Logo Oventrop GmbH & Co. KG

Christ the Saviour Church
Moscow, Russia

Description
Type Public building
Project New building
Execution 1995-2000
Project amount 170.000.000 €
Area 524.000 m²
Architect Aleksey Denisov, Mikhail Posokhin, Surab Zereteli

The resurrection of the most important and largest Russian Orthodox church

The importance of reconstructing a building that is important for the identification of the population is something that not ony the residents of Dresden can understand. The Christ the Saviour Cathedral is a sacred building in the Russian capital Moscow with a storied past. It is considered the central place of worship of the Russian Orthodox Church and, at 103 metres, is one of the tallest Orthdox churches in the world.

The original building, on the left bank of the Moskva River west of the Kremlin, was erected in the second half of the 19th century by the Russian-German architect Konstantin Ton in the Russian-Byzantine style to commemorate the victory over Napoleon in 1812. Joseph Stalin had the cathedral blown up in 1931 to build the Palace of the Soviets in its place. The palace was planned to be the tallest building in the world, complete with a huge statue of Lenin and a height of 415 m. However, construction was halted due to financial constraints caused by the outbreak of World War II.

In the 1960s, the foundations of the palace become the world's largest outdoor swimming pool for thirty years. With the increasing resurgence of Orthodox culture in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s during perestroika, there were increasing public calls for the rebuilding of the Cathedral of the Saviour and its re-establishment as Russia's religious centre. In January 1995, Alexei II, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Saviour.

Even though the reconstruction, which was mainly financed from public funds, was often critisised, the golden domes of the cathedral are once again visible from afar, thanks to the most modern means and the use of reinforced concrete in the construction time of only 5 years, just in time for the 850th anniversary of the founding of the city. 

The challenge:

The variety and designs of the Oventrop fittings and thermostats help the planners of modern architecture and also the wholesalers and installers to meet all requirements. Through their presetting, they enable a hydronic adjustment of the heating water quantity and thus an economical heat output of the individual radiators.

The building complex of the Christ the Saviour Church with its various rooms and halls also places high demands on thermostats and valves. For the control of the room temperature, efficiency through high accuracy and ease of maintenance were the decisive factors for the choice of Oventrop Uni LH thermostats and shutoff fittings.

The combination of the proportional controller, which works without auxiliary energy, with the valves whose change in heating water flow regulates the room temperature, meets the requirements of the German Energy Saving Directive EnEV and enables the design of thermostatic radiator valves with a control proportional range of 1 or 2 Kelvin.


Location