Russian authorities confirmed on Wednesday the news that the earthly remains of Tsar Nicholas II's only son and his daughter were found.

Officials gave the confirmation just as hundreds of Russians were gathering at a church built on the site where the royal family was shot to death by Bolshevik gunmen. Moscow confirmed the fact that the charred remains were of 13-year-old Prince Alexei Nikolayevich and 19-year-old Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna.

Tsar Nicholas II, condemned by the Soviets as a evil monarch who failed Russia, is considered by many Russians today as a saint and martyr - a through symbol of the imperial glory which many now seek to recapture. Nicholas II finished on the first place in an internet survey conducted to choose the greatest Russians. Russia’s last Tsar managed to overtake Soviet dictator Josef Stalin this week.

The remains of Prince Alexei Nikolayevich and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna were found exactly 90 years after the royal family, who was ruling over what was then the Russian Empire, was executed in captivity.

Experts carried out medical, forensic and ballistic tests in several Russian, U.S. and Austrian laboratories. The conclusion was that the remains – a bone and tooth fragments – unearthed a year ago belonged to the two missing children of Tsar Nicholas II. The site where the royal remains were discovered is outside the city of Yekaterinburg, said the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.

"The remains that were found belong to Alexei and Maria. We can say that with certainty," said senior investigator with the committee Vladimir Solovyov.

The Tsar and his family were shot by the Bolsheviks on the night of July 16-17, 1918 in the basement of a merchant's house in the city of Yekaterinburg, 1,450 km (900 miles) east of Moscow. After gunning them down, the executioners burned the bodies, doused them in acid and dumped them in pits.