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The church has over 7,000 sq m (75,300 sq ft) of mosaics covering its interior and exterior. A wide range of materials, including jasper, porphyry and Italian marble, have been used to create these lavish artworks.

Colourful mosaic portraits of biblical saints, laid out in rows of kokoshniki gables (tiered decorative arches), adorn the exterior of the church.

The window frames are carved out of marble transported from Estonia and cast in the form of traditional decorative patterns.

The perimeter of the lower wall has 20 dark-red plaques made of Norwegian granite, which illustrate key events of the 25-year reign of Alexander II (1855–81), including the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.

The exterior of the church is made up of panels depicting scenes from the New Testament. During the Siege , starving citizens gathered to pray under the Tympanum, finding solace in its depiction of Christ on His throne.

The main steeple of the church is 81 m (265 ft) high. Steeples had been banned in Russia in the 17th century by Metropolitan Nikon, who felt that they were too similar to Western churches.

The 144 mosaics on the Bell Tower Coat of Arms represent the provinces, towns and regions of Russia at the time of the assassination of Alexander II.

The church’s interior walls and ceiling are covered in intricately detailed Old Russian mosaic icons depicting a vast array of biblical figures and scenes.

Decorated with images of the tsar’s patron saint, the shrine was designed by Alfred Parland and completed in 1907. It was restored in the mid-1990s.

This is a fascinating exhibition depicting the state of the church prior to its restoration in the 1990s. Look out for the section of Alexander II’s shrine that has been left in its previous condition to demonstrate the scale of the restorative work carried out on the detailed mosaics.