Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, St Petersburg

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood tickets and prices

A standard ticket is 700 ₽. Ages 7–18 pay 300 ₽, ISIC card holders 330 ₽, and children under 7 go free with an adult. Other concessions — pensioners, students of Russian universities, the free third Thursday — are for Russian and Belarusian citizens only.

The audio guide costs 300 ₽ and comes in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Finnish. A museum guide in English is 5,000 ₽ per group of up to 15. Summer evening tickets are 800 ₽ with no discounts.

Buy at the ticket office by the church or on the official website of the St Isaac’s Cathedral museum, which runs both churches. Foreign Visa and Mastercard cards haven’t worked in Russia since March 2022, so the online shop won’t take them — bring roubles in cash or a Russian card for the ticket office.

Opening hours

The church opens 10:00–18:00, with the ticket office closing at 17:30. It is closed on Wednesdays and 1 January, but stays open daily during Russian school holidays (outside summer) and on public holidays.

From 1 May to 30 September there’s an evening session, 18:00–21:30 (last entry 21:00). There are no guided tours then, but the tour groups are gone too — and during the White Nights the light inside is soft and lovely.

The museum warns that hours can change for technical reasons, so check its official site on the day if this is a must-see for you.

Is the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood worth visiting?

Yes — and go inside. Plenty of visitors photograph the onion domes from Nevsky Prospekt and walk on. The real reason to come is the interior: every wall, arch and dome is covered in mosaic icons, floor to ceiling. Nothing else in St Petersburg looks like it.

It’s small and easy: one hall, 45 minutes to an hour. If you only have time for one church interior in the city, YesGo would pick this one over St Isaac’s Cathedral — unless you specifically want St Isaac’s view from the colonnade.

It’s less worth it on a Wednesday (closed) or if you can only get there at 17:40 — the ticket office has already shut.

Why is it called “Spilled Blood”?

Because it stands on the exact spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. On 13 March 1881 (1 March by the old calendar), a member of the revolutionary group People’s Will threw a bomb at his feet on the canal embankment. He died in the Winter Palace the same afternoon.

His son, Alexander III, wanted a church built right there. To fit the spot inside, the building juts out into the canal. Inside, under a canopy by the west wall, you can still see the original cobblestones and canal railing where the tsar fell.

Its official name is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ; you’ll also see it spelt “Saviour on Spilt Blood” or “Savior on the Blood”.

What to see inside

• The mosaics — over 7,000 m² of them, set by the Frolov workshop from designs by 32 artists, including Viktor Vasnetsov and Mikhail Nesterov.
• The shrine over the assassination spot — cobblestones and railing from 1881 under a carved canopy.
• The marble iconostasis, with mosaic icons; its lost “topaz” crosses were returned in 2026.
• The central tower — stand under it and look up at Christ Pantocrator high above.
• The Iveron chapel-sacristy next door — a small separate museum with its own hours.
• Outside: 134 mosaic coats of arms on the bell tower and 20 red granite plaques recording Alexander II’s deeds.

A short history

Building started in 1883 to designs by Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignaty, and took 24 years; the church was consecrated in 1907. It deliberately imitates 16th–17th-century Moscow churches, which is why it reminds people of St Basil’s.

The Soviets closed it in the early 1930s (sources give 1930 or 1932). During the Siege of Leningrad it served as a morgue, and later as a theatre’s scenery store. In 1961 workers found an unexploded German bomb lodged in the central dome.

In 1970 it passed to the St Isaac’s Cathedral museum, and after decades of restoration it opened to visitors in August 1997. Services resumed in 2004, usually early on feast days before museum hours.

Spilled Blood vs St Isaac’s vs Kazan Cathedral

One interior only? Make it Spilled Blood. Go to St Isaac’s for the view over the city, and pop into Kazan Cathedral on the way — it’s free.

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How to do it right

• Be there at 10:00: by midday tour groups queue at the ticket office.
• In summer, try the evening session after 18:00 — no groups, though the ticket is 800 ₽.
• Look up: the best mosaics are on the vaults and domes, not at eye level.
• Pair it with the Russian Museum — five minutes away through the Mikhailovsky Garden.
• Walk the Griboyedov Canal back to Nevsky, past the Singer House and Kazan Cathedral.

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