Saint-Isaac`s Cathedral
It used to be the main cathedral of the city. The work of Auguste de Monferrand, who dedicated his whole life to constructing this awe-inspiring building that nowadays supposes to be one of the main symbols of Saint-Petersburg.
During 40 years 400.000 of workers were raising this masterpiece with the height of 101.5 m and the sitting capacity of 14.000 people.
During this the to Saint Isaac’s Cathedral you will find out:
— the reason why the cathedral has such a rare name
— what happened to the structures that had been built on the place of the cathedral before
— the technique of Russian mosaic
In the construction of this building a number of technological innovations of that epoch was used: the model of the wooden framework, that we will demonstrate to you, will show how 112 portico columns were raised before the walls of the building were erected; the model of the dome will give the visualization of its design that is based on a supporting cast-iron structure consisting of 3 domes that were put one on another. In order to plate the exterior dome 100 kg of pure gold were used!
Even the cathedral’s bronze doors are unusual: each one weights 20 tones and is covered in relief of 3 different types which gives an impression of the perspective and three-dimensionality of the characters on it.
A great amount of precious and semi-precious stones was used in the cathedral’s decoration. Even the bust of the architect Monferrand, who died after the construction was finished – is a pure mineralogical collection.
You can admire the picturesque view of the city from the rotunda; you will count 562 steps on your way up there.
We invite you to take a look at one of the citizen’s favorite cathedrals where every detail of the interior is unique!