St. Isaac´s Cathedral- a view above St. Petersburg

Hi Hive friends,
Today I would like to take you on a little trip to St. Petersburg for the last time. We passed three last seaside sights that I definitely wanted to show you again at the end of this trip. The most beautiful and for me the most important of the three was St. Isaac's Cathedral: it is by far the largest church in St. Petersburg and of course we couldn't miss it on our trip. Today it is a kind of museum and it is so big that about 10,000 people can fit inside. It took 40 years to build: From 1818 to 1858! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from inside again, as we were not allowed to take photos. But if you are curious what it looks like inside, you can find pictures on the internet :) At the main entrance, you can see in writing: "Petro Primo Catarina Secunda" which translates as "For Peter the First from Catherine the Second". It was named in honour of Peter the Great, who was born on the exact day of Saint Isaac of Dalmatia. The architect was the Frenchman Henri Louis Auguste Ricard de Montferrand, one of the most important French architects at the time. The reason for the building was, among other things, to demonstrate and express Russia's position of power within Europe. When we first saw it, our eyes were naturally immediately drawn to the huge gold dome, which also bears the name "God's Inkwell". The largest main dome is built of almost pure gold and decorated with a full 12 statues of angels. Despite the museum style, church services are still held in the cathedral on major occasions. After the many hundreds of hours, one has a wonderful view over St. Petersburg! The architecture of this cathedral can be classified as neoclassical, but the Russian-Byzantine form and a Greek ground plan can also be recognised. The colours are rather simple with pink and grey stones, but the columns have a reddish tone. As you can see, statues adorn the roof of the cathedral.


Since you can't see the inside of the cathedral, I'll try to describe it to you briefly: What struck me most was the colourful stained glass window of the "Risen Christ" right at the altar and that almost everything you looked at was gilded. When it was finally finished after all these years, it had already achieved a record: it was the most expensive European church! Not very surprising, of course, with all the gold in the church :) At the time, it cost around 23 million roubles. Even Emperor Alexander II took part in the inauguration. There were also spectator seats, so that even citizens could attend the consecration, although most could not afford the entrance fee.

Assumption Church on Vasilyevsky Island

Assumption Church on Vasilyevsky Island in Saint Petersburg Russia
The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary does not attract visitors to St. Petersburg as much as, for example, St. Isaac's Cathedral I felt. Nevertheless, I would like to show it to you here, as I found it very beautiful and it is perhaps a bit lost among the tourists:) It is located a bit outside the centre and has been restored several times. In 1935 it was closed and used as a warehouse for the population, like many other churches at that time.

From protection to a symbol of rebellion

This golden building is the Peter and Paul Cathedral: it is, so to speak, the flagship of the fortress. In the past it was used as a burial place, but nowadays it is a museum. Inside you can see a lot of trophies from the Northern War, and many wall paintings.A lot of bells find a home in the bell tower, I mean there were even more than 100 pieces. Today's carillon was a gift from the Belgian government in 2003 on the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg.

I already introduced you to the Peterpaul Fortress in an earlier post, but now I want to do it a little more closely. Since the 18th century, it has been a kind of fortress around St. Petersburg, located on Hare Island in the Neva. Nowadays, of course, it is no longer a fortress in the traditional sense, but rather serves as a large museum that has attracted many tourists, including us. In addition, many Russians also spend their holidays here. The fortress even belongs to the part of St. Petersburg that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When it was built, it was supposed to serve as protection against the Swedes during the Great Northern War, but the Swedes suffered a defeat and so the fortress was never really "used". At the beginning, it was built of wood, but then completely rebuilt in stone. Many forced labourers were used to build the fortress; many of them died during the construction. At first it was intended as protection, then it was supposed to demonstrate strength and power, until it became a symbol of the uprising during the February Revolution: During that time, the fortress functioned as a prison and during that revolution, soldiers stormed the fortress and freed the prisoners. For me, the different functions of the fortress at different times in history were super exciting!

In this photo you can see a monument of the Peter and Paul Fortress that is not entirely uncontroversial: it is the monument of Peter the First. It is a large bronze statue of the Tsar, who is said to have been very tall at that time. I found that the hands were quite long and the head rather small, what do you think?

Here you can see one of the gates of the Peterpaul Fortress :) What I found great was that the fortress was even open on weekends and public holidays, and there is even a cannon shot at 12 o'clock.

Here you can see the fortress wall with a watchtower from inside the fortress.

The Kazan Cathedral

Last but not least, I would like to show you the Kazan Cathedral: Since we were only there for a very short time and it was getting a bit cold, I only have one picture for you. Nevertheless, I think it is worth a mention :) Your model should be the Roman St. Peter's Basilica. Tsar Paul had recently visited Rome and was so impressed by St. Peter's Basilica that he wanted to do something similar. It is the second largest church in St. Petersburg and was completed just 10 years after construction began. Today it functions primarily as the museum of the history of religion.
I hope you enjoyed my little post about St. Petersburg and I wish you a good start into the week! In my next post I would like to tell you something about my hometown, stay tuned :)