This is a photograph of The Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer/Savior in Moscow, Russia. In Russian, it looks like this: Храм Христа Спасителя. I can cut and paste, cool huh?

Apparently it was originally planned by Tsar Alexander I in 1812, but not completed until 1883. Then, there was that whole Russian Revolution, and the government dynamited the cathedral! On purpose! They planned to build a monument to socialism, the The Palace of the Soviets in its place.

But, that never actually materialized, because of funding issues and WWII and the fall of the Soviet Union, etc. So from 1958 until 1995 they used the foundation as an open air swimming pool. You gotta love the Soviets, they sure knew how to make lemonade I guess!

In 1995, the Russian Orthodox Church gathered funds from around the world and rebuilt the cathedral. Isn't it beautiful? You can read more about it here. I had no idea there was so much behind this building until I started poking around. Fascinating stuff!