The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood was built to commemorate Tsar Alexander II, who was assassinated on the spot where the church is now (hence the name “Spilled Blood”). Tough little church. After the Soviets took power, they wanted to demolish it, as they did to many other churches. Better judgment, or divine intervention, saved the church from demolition. But it was subsequently used by the Communists to store vegetables, among other things. Even until the early 80’s, the church was used to store stage props for the Malay Theater. St. Isaac’s Cathedral was likewise spared, however the bastards turned the church into an anti-religion museum (I’m not making this up). Moscow’s Church of Christ Our Savior, next to the Kremlin, was not so fortunate. It was bulldozed to the ground, and turned into a public swimming pool. During World War II, a German artillery shell hit the Church on Spilled Blood with a direct hit, piercing the main dome (symbolically?) through Christ’s chest. Amazingly enough, the shell was a dud and did not explode. From the picture, it looks like a 155mm shell, or similar caliber. If it did explode, it probably would have leveled the church. Instead it lodged itself in the foundation. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that they removed the shell and detonated it outside of the city. Divine intervention if you ask me.
I’ll go with divine intervention on this one, too.
Thanks for these pictures.
My pleasure Lex. Looks like I won’t be able to get many WWII related pictures this time around though. My time here is limited, and Mrs. Nito understandably does not want us using it on tanks.