Excursion into St Isaac's Cathedral and Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

St Isaac’s Cathedral, one of the most prominent landmarks in the silhouette of St Petersburg, towers at the crossing of St Isaac’s Square and Decembrist’s (formerly Senate) Square on the left bank of the Neva. St Isaac’s is the fourth largest domed cathedral in the world after St Peter’s in Rome, St Paul’s in London and Sta Maria del Fiore in Florence. St Isaac’s, amazing by its dimensions even today, is 101.5 m high, 111.3 m long (with porticoes) and 97.6 wide. The inner diameter of the dome is 21.8 m and the outer one 25.8 m. The pediments rest on 112 monolithic granite columns – each of portico’s columns is 17 m high and weighs 114 tons. The cathedral can accommodate about 14,000 people. It was designed by the outstanding architect of the first half of the nineteenth century Auguste Ricard de Montferrand.



It is long since been tradition in Russian architecture to erect religious buildings in honour of historic events. The Church in the Name of the Resurrection of Christ on the Site of the Mortal Wounding of His Honoured Majesty Alexander II, so the church’s canonical title reads, stands on the exact spot where the emperor was fatally injured on 1 March 1881 by a bomb thrown by the radical, Ignaty Grinevitsky. It is more commonly known as the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood. It would be more accurate, however, to call it the Church of the Resurrection on the Blood, since it was consecrated in the name of the Resurrection of Christ rather than in the name of Christ the Saviour. This striking edifice is one of the few remaining examples of the late 19th – early 20th century religious architecture in Russia and today represents a commemorative monument of both historic and artistic value. Built in 1883-1907 by the architect Parland, this church was designed in the spirit of 16th-17th century Russian architecture and resembles St.Basil's Cathedral in the Red Square in Moscow. Most of the money for the church was donated by the royal family and thousands of private investors