Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, at 103 metres one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world, is the central place of worship of the Russian Orthodox Church, set on the left bank of the Moskva just west of the Kremlin. Today's cathedral is a reconstruction: the first building, in Russian-Byzantine style, was raised by Konstantin Thon between 1839 and 1883 as thanks for the victory over Napoleon. Stalin had it dynamited in 1931 to make way for the never-finished Palace of the Soviets; the site later became the world's largest open-air swimming pool. The cathedral was rebuilt in reinforced concrete between 1995 and 2000. Inside, the monumental galleries and the main cross at 90 metres impress; the surrounding viewing platforms offer wide vistas of the Kremlin, Red Square and the Moskva bridges.