  For a semisimple adjoint algebraic group $G$ and a Borel subgroup $B$,
consider the double classes $BwB$ in $G$ and their closures in the canonical
compactification of $G$: we call these closures large Schubert varieties. We
show that these varieties are normal and Cohen-Macaulay; we describe their
Picard group and the spaces of sections of their line bundles. As an
application, we construct geometrically van der Kallen's filtration of the
algebra of regular functions on $B$. We also construct a degeneration of the
flag variety $G/B$ embedded diagonally in $G/B\times G/B$, into a union of
Schubert varieties. This leads to formulae for the class of the diagonal in
$T$-equivariant $K$-theory of $G/B\times G/B$, where $T$ is a maximal torus of
$B$.
