ST ISAAC
CATHEDRAL
St Isaac's Cathedral is one of the most remarkable
monuments of Russian architecture. This grand structure filled
up the space of the Senate Square, and created a new square
as well. Alongside with the Peter and Paul's Cathedral and
the Admiralty it became an important architectural landmark
in the cityscape. The golden dome of St Isaac's Cathedral
can be seen from any part of the city.
The history of the construction began in 1710, when the
first wooden church was put up in honor of St Isaac of Dalmatia.
It was on St Isaac's day, according to the Orthodox calendar,
that Peter I was born. The present Cathedral is the fourth
erected on the site. In the early 19th century a contest was
arranged for the best project of a new cathedral, in which
the most well-known architects took part. In 1818, Alexander
I approved a project submitted by A. Montferrand, a talented
drawer and architect from France.
It took forty years to build the cathedral. Three years
after the construction had started it came to a halt because
of a number of mistakes made in the project and during the
building process. A special commission of notable Russian
architects was formed. In 1825, the construction works were
resumed according to the corrected project. Lots of complicated
engineering problems were to be solved for the first time
in history.
In 1828, even before the walls were erected, installation
of the 48 monolithic columns was started, that were to form
the porticoes, each weighing about 110 tons. The ideas of
A. Betancourt, an engineer, made it possible to raise the
67-ton granite columns to the height of 40 m and install them
around the dome drum.
St Isaac's Cathedral is one of the largest domed structures
in the world. The building, being rectangular in its layout,
rose 101.5 m high. Having the area of 4 thousand square meters,
the Cathedral can hold up to 12 thousand people. The dome
is of an original construction, practically including three
domes, placed one over other.
The cathedral, faced with light-gray marble from Olonetsk,
was completed by 1842; however, it took sixteen years more
to decorate the interior. A lot of valuable materials such
as lazurite, malachite, porphyry, all kinds of marbles were
used. The walls and vaults of the cathedral bear paintings
and mosaic works made by well-known Russian artists including
C. Brullov, F. Bruni, P. Basin, P. Shebuyev and others. On
the whole, more than 200 artists took part in the works. The
great plafond of the big dome with the area of more than 700
square meters was painted by C. Brullov.
Both inside and outside the cathedral is decorated with
sculptures made to the designs by I. Vitali, N. Pimenov, A.
Loganovsky, P.Klodt and others. It was for the first time
that the electrotype method developed by B. Yakoby was used
for making monumental sculptures.
The cathedral that stands out for its grandeur was sanctified
in 1858 and became the main church in St Petersburg.
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