St. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL

St. Isaac of Dalmatia was the patron saint of the Romanov family; little good he did them. The present version of St. Isaac's, the fourth, was constructed from 1818 to 1858. The original St. Isaac's, a small wooden church, was located near the Admiralty and a notorious watering hole of the time called Petrovskoye Kruzhaloye. Peter I and Catherine I were married here in 1712. Soon afterwards it was agreed that the decrepit structure did not suit the emerging grandeur of the capital and in 1717 a stone St. Isaac's was built on the spot now occupied by the Bronze Horseman. Then in the 1760s Catherine II decided she wanted a huge marble St. Isaac's, and construction began on the third version in 1768. This dragged on until it was hastily completed in 1802, but the result was different from the orginal plan and was neither pretty nor well built. When rotten ceiling plaster fell from high on an Easter service in 1816, Alexander I decided to get the St. Isaac's business finished once and for all.

Everything was done on a grand scale. The portico columns, cut from red granite, are seventeen meters high; the mosaic inside has twelve thousand shades and colors; the walls are five meters thick; the cupola is coated with one hundred kilos of gold; and the whole thing weighs three hundred thousand tons. Inside there are hordes of paintings, sculptures, and mosaics by 19th century Russian and European masters, including a huge fresco on the inside of the cupola by Karl Bryullov and a bust of Montferrand made of different colored marbles and other minerals. Also of note are the intricately sculpted bronze doors, the white marble central iconostasis with its columns of malachite and lazurite, and the huge stained-glass Jesus in Catholic colors (Orthodoxy has Christ wearing blue). A series of documents, plans, engravings, and models serves as an exhibition of the building of the cathedral.

Climb the colonnade for a panoramic view of the city, or to try to steal parts of the roof. Note that tickets to the colonnade are sold separately from tickets to the interior museum; both are sold in kiosks on the corner closest to the Hotel Astoria. The cathedral sits on the northern side of St. Isaac's Square. Opposite the cathedral is the Mariinsky Palace, home of the St. Petersburg Duma and occasional flocking point for protestors. In the center of the square is a monument to Nicholas I, sort of a counterpart to the Bronze Horseman just a short leap over the cupola in Senate Square. Thanks to its unique construction (the horse stands on its hinds legs) the monument to Nicholas was spared during the various phases of Soviet de-tsarization despite its inherent policital-incorrectness. The four figures on the statue's base represent Faith, Justice, Power, and Wisdom.

Isaakievskaya Ploshchad 1. Metro: Nevsky Prospekt then trolleys 5, 14 or 22, or 15 minute walk. Cathedral open 11:00-18:00, colonnade open 11:00- 17:00. Tel: 315 9732.