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Church on Blood in Honor of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land is a Russian Orthodox church in Yekaterinburg commemorating the Romanov sainthood

The logical center of Yekaterinburg is a factory pond, over the eastern bank of which the golden domes of the cathedral are completely modern in architecture. The cathedral would look huge if there were not so many large-scale office and retail buildings in the center. On their background, the sixty-meter Temple-on-Blood looks quite commensurate. In Russia, there are three temples “on the Blood”, built in memory of regicide: in Uglich, at the site of the murder of Tsarevich Dimitrii, in St. Petersburg, at the site of the terrorist attack that fatally wounded Alexander II, and in Yekaterinburg. The Yekaterinburg church was erected in memory of one of the most terrible and senselessly cruel atrocities of the Civil War: on the night of July 17, 1918, along with the renounced throne Nikolay Romanov, the whole family of the last king and his servants were shot here. Two women, four men, four young girls and a sick boy. The decision to execute was taken by the Ural Regional Council, but the top leaders of the Bolsheviks were clearly aware of the upcoming act.

The “special purpose house”, where everything happened, before the revolution was the usual home of a wealthy engineer Nikolai Ipatiev. The royal family, transferred to Ekaterinburg from Tobolsk, lived in this house, in four rooms with white painted windows, for 78 days, until the last terrible night. For a long time they tried to quietly strangle the memory of this, until they took a radical step: in 1977 the Ipatiev house was destroyed to the ground as directed by the top of the Soviet leadership. The 60th anniversary of the shooting was approaching, and the KGB wanted to avoid unnecessary reminders of what had happened, therefore, under the pretext of expanding the road, the house was demolished. However, the rift, which arose in an even row of buildings along Liebknecht Street, did not dissipate interest, but on the contrary, woke him. The wasteland on the site of the house gradually became a place of secret pilgrimage, which intensified with the beginning of perestroika. They established a memorial cross, held a competition for the construction of an Orthodox church, which won the project of architect Konstantin Efremov. The fundraising began, the first stone was laid - but nothing happened. Construction began only after in 2000 the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas and his family. Instead of the initial project, another one was chosen - Viktor Morozov, Vladimir Grachev, and the chief architect of the region, Grigory Mazayev.

As a result, between Karl Liebknecht Street (in retaliation for the death of which the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg shot the Grand Dukes Pavel Alexandrovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich, Nikolai Mikhailovich and Georgiy Mikhailovich) and Nikolai Tolmachyov Street (member of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Council, who decided to kill the Romanovs), in 2003 a huge Church on the Blood appeared. The official name is the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land. The authors define his style as Russian-Byzantine. In general, this could be called the averaged style of the new church architecture, if not for the spectacular details and the concept itself.

The temple is a double one: the lower tier is a memorial church on the immediate place of execution, the top one symbolizes another bright life. Downstairs there are gloomy arches and low ceilings, the preserved structural elements of the basement are highlighted, and the contours of the firing room are marked. Above it is sunny and light, with a thirty-meter iconostasis of white marble - the throne in the name of All Saints. From the outside, this division into darkness and light is also clearly drawn in: the walls of the white-stone cathedral appear to grow out of a dark 9-meter base, lined with red granite, and the same “bloody” pillars support the dome. It is said that in the initial project “Gothic” was even more obvious, so that at the sight of a black and red layout of the layout, the Yekaterinburg hierarch crossed himself. In addition to the granite edging, quotations from the Psalter, laid out in huge bronze letters, and many icons, also bronze, are placed on the facades. As a result, the cathedral makes an impression, on the one hand, quite strict as a whole, on the other - it seems very generously decorated when you consider everything that surrounds it: stone stairs, cast iron parapets, fancy lanterns in the old spirit. On the side of the ascent, a monument to the imperial family was erected from Tolmachyov Street: a tall cross and seven figures descending into the basement of the Ipatiev House, to death - the notorious “23 steps down”.

But from the altar side, through a narrow street, bronze young men and women marching under the banner look at the cathedral - a monument to the Komsomol of the Urals of 1959, somewhat reminiscent of the Moscow Worker and Kolkhoz Woman vera Mukhina. Well, Ekaterinburg, the center of the Sverdlovsk region, is a city where contrasts get along well. To smooth contrasts at least at the level of the postal address, the mayor of Yekaterinburg ordered to name the place where the temple stands as the Holy Quarter.

Holy Quarter is not one Temple on the Blood. Next to it is the Patriarchal Compound with the home church of St. Nicholas and the Patriarch’s chambers, where he stops during his visits to Yekaterinburg, as well as a small museum dedicated to the history of the family of the last Russian emperor. The staircase in the vestibule of the farmstead is decorated with modern paintings on historical themes, somewhat naive, but sincere. In addition, right there are the wooden chapel of St. Elizabeth Feodorovna and the nun Barbara, built in 1992, and the Ascension Church of 1801. In 2012, they opened another newest monument, designed to once again emphasize the "family" spirit - the sculptures of Peter and Fevronia with a ring, a scroll and a dove, of a completely cheap print. At the sight of these duty figures, the thought arises of what kind of monument there is not - and it would be more than appropriate: a monument to people who stayed with the family of Nikolai Romanov and set an example of true fidelity. Let's name them: Dr. Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin, cook Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov, Anna Maid of Honor Stepanovna Demidova, camera-lackey Colonel Alexey Egorovich Troop (by the way, Catholic by religion).

For ten years, the Church on the Blood has managed to become a representative place - the highest state guests are being brought here. Simple citizens perceive the cathedral in different ways. On the one hand, the Holy Quarter attracts many pilgrims. On the other hand, many consider the cathedral to be too pompous and official, not suitable for quiet prayers. The city "left" of the principle begin their anti-capitalist marches from the very monument to the Komsomol of the Urals, standing right behind the temple. And the newlyweds find here expressive decorations for wedding photo shoots, accompanied by the release of pigeons.

Every year on the night from July 16 to July 17, from 23:30 to 04:00, there are many-hour vigil and liturgy in memory of the royal family, and then held a 25-kilometer procession to the monastery on Ganina Yama.

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