The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour stands on the north bank of the Moskva a short distance from the Kremlin. The first cathedral on the site was dynamited in 1931 and an open air swimming pool occupied the ground for decades. The present building was raised between 1995 and 2000 and consecrated on the Transfiguration in August 2000. It is the principal cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church and the setting for its largest public occasions, including the canonisation of the last imperial family in 2000.