The tour to St Isaac’s Cathedral

St Isaac's cathedral is one of the most interesting and
most frequently visited memorial museums in Russia. St Isaac’s cathedral is one of the tallest cupola’s cathedrals in the world. The hight is 101,5m. Sometimes it is considered the third. The tallest is St Peter’s cathedral in Rome with the height of 143m, next is St Paul’s cathedral in London with the height of 109m. Sometimes they say the third highest cathedral is in Florence- Santa Maria de Fiori, with the height of 104m. The cathedral was under construction for 40 years from 1818-1858. The
present-day cathedral is the fourth church built almost on the same place in
St Petersburg in honor of the Byzantine monk Isaac of
Dalmatia. The construction of these churches is closely
connected with the history of the city and to a certain ex-
tend it reflects the architectural, artistic and city-building
tendencies of the corresponding periods from the be-
ginning of the 18th to the first half of the 19th centuries.

History.

The 1^st church: The first church of St Isaac of Dalmatia was built on the 30^th of May 1710. St Isaac was an ardent missionary of Christianity. The 30^th of May was the feast of St Isaac and it coincided with the birthday of Peter I. So, St Isaac was regarded as Patron Saint of the tsar Peter the Great. Thus, the church was named after the saint and the founder of St. Petersburg. The first church was a very simple wooden structure. It was actually the house where the draftsmen’s (составитель документа, чертежник) office of the Admiralty shipyard was accommodated. They added only a small belfry and a cupola to the original building.

In 1712 Peter I and Catherine I got married here. With the time passing the building dilapidated and was demolished.

In 1712 Peter I transferred the capital of the country to SPb, and this stirred up the intensive construction of stone buildings in the city. There was a special edict of the tsar prohibiting stone construction elsewhere in Russia, as brick-layers were badly needed in SPb.

The 2d church: On the 6^th of August 1717 Peter I personally laid the corner stone for a new church. The author of that project was Mattarnovi. In its architecture it was similar to Sts Peter and Paul’s Cathedral.

The chimes that Peter I brought from Amsterdam for St Isaac’s church and Sts P&P’s Cathedral made the likeness bigger.

The 2d St Isaac’s church was built on the spot where the Bronze horseman stands now. But the place was not favorable for the church.

It was built too close to the river on a swampy site with quicksands in soil. The church began to sink with lots of cracks appeared in its walls and vaults. The spire of the church was struck by lightning. In 1735 it was badly damaged by the fire. In 1763 the church was demolished.

The 3d church: There were a lot of talks about the construction of a new church, but it was started only in the rule of Catherine II. She was a great successor of Peter I and she tried to emphasize the links of her policy with that one of Peter’s. On her order monuments and memorial buildings were erected connected with Peter I. Besides she also wanted to immortalize herself in that way. She commissioned Rinaldi to build the 3d St Isaac’s cathedral. A large sum of money was allocated by the state treasury for the construction works. The construction began in 1768. On the day when the foundation was laid, a medal was struck with the silhouette of the church. It was a well proportioned building with 5 domes and 3 tiered bell-tower. It was notable for its simplicity and classical proportions, but the plan was not carried into effect.

After the death of Catherine II Rinaldi had to retire and leave Russia. Paul I ordered to submit all the materials for the construction of his Michael’s Castle. In 1802 the construction of the cathedral was completed. The original design was deformed and it didn’t answer the purpose of the main cathedral of the city. The building looked ridiculous with the walls faced with granite up to the cornice and the brick-laying of the upper part.

The 4^th church: After the victorious end of the war against Napoleon Alexander I announced competition for the best project of a new Cathedral. The competition was announced by the tsar Alexander I, and the competition began in 1809. Stroganov, the president of the Academy of Fine Arts, supposed it would be better to demolish the cathedral completely and build a new one. Alexander I insisted on leaving the lower- the marble part and rebuilding the upper part. The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church thought it was blasphemy (богохульство) to put down the altar part of the Cathedral. (one wall was preserved and still exists)

Many famous architects Russian and foreign as well participated in the competition, among them were Voronikhin, Stasov, Zakharov, Tomas de Tomon, Quarenghi and others. All the plans presented by these architects failed to Alexander I’s main requirement: his requirement was to preserve the sanctuary wall of the church. In 1812 Alexander I announced another competition under the condition to leave the altar part intact. At that time Bethencourt was chairman of the city Development committee. He promoted a young French architect Mondferand. The architect presented 24 different variants of the Cathedral in his sketch-books. One of the projects was approved.

Finally engineer Bethencourt and architect Montferrand were appointed to the chief position of a reconstruction team by Alexander I in 1816. And in 1818 they started to work on the reconstruction for the fourth St Isaac’s cathedral. Mondferand was a young ar-
chitect who successfully graduated from a special
school of architecture in Paris. He was a wonderful drawer and more of an architect than of an engineer. The lack of construction experience affected his first project of the cathedral in which he made a number of errors. He tried to preserve the earlier pylons which could not support a new dome bigger than the previous one. It became clear that it would sag and collapse. A special committee was appointed, architects, engineers took part in this committee. A group of Russian architects was formed (Rossi, Stasov, Michailov) to correct the error in the project and a new one was adopted. They all helped Mondferrand correct his plan. In 1820 the construction was suspended due to the mistakes that were found. First of all the uneven setting of different parts of the foundation, and also there were mistakes in designing of the dome. The basement of the Cathedral had to be of a particular stability as the city was built in the swampy area.

The foundation: On the 3d of April 1825 the construction of the Cathedral began. Taking into account the size of the Cathedral the foundation area was enlarged. The subsoil water was pumped out. And 11000 piles made of pine wood were driven into the ground. The total number of piles with the old ones was 24000. The piles were 6,5 meters (20 feet) high. The space between the piles was filled with charcoal (древесный уголь), on their top they put granite slabs. The total thickness of the foundation became 7,5 meters (25feet). All in all it took 5 years to build the foundation of the Cathedral. (joke about piles)

Columns: The next stage was to construct the granite colomns outside the cathedral. The granite was found in the quarry on the two small islands in the Gulf of Finland. At the same time huge granite monoliths for columns were quarried in Finland. Despite severe frosts, snowstorms the work in the quarry went all through the year. At first the contour of the future column was marked on the granite rock. Then workers bored a number of holes along the line. Metal wedges were forced into the holes and the block of granite got broken from the rock. The columns were roughly carved and on specially constructed barges they were delivered to SPb. From the bank of the Neva river special rails were put on the ground, the columns were tied with ropes and were rolled up to the construction site. Here they were finally ground and polished. Approximately 12500 workers participated in this work. Then it was time to put them up. How they managed to do that. I’ll show you in a minute.

Model of the scaffolding: To raise up colomns the engineer Bethencourt invented a special mechanical device, which is called capstan. Two engineers Bethencourt and Lonov designed the scaffolding with the help of which the columns were put up. You see the 16 time diminished model of the scaffolding. The scaffolding consisted of 3 tunnels. The column was tied round with anchor ropes, then it was rolled onto a very flat platform and the platform was driven into the tunnel. The ends of ropes were left free. They were fixing devices on the top of scaffolding and then in capstans. There were 8 of them along each side of the scaffolding. 8 workers stood at each capstan. When everything was ready, a gun was fired, all of them started pushing at the same time. The columns smoothly went up. Right in front of us we can see a model of the mechanical device, of the capstan. The model is made at the scale of 1:16 (one to sixteenth). In one of the sections the colomn is shown raised up. Such a huge column with the weight of 114 tons was put up within 45 minutes. A platinum medal was struck with a profile of Alexander I to commemorate the day when the 1^st column was put up. All 48 columns were installed within a year 1828-1829.

All in all the cathedral is adorned with 112 colomns. The same principle was used in erracting the Alexander Colomn on Palace Square. This type of capstan was a rather primitive mechanizm. And it was practically the only mechanizm that was used in the construction of the cathedral. The rest of the work was done by hand. Mostly serfs were engaged in the construction of the cathedral. They worked for 14-15 hours a day. They lived in barracks up to 400 people in one barrack, many of them died of accidents, of stavation, epidemics. All in all half a million people participated in the construction of this building.

After the columns were put up they built porticos and passed over to building the walls of the church, that was against the rules of the architecture, but it was justified by the exceptionality- difficult procedure of putting up columns.

In 1830 they started building the walls. The masonry was interlaid with granite. Both the exterior and the interior of the walls were faced with marble. The total thickness of the walls was from 2,5 to 5 meters.

The Model of the Dome:

The structure of the dome was a very complicated process. First of all Mondferrand replaced masonry with a metal structure that finally made the dome lighter. It was only for the 3d time in the world of architecture that metal structures were used for such purposes. Have a look at the model, please. We can see that it consists of three domes – one inside the other. The diameter of the outside dome is 26meters and of the inside dome – 22 meters. The empty spaces between the trusses (ферма) of the middle dome were filled with pottery. 100 000 clay pots were put in. The pots were used for thermo insulation and for perfect acoustics. The outside dome was covered with gilded copper sheets. The gilding of the dome was a painstaking process. It took approximately 100 kg of solid gold. The copper sheets were covered with amalgam that is a mixture of gold and (quick silver) mercury. Then they were heated in the open fire until quick silver evaporated completely. This procedure was repeated 3 times. The fumes of quick silver are extremely poisonous. As no gas masks were used 60 workers died. This method of guilding provides 150 year-guarantee. The inner dome was decorated with paintings. The outer dome has never been regilded. During the 2d world war it was painted gray, then the paint was removed.

The bust to the architect Mondferrand. The bust to the architect Mondferrand is made by Foletti of 14 kinds of marble, all these kinds of marble were used for decorating the cathedral inside. Mondferand was French by his nationality. He came to Russia in 1816. This architect was well known to the tsar Alexander I, because when Alexander I was in Paris to sign the peace treaty with Napoleon after the war, Mondferand presented the tsar a number of drawings of triumphal monuments, triumphal arches that glorified the victory of the Russian army over Napoleon. Alexander I liked all his drawings and invited Mondferand to St Petersburg. He commissioned the architect to reconstruct St Isaac’s cathedral. And he spent all his life on the construction site of this cathedral (1818-1858). The architect died in a month after the consecration of the cathedral taking place on May 30^th 1858. But he left a will with the desire to be buried inside the cathedral. As he was Catholic, and this cathedral became the main Russian Orthodox church, so the church authorities (the clergy) didn’t let him be buried here. And his wife (widow) had to bring his body to France. He was buried near Paris, but where exactly nobody knows up till today. He was not as well known in France as he was known in Russia.

Model of St Isaac’s cathedral. About previous churches (in brief). Contractors hired workers from all over Russia. The working day began at 4a.m. and was over at 8p.m. In summer time during the period of white nights it was even longer. The workers lived in cold damped barracks, 400 people in each. There were earthen floors inside, 3 tiered plank beds. The wages were racketed. There was no labor protection and lack of medical assistance. During 40 years of the construction of the cathedral 40 000 people died. We know very few names of those common people who worked at the construction of the cathedral. One of them was Maxim Salin. He lived a hard life. As a gifted serf artist he was a serf of General Izmailov. He had a gift of wood caving. Once he made a wonderful model of a 13 domed church. His model was presented to the tsar. The talent of Salin impressed the tsar so much that on his order Salin was emancipated and awarded with 500 rubles. He settled down in SPb and was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts. To earn his living he worked as a supervisor at the construction of the cathedral. Mondferand knew about his gift and Salin was commissioned to make a model of St Isaac’s cathedral. It took him 11 years to make a 160 time diminished copy. The model is made of linden wood without any nails or glue. All parts of the model were fastened to each other with a help of wooden pins.

** Now let us look at the walls and colomns. The interior of the Cathedral is very magnificent. The characteristic feature of the interior decoration is the wide use of semiprecious stones, 43 different minerals, 14 tones (оттенок) of marble were used for the interior decoration. The facing of the walls and pylons is executed in accordance with classical traditions. The finishing works were begun in 1841. Some of these stones were from Russia, some were imported from Italy, France, Greece. So the pink marble is from France, the green marble is from Greece, the yellow marble is from Italy, the grey one is from Russia (the Karelia Peninsula). In the interior decoration the influence of eclecticism is quite evident, a combination of different styles. The vaults are painted in Italian Baroque of the 18^th century. The doors are ornamented in the style of the Renaissance. The vaults up to the cornice are faced with white Italian marble and artificial white marble above the cornice. The frieze going round the Cathedral is decorated with porphyry brought from Lake Ladoga. The same mineral was used for the floor between the iconostasis and the balustrade. The socle was faced with black shale (сланец) imposing the light tones of the walls. Pink marble was used for different pilasters.

Mosaics: Unfavorable conditions in the cathedral, low temperature, dump air, semi-darkness forced them to replace the paintings with mosaics. They started this work in 1851 and it lasted till 1914. Totally, there are 62 mosaic works. Russian mosaic technique was lost in the middle ages during the Tatar-Mongol invasion. Lomonosov revived the art of mosaic in the 18^th century. Mosaic is a cube of smalt of geometrical shape set in plaster or cement. It took a year to make 1sq.m. of such a mosaic. A group of artists was sent to Italy to study the art of mosaic. Then a special department of mosaic was founded in the Academy of Fine Arts. Smalt is an alloy fusion of glass with metal pigments. Added mixture of gold created pink and lilac colors, copper – red and green colors, cobalt - blue color. The work of mosaicist was so scrupulous that now you can easily take a mosaic for a painting. First of all: the icons of the iconostasis were replaced with their mosaic copies in the 1^st and 2d rows, and the Last Supper. Totally there are 22 icons on the iconostasis. In the 1^st row- from the left to right: St Paul, St Catherine, St Alexander Nevsky, The Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, St Isaak, St Nicolas, St Peter. They were made from the drawings of Neff. The names of these Saints coincide with the names of those Russian tsars under whom all 4 churches of St Isaac were built. The 2d icon on the right from the Holy Gate is St Isaac holding the drawing of the cathedral, this is one of the most magnificent mosaics. In 1862 taken to the International exhibition in London it became a prize winner. The icons in the 2d row were created from the drawing of Fedor Bruni. They represent Saints whose names coincided with the Romanov family. In the 3d row there are painted icons representing prophets and patriarchs.

The next step was to replace attic paintings with mosaic works. (Passions of Christ). Two more icons – “The Ascension”, “The Nativity of Virgin” are on display to show the mosaic work in detail.

Paintings.The ceiling painting was created by the eminent Russian artists of the middle of the 19^th century. They were representatives of the Academic Schools of paintings. 23 artists worked in the Cathedral. They created 155 paintings and pictures. Among these artists were Karl Bryulov, Bruni, Basin, Alekseev, Shebuev and so on. They worked under the strict control of the tsar and the Synod. All the paintings were to be created in fresco technique, the success of the artist depended on the quality of the priming. The surface of the wall was covered with plaster and polished. The base was covered with mastic consisting of wax, oil, lead powder. On top it was covered with the layer of white lead. This kind of priming could easily be spoiled by humidity and artists had to repaint finishes frescos. Only in 1855 the quality of priming became good enough and fresco painting was completed in 1858. Frescos of the Old Testament subjects were painted in the western part of the cathedral, and to The New Testament - in the eastern part. All the paintings are on the biblical subjects. The artists had to present all sketches to the representatives of the Holy Synod to get the approval and only after that they could paint pictures.

The whole ceiling in central nave was painted by Bruni. He painted also the central chapel. Totally, there are 12 paintings by Bruni: “the Last Judgment”, “The Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel” (from the Old Testament story: “The Jewish people were punished by God for their deviation from Faith. The Jews were enslaved by the king of Babylon. The Prophet Ezekiel had the vision of a vast space covered with skeletons and human bones. He prayed to God and the bones began to turn into human beings and rise), “The Deluge”, “Adam and Eve”, “The Sun, the Moon and the Stars”. They are all in the central nave. Bruni was the head of the Russian Academic School of painting. While he was working in St Isaac’s Cathedral he was appointed the chief curator of the Hermitage collections. He also directed the works of the mosaic department of the Academy of Fine Arts.

All in all 23 artists participated in the decoration of this Cathedral. At the head of the group of the artists was Vasily Shebuev, the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts.

There 22 paintings in the niches of the pylons. These paintings represent events of the Holy Week, and the paintings on the pillars are the life story of Christ, 7 of them were painted by Neff, who was the court artist of Nicholas I.

The central part under the dome. There we can see the drum of the main cupola. In the very central part of the dome there is a sculpture of the dove hanging from the ceiling. It represents the Holy Spirit, it is one part of the Holy Trinity: The God Father, God-Son and the Holy Spirit.

The central cupola is painted by Karl Bryulov. In 1842 he received a commission to paint
in St Isaac's cathedral. It gave him a chance to demon-
strate his skill in monumental decorative painting. The painting around the drum represents “Madonna in Glory”. She is depicted surrounded by Saints. It covers the area of above 800sq.m. It is a plaster painting. Karl Bryulov painted this fresco lying on his back on special scaffolding. He spent
whole days working on the high scaffoldings under the
cupola. The bright dome is opposed the dull paintings of the vaults. In this case haven is opposed to simple land. Karl Bryulov gave his heart and soul to this work spending all days long on the scaffolding. The work in the wet was not completed by him. Cathedral ruined his health. A lot of draughts inside the cathedral and the change of temperatures caused his rheumatism. The artist left for Italy and died there. He managed to paint only the main figures while the other figures were completed by Basin from the original sketches of Bryulov. Basin also painted the triangle-shaped frescos, the evangelists and the pictures of the pylons “Passions of Christ”, “The Whipping”, “Carrying the Cross”. In the drum of the dome 12 Apostles were painted by Basin.

Around the drum there are statues of 12 Apostles. The sculptures are made of gilded bronze or copper in 1844-50. They are made in the technique known as Galvano-plastic or electroplating technique invented not long before by the Russian scientist Yakobi. Galvano-plastic technique is the deposition of copper on a mould by electronic action. The method is also called coating by galvanism. The statues are hollow inside, the thickness of the sides of the statue is only some millimeters. So it was not hard to raise them to the cornice. The leading role in the interior decoration was played by the sculptor Vitalli. He managed to achieve a perfect harmony of architecture, sculpture and painting. The best example of such a unity is the drum of the main dome. The cathedral is richly decorated with sculptures and high reliefs. Totally, there are 303 sculptures in the cathedral. These are figures of Apostles, prophets, angels placed on the vaults, in the drum of the dome, over the iconostasis.

Iconostasis is a Holy wall adorned with icons pained on religious subjects. This iconostasis is unique, as it is made of different minerals as well. At the same time it is the focal point of the interior. The Iconostasis is made of white Italian marble. It is decorated with 10 columns made of malachite and 2 columns of lapis-lazuli. The columns were made in the Russian mosaic technique. Then columns in malachite were faced with 1450kg of this green semiprecious stone from the Ural Mountains. On either side of the Holy Gate there are two columns decorated with lapis lazuli. Dark blue lapis was imported from Northern Afghanistan. It was even more expensive than malachite. People believed that it had some magic and medical (healing) qualities. Usually lapis was used for making jewelry, small boxes, vases. Columns faced with 500 kg of lapis lazuli are extremely rare.

Malachite is very precious and at the same time it is a very fragile stone. It was impossible to make a column of a solid piece of the stone. The base for the columns was made of cast-iron and covered with a special mixture and than small and very thin pieces no more than 2-3mm thick of malachite covered the bases of columns. The name of this technique is the Russian-mosaic or veneer-work.

All the icons in the first and second rows of the Iconostasis are made in mosaics. The third row is a painted row. The icons of the first row represent saints whose names coincide with the names of the Russian tsars: St Peter – Peter the Great, under whose reign the cathedral began to exist. St Catherine the Martyr – Catherine II, under whose reign the cathedral underwent the 3-d restoration. St Paul – Paul I, who ordered to finish the reconstructions started by his mother. St Alexander Nevsky- is to Alexander I who started the 4^th reconstruction of the Cathedral, and Alexander II who was blessed to participate in the consecration of the Cathedra in 1858. St Nicholas – is to Nicholas I who kept supervising of the Cathedral after the death of Alexander I. There is one more icon in the first row, it is the second to the right from the Holy Gate, that is the church icon – the icon of St Isaac with the drawing of the Cathedral in his hand. The icons of the second row represent Saints whose names coincide with the names of the members from the tsar’s family. The 3-d painted row is the tier of Prophets. They are painted by Zhivago.

The Iconostasis is split into 3 parts, that means three services may be held at the same time. The central part is dedicated to St Isaac of Dalmatia. The right hand-side part is to St Catherine the Martyr. In St Catherine’s Chapel there is a sculpture by Pimenov “Resurrection”.

The left hand side is to St Alexander Nevsky, and this is the only one active chapel inside the cathedral used for daily religious services nowadays. Inside the chapel there is a sculpture by Pimenov “Transfiguration of Jesus Christ”.

Near the entrance staircase to the chapel of St Alexander Nevsky there is a big mosaic work of St Peter placed. It was made after Basin’s painting. It is really distinguished that the mosaic is made in a different technique to the others here. Pieces of smalt are arranged at different angles on the golden background, and they are not polished. Its
surface is not polished; the bits of smalt placed at diffe-
rent angles and at different depths form a vivid uneven
surface and create the effect of a play of light on the ed-
ges.

The central gate is called the Holy Gate or the Tsar’s Gate. The Holy Gate is made of gilded bronze. The weight of the gate is 5 tons. On its top there is a sculpture “Christ in Glory” made by Peter Klodt. The stained glass panel “Resurrection of Jesus Christ” in the altar is quite an unusual thing for the Russian Orthodox Church. It was produced in Munich, at the royal porcelain factory, which was considered the best in Europe. It took 2 years to make the panel. In the summer of 1844 it was delivered to St Petersburg. The size of the panel is 28,5 sq.m. The variety of tones was achieved owing to the use of double layer glass. At the time of the 2-d World War about ¼ of the stain=glass was completely destroyed, and it was made anew by restores after the war. Above the Holy Gate is placed one more mosaic work, it is the “Last Supper”. The picture for the mosaic was painted by Zhivago. The Last Supper is considered the best mosaic in the Cathedral. It was made by 4 artists, and it took them about 8 years from 1879-87 to finish.

The interior decoration of the Cathedral took 16 years. 43 kinds of minerals were used for it, 300 kg of gold. The Cathedral became the most expensive work by the time, the costs were 24mln silver rubles.

The doors of the cathedral are reminiscent of the golden gate/ door of the Florentine baptistery (баптистерий -место в церкви, около входа, где находится купель) created by Lorenzo Gilberti in the middle of the 15^th century. These doors are not copies, but the northern door is an exact copy. The bronze bas-reliefs depict 3 periods from the history of the Russian orthodox church through lives of Saints. Each door weighs 20tons, each fold is 10 tons heavy, and the size is 42 sq.m.

The southern door is dedicated to the life of Prince Vladimir of Kiev and Prince Alexander Nevsky. Both of them were canonized after their death. Under Prince Vladimir Russia was baptized in 988. Alexander Nevsky was the 1^st who won the victory over the Swedes on the Neva banks in 1240. In the 1^st panel Alexander Nevsky is depicted fighting the chief commander of the Swedish army. In the 2d panel he is depicted talking to the Pope’s messenger declaiming (выступать против) his proposal to change the Russian Orthodox religion for the Roman Catholic. The 4^th panel represents the scene when the relics of Alexander Nevsky were moved by Peter the Great from the town of Vladimir to SPb in 1724. The door is made of oak wood and covered with bronze panels. The size of each door is 42sq.m. The weight of the door is 20tons.

The Northern door represents the life story of St Isaac and St Nicolas. The bas relief of the fold of the door represents the scene of “Meeting of St Isaac of Dalmatia with Valent. St Isaac had a gift of prophecy: he predicted the death for Valent, a Roman Emperor, who persecuted Christians. Infuriated [in’fjuэrieit] with Isaac audacity [o’dæsiti](дерзость) Valent put Isaac into a dungeon [d^ndзn] from which the latter was liberated by the Emperor Theodosius. Theodosius received Isaac’s blessing to reign and made Christianity the only official religion of the Empire.

The Western door represents the life story of St Peter and St Paul. These bas-reliefs were made by Vitalli. The northern and southern doors according to the Russian orthodox church have never been opened. The entrance is from the western door. The doors were made for the symmetry.

Window cases: there are some stands showing us different periods of the history of war time, reconstruction of this cathedral after the end of WWII. During the great patriotic war of 1941 — 1945 the ca-
thedral served as the central storage place for artistic
treasures and archives that were evacuated from the su-
burban palaces-museums. Paintings, sculptures, furni-
ture, porcelain, extremely valuable scientific documents
were safely preserved by the staff during the hard long
years of the siege of Leningrad. The war caused serious
damage to the memorial museum, especially to its deco-
ration. The interior of the cathedral deteriorated terribly due to the humidity, cold: paintings suffered most of all. The colomns on the western side still bear holes on their surfaces caused by shell splinters during the artilary bombardment. The multiple and various restoration work was carried
out by the numerous architects, sculptors and artists for many years. The restoration work was finished in 1963. The restorers were able to re-
vived the artistic value of the cathedral which may per-
haps be the summit of Russian construction technology,
architecture and a diversity of monumental decorative
art of the first half of the XIX-th century. It was the main Russian Orthodox Cathedral till 1917. After the October revolution the cathedral was open for more 10 years, functioned
till 1928, and in 1931 it was turned into a museum on the
decision of the Soviet government. And the cathedral is open as an art museum today. However, twice a year every Christmas and Easter it is open for the congregation, for the Russian Orthodox believers.

Now it’s time for us to leave this remarkable monument of architecture. Don’t forget to touch an angel on the exit door. It’s a good luck thing.

For sportsmen St.Isaac’s offer another excursion to the colonnade. The 43m-high colonnade around the drum of the dome is so tempting to climb up, from which the sublime city’s views open to you. But you should know there are 262 or more steps to cover.

There is a museum on the basement as well, which as referred to as «To remember». It tells the cathedral amd its employees during the WWII. But we will leave it for your next visit.

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