3-070-894 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Consecrating the Memorial Chapel on the spot where the late Emperor of Russia was killed, 1881. 'It has been mentioned in this Journal that a Memorial Chapel was to be erected in the road beside the Catherine Canal at St. Petersburg, on the exact spot where the late Emperor Alexander II., on Sunday, March 13, received his mortal wounds from the bomb-shell thrown by the Nihilist conspirators. The ceremony of consecrating this chapel was performed...by the Metropolitan Archbishop Isidore...Many of the Ministers of State, foreign Ambassadors, and officials of high rank...and Generals of the Army, were assembled upon this occasion, and thousands of reverent spectators. The little chapel was not opened; but its door, which is of glass set in a silver frame, allowed those who came near to look in and see the interior arrangement. It contains three altars...with the picture of a saint of the Russo-Greek Church above each altar...The walls and roof are of polished black marble, or of some material that resembles it...many brought flowers and garlands to decorate the outside of the little edifice; and as these faded their leaves and petals were carried away for relics or memorials of a tragedy which is deplored...by most of the Russian people'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.