Cathedral of St. Isaac

By far the most important church in St. Petersburg is the great Cathedral of St. Isaac, built between the years 1819 and 1858; and it is one of the largest and most expensive buildings in modern Europe.

The church is a rectangle with four porticos,--two with eight, and two with sixteen, columns each, which are of rose-colored granite, and, after Pompey's Pillar and the column of Alexander in St. Petersburg, are the largest single stones which the hand of man has cut, rounded, and polished.

Each column is fifty-six feet high, and six and one-half feet in diameter.

The dome rests upon a peristyle of twenty-four similar columns, but only forty-two feet in height.

The great gilt dome swells upward, surmounted by an octagonal lantern, also gilt, and above it a colossal cross.

At various points throughout the cathedral are groups or single figures of angels and of the apostles, and the superb bronze doors are ornamented with bass-reliefs.

Within, the building is magnificent with paintings, and with marbles of various tints.

The foundation alone of this magnificent structure cost four millions of dollars.