White stone and marble
In accordance with Moscow traditions, the external walls of the old temple had been faced with white stone: limestone from the town of Protopopov), in the Kolomensky district of the Moscow Oblast. As this quarry was already closed, it was decided to use white marble from the Sayan Mountains and the Ural Mountains for the temple.
The straight areas of the façade were covered with marble tiles from the Sayan Mountains, while Ural marble was used in the architectural elements. In the bell tower, above the main entrance, circular Sivik marble medallions with sculpted images of saints were installed.
The marble used for the covering was a few square meters.
The base of the building (an area of \u200b\u200b) was covered up to a height with fine-grained polished red granite (Syuskyunsaari). For the parapet, balustrades, ponds and the floor of the area surrounding the temple, gray and red granites from various quarries in Russia and Ukraine, bush-hammered and flamed, were used.
The decoration
The covering of the internal walls of the upper temple was carried out along the entire perimeter and up to a height of 11.5 meters, and includes seven areas of various heights one above the other. Each area has a different artistic composition and combination of stone pieces of all possible colors and tones. The following types of stone have been used: labradorite with violet reflections, a dark red quartzite, and several imported marbles, among which are Bardiglio Blue), Siena Yellow), Portoro), which is black with yellow veins, Carrara White, Porto-Santa red, Aligere Green, Belgium Black and France Red.
The entrances to the temple and the internal galleries are divided into three large portals and eight small portals. In the corners of the central part there are four viewpoints and in the eastern area of the temple, behind the icons is the “Portal to Heaven”.
The height of the large portals is and their width is 7.2, while the small ones measure . The height of the portal to heaven is and its width is 6.4. All the portals have been made with quartzite sandstone. In the eastern area of the temple, expert craftsmen and sculptors from the MKK Decor company, associated with the Holding, carefully recreated an icon with a unique composition in the shape of an octagonal chapel.
The icon was made entirely of white Sivik marble. Its dimensions are surprising: the height of its four rows of golden domes is , the perimeter of the base of the octagon is , the area of the marble surface is , it is made up of around 1500 parts of marble whose weight ranges from 60 a per piece, and the total weight is .
In some parts there are delicate sculpting and marquetry works, in which France Red, Siena Yellow, Bardiglio, Porto-Santa, Black Belgium and Porto-Venere marbles have been used. The total area of these works, counting the surface of the back, is more than .
The columns of the arches of the Tsar Gate, the small arches of the first row and those of the second are made of Porto-Venere marble. The columns of the third row are of France Red, and those of the fourth are of Sivik marble, with Bordiglio and France Red inlays. The inlays in the wings of the windows of the first row to the north and south are of Porto-Venere marble, and those made in the interior decoration of the icon are of France Red.
All components of the icon have been polished to a shiny finish. The stairs leading from the center of the temple to the icon are made of polished quartzite sandstone.
The core of the internal zone of the temple is surrounded by a double gallery. The first is used as a historical remembrance of the events of the war of 1812-1814. In the viewing points of wall 59 of the lower gallery there are six thick commemorative plaques with an engraved text. On the plates there are descriptions in strict chronological order of battles fought in Russia and outside the country. The text indicates the time and place of the conflict, the Commander in Chief, a list of service personnel, the names of the dead and wounded, the officers and those decorated. Some of the plaques reproduce the texts of imperial manifestos or military orders. The plates are made with White Carrara marble inlaid with polished pieces of Belgium Black, Sienna Yellow and France Red. The surface of the plates exceeds those and have more than engraved letters and numbers. There are twelve types of Russian writing dating from the second half of the century. The depth of the inscriptions is 3 a and the size varies from 35 to , depending on the type of writing. The engraving of these characters was done with precision machines and accessories, tools and computer programs developed by the construction company.
The second gallery is that of the church choir. The floors are made of limestone tiles and the plinth is covered with Bardiglio marble. The balcony pillars are also made of this material. The steps of the internal stairs of the temple are made of gray Mansurov granite.
The floors of the inner core of the upper temple and the first row of the circular gallery are adorned with multicolored marquetry designs, they are inlaid segments in the form of circles, stars and triangles in France Red, Belgium Black, Siena Yellow, Bardiglio and Portoro. The ground has a surface area of about .
The inner lining of the lower temple includes gray Mansurov and brown Kurtinsk granite, Africa Red granite, a green Indian marble called Rajasthan Green and a beige limestone from Israel. The walls are covered with polished Kurtinsk granite tiles. The columns and walls of the hallways are made of Israeli limestone.
The floors of the lower temple are made of polished Kurtinsk and Mansurov granite tiles. In the center is a circular mosaic made of different shaped pieces of Rajasthan Green and Africa Red. Most of the tiles and special pieces were cut using modern technology, including numerical control machines. The more complex shapes (especially those intended for the icon) were first made using a specific program for this work and then finished manually by a master craftsman. The installation of the external facades began in 1996 and was completed in 1997. The internal cladding began in February 1998 and was completed in May 1999.