ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL, Introduction

Hi, my name’s Rick, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: St. Isaac’s Cathedral.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the largest Orthodox basilicas in the world and also has one of the largest domes ever made. It is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, protector of Tsar Peter the Great, who happened to be born on the saint’s feast day.

The basilica we can admire today is the fourth to be built on the same site, where Peter the Great had already erected a church dedicated to his patron saint. As the city grew, however, Tsar Alexander I felt it deserved a more majestic edifice, and entrusted the task to the French architect Auguste Montferrand, aged just twenty-four.

The work took 40 years to complete, from 1818 to 1858. The main problem was posed by the marshy terrain, and 24,000 wooden piles had to be driven into the ground to secure the foundations. Innovative methods also had to be devised for erecting the huge columns of the portico, and the decoration of the interior alone took 16 years....