St Isaac's Cathedral is the fourth largest domed cathedral of its type in the world.after St Peter's in Rome, St Paul's in London, and Santa Maria dei Fiori in Florence. Vast amounts of money and effort were required to construct this building between 1818 and 1858 which stands at a height of 101 metres and covers a hectare of land. The cathedral is surmounted by a large central dome and four smaller domes at the corners. The picture above illustrates just one of the corner domes. Both inside and out, the building is adorned with sculptures and reliefs.
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| A little church grows to a great cathedral |
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| The Central Dome |
THE PETER AND PAUL FORTRESS AND CATHEDRAL
By hovercraft we sped along the Neva River to its mouth and to Admiralty Island the site of the Peter and Paul Fortress.. Established by Peter the Great in 1703 for protection against Swedish invasion, the fortress contains the magnificent Peter and Paul Cathedral, St Petersburg Mint and the State Museum of the history of St Petersburg. The fortress was a political prison during the 1700s housing famous prisoners such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Red Army leader Leon Trotsky and Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich. Here are also entombed the bodies of Tsar Nicholas II, his family and servants following their murder in the 1917 Russian Revolution.
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| Peter & Paul Cathedral The tombs of many of the Russian Aristocracy lie here in the style to which they were accustomed |
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