Church on Blood in Honor of All Saints
During the night of July 16/17, 1918, the last Russian Emperor Nikolai II and his family were executed in the house that belonged to the engineer Nikolas Ipatiev in Yekaterinburg. In 1997, that house was destroyed on the initiative of the KGB. In 2000, Nikolai II and his family were declared saints by the Russian Orthodox Church, and on the place of execution, The Church on Blood was erected to commemorate the last Emperor’s family. There is a tradition in Russia to build churches and cathedrals to commemorate the violent deaths of tsars. Besides the Church on Blood in Yekaterinburg, other churches have been built in St. Petersburg and Uglich. In Yekaterinburg, this church has become a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians and a tourist attraction visited by many people including artists and politicians.
