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Saint Isaac’s Cathedral photo by Alex Wikimedia

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Saint Isaac’s Cathedral

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral a large architectural landmark cathedral. That is  currently functions as a museum with occasional church services in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  It is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, a patron saint of Peter the Great.

He was born on the feast day of that saint. It was originally built as a cathedral . Though  was turned into a museum by the Soviet government in 1931 . The cathedral has  remained a museum ever since. Church services  were held in a side chapel since the 1990’s.

The church on St Isaac’s Square was ordered by Tsar Alexander I. It  replaced  the  earlier structure by Vincenzo Brenna. Saint Isaac’s Cathedral  was the fourth consecutive church standing at this place.

These are Top 10 Amazing Facts about Saint Isaac’s Cathedral

1.Saint Isaac’s Cathedral was built for 40 years

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral with its famous gilded dome Photo by Godot13 Wikimedia

The cathedral took 40 years to construct, under Mont Ferrand’s direction, from 1818 to 1858. To secure the construction, the cathedral’s foundation was strengthened by driving 25,000 piles into the fenland of Saint Petersburg. Innovative methods were created to erect the giant columns of the portico.

The construction lasted so long that it even left an idiom to Finnish language:

“rakentaa kuin Iisakinkirkkoa” which means “to build like the church of Isaac”

2.The construction of Saint Isaac’s Cathedral became the most expensive temple in Europe

The cathedral’s construction costs totaled to a sum of 1000 000 gold rubies. Laying of the foundation took almost 2.5 million rubies. Isaac cost the Treasury 23million rubies.

When you make a comparison all construction of Isaac’s Trinity Cathedral was worthy 2M. This was because of its Grand size. It has luxurious interior and exterior of the building 

3. Saint Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the largest cathedral in the World.

 It was the fourth cathedral built on the square. In 1825, Mont Ferrand designed a new Grand building in the style of classicism. Its height was 101.5 meters, and the diameter of the dome — almost 26 meters.

The construction was extremely slow. It took only 5 years to create the Foundation. For the base I had to dig deep trenches where hammered tarred piles — more than 12 thousand pieces.

After that, all the trenches were joined together and filled with water. With the onset of cold weather, the water froze, and the piles were cut down to the ice level. Two years left for the installation of four columns, covered galleries, porticoes, granite monoliths that were supplied from the quarries in Vyborg.

The next six years were built walls and domed pillars, another four years. The arches, dome and bell towers. The main dome was made not of stone. Since it was done traditionally, but of metal.

This has  greatly facilitated its weight. When designing this design Mont Ferrand focused on the dome of the London Cathedral of St. Paul Christopher Wren. The gilding of the dome took more than 100 kilograms of gold.

4. The Cathedral’s domes have been decorated by 12 statues of  Angels of Josef Hermann

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral with its famous gilded dome Photo by Godot13 Wikimedia

Cathedral’s main domes rise 101.5 meters and its exterior is glided. Its dome has been decorated by 12 statues of Angels of Josef Hermann.

The Angels were the first large sculptures produced by then. By the novel process of electrotyping. It was the alternative to traditional bronze casting of sculptures. Monte Ferrand ‘s design of the dome was based on supporting the cast iron structure.

It was the third historical instances of cast iron cupola after the leaning Tower of Nevyansk and Mainz Cathedral.

5.Saint Isaac’s Cathedral’s interior was decorated with about 400 kilo of gold

The interior of the cathedral is even more spectacular than the exterior. The floor, walls, arches and huge pillars are beautifully decorated with fourteen types of marble and 43 types of precious stones. Including jasper, malachite, lazurite and porphyry.

It also features bas-reliefs, gilded stuccoes, frescoes and 600 square meters of mosaics created by over 200 artists. More than 400 kilograms of gold, 1,000 tons of bronze and 16 tons of malachite were used for the decoration.

6.St Isaac’s Cathedral can accommodate 14000 standing worshippers

St. Isaac’s Cathedral photo by Richard Mortel 

It is the largest religious building in the world. The building has a height of 101.s meters and a base of over 10,000 square meter and a diameter of the dome about 25 meters.

Cathedral can accommodate 14000 standing worshippers. It has three alters inside. They are dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, St Alexander Nevysky and St. Catherine.

7.Despite its museum status, the cathedral is still operational and holds daily worships

It was originally built as a cathedral but was turned into a museum by the Soviet government in 1931. It  has remained a museum ever since,  Though with church services held in a side chapel since the 1990’s. 

8.St. Isaac’s Cathedral once housed one of the few working Foucault’s Pendulums in the world

Foucaults pendulum photo from

It was turned into the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. The dove sculpture was removed, and replaced by a Foucault pendulum. In 1931, the first public demonstration of the Foucault pendulum was held to visualize Copernicus’s theory.

In 1937, the museum was transformed into the museum of the cathedral. Th former collections were transferred to the Museum of the History of Religion located in the Kazan Cathedral.

9.The consecration of the Cathedral was held as a public holiday

It was attended by Alexander II, and the event lasted about seven hours. Around the Cathedral there were seats, tickets for which cost a lot of money from 25 to 100 rubles. Enterprising citizens even rented apartments with a view of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, where you can watch the ceremony.

 Despite the fact that there were many people who wanted to attend the event, many of them did not appreciate St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and at first because of its proportions the temple was nicknamed “the Inkwell” (Chernilnitsa ) .

10. The  St Isaac’s Cathedral Museum  receive  more than10 million people per year

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral photo by Deror -Avi Wikimedia 

According to the Union of Russian Museums’ website, in 2016 St. Isaac’s welcomed 2.3 million tourist Hence revenues amounted to 783 million rubles ($13.1 million). Of that amount, over 100 million rubles ($1.68 million) were spent on restoration.

while another 100 million rubles went in taxes to the city. Officially, the cathedral remains city property. After its return to the Orthodox Church, the city will continue to cover restoration costs, and the church will cover daily operational costs.