The Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land is a

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

. Being built on the site of the

Ipatiev House Ipatiev House () was a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg (city in 1924 renamed Sverdlovsk, in 1991 renamed back to Yekaterinburg) where the abdicated Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (1868–1918, reigned 1894–1917), all his immediate family, and ...

where Nicholas II, the last

Emperor of Russia The emperor and autocrat of all Russia (, ), also translated as emperor and autocrat of all the Russias, was the official title of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarch from 1721 to 1917. The title originated in connection with Russia's ...

, and his family, along with members of the household, were murdered by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, the church commemorates the Romanov sainthood.

Site history

Ipatiev House

The Ipatiev House, built in the 1880s, was a spacious and modern residence owned by Nicholas Ipatiev.Ipatiev House – Romanov Memorial – Outside Tour
/ref> The Ural Soviet gave him two days' notice to leave. Once the building was vacated, the Soviets built high wooden walls around the house. First to arrive among the Romanovs were Nicholas, Alexandra Feodorovna and their daughter Maria. Later, they would be joined by Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and Alexei. The Romanovs would be held prisoner in their final residence for 78 days. In 1974, the mansion was designated a "national monument"; but three years later on 22 September 1977, a team, under orders from the Soviet government and with the direction of

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

, demolished the house.

Romanov murder

After the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, the former Tsar and his family were taken captive and held as prisoners during the

. Tsar Nicholas and his family were at first kept at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo outside St. Petersburg.

Alexander Kerensky Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months from late July to early November 1917 ( N.S.). After th ...

, leader of the provisional government moved them to the former Governor's mansion in Tobolsk. Later they were transferred to the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. With the advance of the Czechoslovak Legion (fighting with the White Army against Bolsheviks) towards Yekaterinburg, fears of a potential attempt to liberate them grew, and the local Bolshevik leaders, after consulting the leadership in Moscow, decided to kill the family. In the early hours of 17 July 1918, the Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, Grand Duchess Maria, Grand Duchess

Anastasia Anastasia (from ) is a feminine given name of Greek and Slavic origin, derived from the Greek word (), meaning "resurrection". It is a popular name in Eastern Europe. Origin The name Anastasia originated during the Early Christianity, early d ...

and Tsarevich Alexei were taken to the basement of the Ipatiev House and were murdered by being shot and bayoneted.The Execution of Tsar Nicholas II, 1918
/ref> Czechoslovak Legions captured the city less than a week later.

Church history

On , the Sverdlovsk Soviet handed the plot to the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

for construction of a memorial chapel. After the former Tsar and his family were canonized as "Passion Bearers", the Church planned to build an impressive memorial complex dedicated to the Romanov family.Byzantine Catholic Culture – The Church On The Blood Ekaterinburg
A state commission was gathered and architectural as well as funding plans were developed. Construction began in 2000. The completed complex comprises two churches, a belfry, a patriarchal annex, and a museum dedicated to the former imperial family; the altar of the main church is directly over the site where the Romanovs were murdered. The complex covers a total of . On , 85 years after the murder of the former imperial family, the main church was consecrated by

Metropolitan bishop In Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), is held by the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a Metropolis (reli ...

Yuvenaly, delegated by Patriarch Alexy II who was too ill at the time to travel to Yekaterinburg, assisted by Russian Orthodox clergy from all over the Russian Federation. In 2003, President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

and German Chancellor

Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German former politician and Lobbying, lobbyist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (S ...

met in Yekaterinburg and visited the church. Since 2007, on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

(January 7), the international ice sculpture festival "Bethlehem Star" has been held at the Church of All Saints. In 2017, twenty teams from different cities of Russia took part in it.

The Cross

On one side of the church, there is an Orthodox cross which marks the exact location of the basement of the Ipatiev house, where the Romanov Family was murdered. Even during the Soviet era, there were crosses in that area built clandestinely by local monarchists but it changed over time. Different crosses were replaced by a new one as the years went by as communist authorities removed the previous ones. A small wooden structure was eventually built behind the cross and stands near the church.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Murder of the Romanovs Churches completed in 2003 Russian Orthodox church buildings in Russia Buildings and structures in Yekaterinburg Church buildings with domes Nicholas II of Russia Holy Blood churches