How the largest temple appeared in the center of Moscow on the site of the largest pool

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Where now stands the Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Volkhonka, only 25 years ago there was a large pool. Not even just big - huge, the largest in the USSR. It was closed just on these dates, in mid-September in 1994, before a temple was built in its place.

However, one should not think that the decision to replace the pool with a temple was spontaneous and unreasonable. Back in the 16th century, there was a monastery here, which burned down in a fire in 1547. Instead, a new monastery was built - Alekseevsky, which was also partially destroyed during the Troubles (1598-1613), so it had to be restored in 1625. The nunnery gradually expanded, new buildings appeared, including the temple. And two centuries later, Emperor Nicholas I ordered to move the monastery outside the city to Krasnoe Selo, and to dismantle the buildings themselves.

And if the buildings were really demolished then, then the Cathedral of Christ the Savior stood until 1931. This year, the Politburo decided to demolish the temple and erect an even more impressive Palace of Soviets in its place. It was planned that this would be the largest building not only in Moscow, but in general in the world.

On December 5, 1931, the temple was really blown up. The explosion was so strong that it was felt on itself for several blocks around. For a year and a half they were dismantling the rubble. The cladding of the temple was later used to decorate the finishing of the building of the Labor and Defense Council, which today houses the State Duma, as well as for cladding the subway.

Then the construction of the ambitious Palace of Soviets began, but the process did not go beyond the foundation - due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the construction site had to be frozen. This place remained in this form until the very end of the war, and after another 15 years, until finally Nikita Khrushchev ordered to arrange a pool from an unsightly construction site in the very center of the city - the foundation pit was still very often filled with water due to rains and melted snow, so that this idea was quite logical.

So, in 1958, construction began on a huge year-round outdoor pool. Three specialists at once became its architects - D. Chechulin, V. Lukyanov and N. Molokov. They did not begin to destroy the already built foundation, but inscribed the pool inside a concrete ring, which was supposed to be the base of the Great Hall of the palace. That is why, instead of the standard and familiar rectangular pool, Moscow could boast of a completely unusual structure.

The pool is huge. It held 25 thousand cubic meters of water. About 20 thousand visitors could swim in it per day, and during the year their number reached three million. It is believed that in the first ten years, the pool "Moscow" - as this is the name of this structure - was visited by about 24 million people.

The pool was open both in summer and winter. Even when the air temperature dropped to -20C, the pool continued to receive visitors. The water was heated and remained within 18-20 degrees. There was a beach of sea gravel next to the pool, there were benches, trees were planted, pavilions for a wardrobe, a buffet and cash registers stood next to it.

The attitude towards the pool was different. Someone was happy, because it was not always possible to get into the other two pools because of their great popularity. Someone was indignant that half-naked people are now swimming on the site of the temple. Among the people one could hear the ironic expression "First there was a temple, then rubbish, and now it is shame."In the 1980s, talk of rebuilding the temple began to be heard more often, and by the end of the decade there was even a social movement to restore the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

The pool worked until 1990. With the collapse of the USSR, it became too expensive to maintain the operation of such a huge structure - and the pool was closed for three years. In 1994, the buildings began to be dismantled, and by Christmas 1995 the foundation of the new church was laid.

This time, people began to protest against the pool again. In May 1994, in an empty pool, artists Andrei Velikanov and Marat Kim staged an art action against its demolition. They were joined by many representatives of the public and cultural figures. But just as those who once did not want to demolish the temple, did not want to part with the pool, they did not achieve anything - by 1999 the new temple had already been fully erected.

Today, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is the largest cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church - it can accommodate up to 10 thousand people at a time. It is taller than St. Isaac's Cathedral and looks like the temple that stood here at the beginning of the last century, but is not an exact copy of it.

You can read about what the Palace of Soviets was planned to be, as well as about other ambitious architectural plans of the USSR in our article. "Moscow could have been different."