St. Isaac's Cathedral history
The history of its foundation goes back to 1710, when a small wooden building of a drawing workshop near the local shipbuilding yard was converted into a church. The church was named in honour of St. Isaac of Dalmatia, the patron saint of Peter the Great, who was born on the saint’s feast day. Now it is considered as the first St. Isaac’s church. Two years later Peter the Great married his second wife Catherine in this church.
In 1717, Peter decided to rebuild the church in stone. The second church
building was located right on the bank of the Neva River. Soon the basement was damaged by water, and the church had to be removed and rebuilt.
The third building of Saint Isaac’s church was started in 1768 and finished in 1802. However, this building appeared to be disproportional, not to say ugly. The ruling emperor Alexander I insisted on the reconstruction.
French architect Auguste de Montferrand won the design competition for the fourth St. Isaac’s cathedral building in 1818. The construction of the cathedral lasted 40 years and it was consecrated on May 30, 1858.
After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, gold and silver items were removed from the cathedral, but services continued. The cathedral was closed in 1928 and three years later, the so-called Anti-Religious Museum was opened.
During WW2, the dome of St. Isaac’s cathedral was painted grey. Museum staff and their family members lived in the cellar, which also served as a storage for the artefacts from the other museums of Leningrad.
In 1948, the cathedral was turned into a museum. Since 1990, church services have been resumed and there is a discussion to return the cathedral to the Russian Orthodox Church.
St. Isaac’s Cathedral design
The cathedral’s capacity is 12000 people and it is the fourth largest dome cathedral in Europe. The thickness of the walls is between 2.7 and 5 meters. The height of the cathedral is 101.5 meters. The dome has a diameter of 25.8 meters, almost 100 kg of gold were used to gild it.
The building is surrounded by 48 columns of Finnish granite. At the base of each column there is a platinum medal depicting Alexander I of Russia.
Twenty-four granite columns were installed on the dome. Traditionally, memorial silver rubles were laid at the base of each of them.
Bas-reliefs of the porticoes of Saint Isaac's Cathedral were cast at St. Petersburg’s factory of a Scottish engineer and businessman Charles Baird.
The cathedral is lavishly decorated with marble and semiprecious stones from Russia and other countries. Russian grey marble is from Ruskeala and pink marble is from Tivdia; both places are located in present Republic of Karelia. The iconostasis is carved from the white marble brought from Carrara in Italy. Yellow marble is from Siena and green marble comes from Genoa. French Cévennes mountains were the source of red marble.
Best Russian artists painted mural paintings and icons. Mosaic decorations were implemented by masters from Russia and Italy.
Museum hours and guided tours
The guided tour of the cathedral includes information about its history, the artistic decorations, sculptures and biblical subjects in the paintings of St. Isaac Cathedral.
The guided tour of the cathedral includes information about its history, the artistic decorations, sculptures and biblical subjects in the paintings of St. Isaac Cathedral. You can walk the spiral staircase to the observation deck on the top of the colonnade and get a panoramic view of St. Petersburg from the height of 43 meters.
- The museum is open from 10:30 to 18:00, day off – Wednesday.
- The colonnade of St. Isaac’s Cathedral is open from 10:00 to 18:00.
- The museum’s evening programs are held from May 1 to September 30 from 18:00 to 22:30. From May 1 to September 30 - seven days a week, and from October 1 to April 30 there is one day off per month - this is the third Wednesday of the month.
- The “Evening colonnade” tour is held from May 1 to September 30 from 18:00 to 22:30.
