Saint Petersburg, Russia – September 10th, 2017

There is so much to see in Saint Petersburg that our wonderful cruise company, Holland America Lines, arranged to stay in port for two full days. On the second day, we booked a tour that included a trip on one of the canals and on the river plus a stop at the Church on the Spilled Blood.

This church was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was murdered by two anarchist conspirators. A temporary shrine was erected over the spot until the more permanent church could be designed and built.

Just inside the main entrance is the shrine with a canopy erected over the cobblestones that were stained by the blood of Alexander.

If you look through the gate in the short wall, you can see the actual cobblestones of that street as they were on that fateful day: March 13th, 1881.

Here is a small plaque next to the shrine:

Inside the church are 7,500 square meters of mosaics that will almost take your breath away. The amount of artistic work dedicated to this church is stunning.

Marvel in the splendor:

See details of the icons on the alter in my CFFC post on icons.

 

We exited to the back of the church where I took a few more outside pictures:

For more historical information regarding the origin of the church, check out this link to the Wikipedia page ‘Church of the Savior on Blood‘.