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The Church also known as the "Savior on Spilled Blood", was built in memory of Alexander II who was assassinated on 13th march 1881. The church stands in the very place where a bomb was thrown into his carriage by a young man who opposed the Tsar's reforms. Alexander II's carriage passed along the embankment, a grenade thrown by an anarchist conspirator exploded. The tsar, shaken but unhurt, got out of the carriage and started to remonstrate with the presumed culprit. A second conspirator took the chance to throw another bomb, killing himself and mortally wounding the tsar. The tsar, bleeding heavily, was taken back to the Winter Palace, where he died a few hours later.
Alexander II was among the greatest Russian tsars, one of the main accomplishments of whom was the emancipation of serfs in 1861, which brought an end to the slavery of the Russian peasantry, five years before the emancipation of slaves in the US.
The Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood attracts people with its five onion-domes exuberantly decorated and covered with jeweler's enamel. It has a similar façade to St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and its peculiar multicolored exterior makes the church stand out from St. Petersburg’s typically strict architectural proportions and color combinations.
The city's architecture is predominantly Baroque and Neoclassical, but the Savior on Blood harks back to medieval Russian architecture in the spirit of romantic nationalism. Architecturally, the cathedral differs from Saint Petersburg's other structures. It intentionally resembles the 17th-century Yaroslavl churches and the celebrated St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
The church contains over 7500 square meters of mosaics—according to its restorers, more than any other church in the world. This record may be surpassed by the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which houses 7700 square meters of mosaics. The interior was designed by some of the most celebrated Russian artists of the day—including Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Nesterov and Mikhail Vrubel — but the church's chief architect, Alfred Alexandrovich Parland, was relatively little-known (born in Saint Petersburg in 1842 in a Baltic-German Lutheran family). Perhaps not surprisingly, the church's construction ran well over budget, having been estimated at 3.6 million rubles but ending up costing over 4.6 million.
The walls and ceilings inside the church are completely covered in intricately detailed mosaics — the main pictures being biblical scenes or figures — but with very fine patterned borders setting off each picture.
In the consequence of Russian Revolution, the church was plundered and looted, badly damaging its interior. The Soviet government closed the church in 1932. During the Second World War when many people were starving due to the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi German military forces, the church was used as a temporary morgue for those who died in combat and from starvation and illness.
The church suffered significant damage. After the war, it was used as a warehouse for vegetables, leading to the sardonic name of Saviour on Potatoes.
The Church of the Saviour on Blood is a museum of mosaics. In July 1970, management of the church passed to Saint Isaac's Cathedral and it was used as a museum. The proceeds from the Cathedral funded the restoration of the church. It was reopened in August 1997, after 27 years of restoration, but has not been reconsecrated and does not function as a full-time place of worship.
In the pre-Revolution period it was not used as a public place of worship. The church was dedicated to the memory of the assassinated tsar and only panikhidas took place. The church is now one of the main tourist attractions in Saint Petersburg.
