Product Description
The Holy Place: Architecture, Ideology, and History in Russia. K. Akinsha, G. Kozlov & S. Hochfield. Presented here for the first time is the extraordinary two-century story of the construction, destruction, and re-construction of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Begun under Czar Alexander I in the 19th century, it was to be the largest cathedral (and the largest building) in the world. His successor, Nicholas I, changed both the site and the project. Finally completed by Alexander III, it was demolished by Stalin in the 1930s to make way for the tallest building in the world, the Palace of Soviets, but that project too was ended by the war. During the Khrushchev years the excavation pit was transformed into an outdoor heated swimming pool (the world's largest, of course) and under Yeltsin's direction the pool was replaced with a reconstruction of the destroyed cathedral. The book explores each project and visually documents the grand projects that were built as well as of those only dreamt. "It is a book that every traveler to Russia will read with pleasure, both a page-turner and an eye-opener."-Wendy Salmon. CT (New Haven): Yale University Press, 2007. 60 illustrations. Hardcover, 224 pages.