow, the Kremlin, by the Great Stone Bridge. It is on this site that the re-created Temple has been constructed. Construction of Ton´s project began in 1839 and continued for almost 44 years. The consecration ceremony was held on 26 May 1883.
The Temple of Christ the Saviour stood for half a century. It was the main Orthodox Temple of Russia, a symbol of its power and unity.
The barbaric destruction of the Temple on 5 December 1931 was one of many tragedies which occurred in Russia after the 1917 revolution, whose leaders did not wish to accept the spiritual heritage of the past. In addition to the Temple, a further 2200 outstanding architectural monuments were destroyed in Moscow region. On the site where the Temple stood, because of its superb position, it was proposed to build a grandiose Palace of Soviets - this would have been the largest construction in the world. According to the draft plan, the height was to be 400m, the width 250m and the length more than 500m. The apotheosis of the building was to have been a 100m high statue of V.I.Lenin weighing 6000 tons. The statue´s index finger was to be 6 m in height and its shoulder width 32 m. To supply the vast amount of materials and components for a construction on this scale, several factories were set up all over Russia - including the Moscow Stone Processing Factory, nowadays known as JSC MKK.
Fate was to decree that six decades later on, the Moscow Stone Processing Factory was to play a very active and direct part in re-creation of the Temple. But more about this later on.
From 1939-1941 the foundations were laid for the tall part of the Palace of Soviets Building. With the onset of war with fascist Germany in 1941all construction work on the site was halted. It was never restarted. In the 1960s a large swimming pool called "The Moscow" was built here. For many years ideas about the temple were apparently consigned to oblivion. However, memories, dreams and thoughts about its re-creation remained in the hearts and souls of many Russian people. Democratic changes in Russia at the end of the 1980s were to turn these dreams into reality. In 1988 a public organisation was set up to actively lobby for re-creation of the Temple. The organisers comprised prominent members of the Russian Orthodox Church, leading scientists, writers, artists, and rank and file believers. The movement´s initiative was supported by the first President of Russia, B.N. Yeltsin, and the Mayor of Moscow, Y.M.Luzhkov. Acting on a resolution of the Moscow City Government, work on re-creating the Temple commenced in 1994.
The well-known Russian architect M.M. Posokhin, head of Moscow´s leading architectural institute " Mosprojekt-2", was appointed the project´s Chief Architect. His assembled team took on an extremely complex task: on the basis of what remained of Ton´s original drawings, sundry sketches, measurements and photographs, the blueprint for a unique monument was gradually pieced together- a monument whose dimensions, external features and internal decoration would be exactly the same as at the moment before its destruction.
The height of the Temple to the top of the main cross is 105 m, the greatest length and width is 91 m, the main cupola is 30 m in diameter, the height from the basis of the main cupola to the top its cross is 38 m. Builders of the new Temple had the advantage of late 20th century technology. Modern methods, construction materials and equipment allowed comparatively rapid progress.
A stylobate sector was created in the 15 m high space between the foundations of the unbuilt Palace of Soviets and the floor of the re-created Temple. In the stylobate sector are: a Lower Temple named after the Transfiguration of our Lord, the services of the Holy Synod, a meetings hall, refectories, storage spaces for engineering equipment and a garage.
Several Russian and foreign firms were invited to bid for the stone supply and fixing contract. The winners were MKK, which had grown over the years from a small concern created in 1937 to supply materials for the ill-fated Palace of Soviets into the largest stone working enterprise in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Today the JSC “MKK Holding” group includes over 20 Russian stone working and quarrying firms, and also an extensive sales and marketing network. Group members are based all over the country, including Krasnoyarsk Region, Republic of Karelia, Kola Peninsula and Altai, and the cities or towns of Moscow, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Penza, Syktyvkar, Krasnoyarsk and Ukhta. Over the years MKK has accumulated a great deal of experience supplying materials for large scale projects in Moscow such as the Moscow Metro, the Memorial Complex on Poklonnaya Gora, the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow University, Moscow River Embankments, and the refurbishment of Kremlin buildings. Without a doubt this experience was of vital importance in the successful completion of the contract for the Temple of Christ the Saviour.
The Holding´s production facilities are equipped with state-of-the-art machines from Italy, Germany and France to facilitate the manufacture of stone components ranging from simple tiles to complex architectural pieces. A thorough appreciation of the range of work undertaken by MKK Holding will be gained by visitors to "La Biennale di Venezi: VII Mostra Internazionale Architettura" this summer and autumn. The slogan of the exhibition is "THE CITY:MORE ETHICS, LESS AESTHETICS". The re-creation of the Temple of Christ the Saviour in Moscow represents a final triumph of ethics over aesthetics in the sense that it owes nothing to contemporary architectural aesthetics - it is a project from the 19th century and therefore the ethical aspect is self-evident. The story of the re-creation of the Temple and some other large -scale projects will be on display in the first part of the Russian section of the exhibition.
Marble was used for the cladding was about 22000 sq m.
The socle or base part of the building (an area of 1200 sq m) is clad to a height of 2.25 m with polished fine grain rich-red Syuskyunsaari granite. Grey and red granites from various Russian and Ukrainian sources with a bush hammered or flamed finish were used for cladding the stylobate part, for the parapet, the balustrades, the ponds and paving of the territory around the Temple.
About 14000 sq m of stone was used to clad the vertical faces of the stylobate, with a further 23000 sq m for the paved area.
Entrances to the Temple and the internal galleries are framed by three large and eight small portals. At the corners of the central part are four bay portals, and in the eastern part of the Temple behind the iconostase is the portal to a Celestial Place.
The height of the large portals is 9.16 m, the width is 7.2 m. The height of the small portals is 7.2 m, the width is 5 m. The height of the bay portals is 7.8 m, the width 5.7 m. The height of the Celestial Place portal is 7.5 m and the width is 6.4 m. All the portals have been fashioned from quartzitic sandstone. In the eastern part of the Temple, top craftsmen and sculptors from Holding´s associate company MKK Dekor skilfully re-created an iconostase of unique composition in the form of an octagonal chapel.
The iconostase is made completely of white Sivik marble. Its dimensions are quite astonishing : the height of its 4 tiers with gilded cupola is 26 m, the perimeter of the octagon at its base is about 40 m, the marble surface area is 700 sq m, there are around 1500 marble parts weighing from 60 to 3000 kg apiece, and the total weight is 425 tons.
In place there is delicate cut ornamentation or tracery, and also plane and inland marquetry using France Rouge, Giallo di Siena, Bardiglio, Porto-Santa, Belgique Noir and Porto-Venere coloured marbles. The total area of inlaid work taking into account the reverse surface is more than 100 sq m.
Columns of the Tsar´s Gate arches, the small arches of the first tier and the arches of the second tier are of Porto-Venere marble. Columns for the third tier arches are of France Rouge, whilst those for the fourth tier are of Sivik marble with inlays of Bordiglio and France Rouge. Coloured inlays in the windows of the first tier at the north and south wings are of Porto-Venere marble, and inlays for internal decoration of the iconostase are of French Rouge.
All components of the iconostase have been polished to a gloss finish. The steps leading from the centre of the Temple to the iconostase are of polished quartzitic sandstone.
The nucleus of the internal area of the Upper Temple is surrounded by a two-tiered gallery. The first tier is used as a historic memorial to the events of the Patriotic War of 1812-1814. In the bays of the 59th wall of the lower gallery are memorial plaques 6 cm thick with an engraved text. On the plaques in strict chronological order are descriptions of past battles in Russia and abroad. The text lists the time and place of the conflict, the Commander-in-Chief, a list of serving personnel, the names of the dead and wounded, the officers and distinguished services awards holders. Some of the plaques feature the texts of Imperial Manifestos of Military Orders. The plaques are made of Carrara Bianca marble, inlaid with Belgique Noir, Giallo di Siena and France Rouge pieces and polished. The surface area of the plaques is more than 1000 sq m. There are in excess of 200000 engraved text letters and numerals. There are twelve types of Russian script dating from the second half of the 19th century. The depth of the inscriptions is from 3 to 7 mm, and the size varies from 35 to 110 mm depending on the type of script. Engraving was carried out on high precision machines using accessories, tools and computer programmes developed by MKK.
The second tier of the gallery is used by church choirs. The floors have limestone tiles, and the socle is clad with Bardiglio marble. The balcony pillars are also made of this material. Steps of the Temple´s internal staircases are of dresses Mansurov grey granite.
Floors of the internal nucleus of the Upper Temple and the first tier of the circular gallery are bedecked with multicoloured marquetry patterns, with inlaid segments in the shape of circles, stars and triangles in France Rouge, Belgique Noir, Giallo di Siena, Bardiglio and Portoro marbles. The floor area is about 2700 sq m.
Internal cladding of the Lower Temple includes light grey Mansurov and brown Kurtinsk granites, a red Indian granite called Red Africa, a green Indian marble, and a light beige limestone from Israel. The Temple walls are faced with profiled and polished Kurtinsk granite tiles. The columns and walls in the corridors are of dressed Israeli limestone.
Floors in the Lower Temple are paved with polished Kurtinsk and Mansurov granite tiles, whilst in the central part there is a mosaic circle made up of different shaped Indian green marble and Red Africa pieces.
Most of the stone tiles and architectural elements were cut on modern high-efficiency machines, including computer-controlled machines. Complex shaped ornamental parts (especially those for the iconostase) were first machined using a purpose-written programme, and then finished manually by master craftsmen.
Cladding of the external walls was begun in 1996 and finished in 1997. Internal cladding commenced in February 1998 and was completed in May 1999.
Altogether more than 20 types of decorative stone from all over the world have been used in re-creating the Temple of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, so that like St Isaac´s Cathedral in St Petersburg, it can be considered a kind of mineralogical museum. The use of such a broad variety of materials in many colours and hues, together with different forms of surface texture, artistic carving, inlay and mosaic work, was essential if the uniquely beautiful stone interior of the former Temple was to be properly re-created. In order to provide a deeper insight into the beauty of the stone decor of the re-created Temple, it is entirely appropriate at this juncture to quote some excerpts from a letter written by the Russian historian P.N.Ardashev (1865-1933) in 1885 in which he eloquently describes the Temple built to Ton´s plans: "One can only marvel at the precision of the execution and the artistic expression- in the marble ornaments, the marble inlay work on the walls of the Temple. It would seem as if the walls were painted, however this combination of beauty has been achieved not by paintbrush or by paint at all, but by the natural colours of marbles... the mirror polish on the marble surface cannot be compared with the shine of laquer or paint. This decoration is eternal, and will be admired just as much in a hundred, two hundred, or three hundred years as it is today...."
"... go up to any part of a wall and put your hand against it - you will find even in this small area so much to admire, to delight. It might be an elegant marble inlay, a piece of carving, some gilding, or maybe just a smooth polished marble surface. But even this bare marble has a great natural beauty with its eternal colour-reflecting like a mirror, as hard as a diamond...."
Of course, the attractiveness of the external and internal aspects of the Temple are not only due to its natural stone cladding. The gilded cupolas, the colossal bronze entrance doors with releifs of saints, the bell, and inside - a huge mural, icons, the intricate canopy over the iconostase, the chandeliers, balustrades, candlesticks and much more- could be the subject of another story about the Temple of Christ the Saviour.
"To everyone his time", wrote Ecclesiasticus." a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to destroy and a time to build; a time to scatter stones and a time to collect stones" (Eccc.Chaper 3, verses 1,3,5).
The time came for the modern Russian nation to fulfil its duty before history and the country- the Temple in all its beauty stands magnificently again above the capital, as a symbol of the rebirth of the State, its national spirit and a unification of the people on a moral base.
In conclusion, we welcome everyone who has read this report to visit Moscow to see for themselves the Temple of Christ the Saviour, to admire its grandeur, delight in its beauty, and become inspired by its spiritual peace and quiet. We are sure that you will obtain deep internal satisfaction and that a picture of the Temple and the words painted in gold above the cupula "Glory to God in the Highest and Peace on Earth " will long remain in your memory.
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