Our bus pulled up to a wide area across from the Mariinsky Palace. I had no idea what to expect here; I had never heard of it. Where are we now? At St. Isaac’s Cathedral (Isaakievsky Sobor). St. Isaac’s was originally built as a cathedral dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia and is part of the Orthodox Church.
Believe it or not, during the time of the Soviet Union, in a huge slap in the face bit of irony, all religious decoration and ornamentation in the church was stripped and relocated off site. The church was then turned into the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism.
These days, worship is again permitted, but only in reserved sections such as the chapels. Services are held in the main part of the cathedral during major religious holidays such as feast days.
The version of the church we see today is actually the fourth iteration of St. Isaac’s Church and is by far the most magnificent. This version was designed by French-born architect Auguste de Montferrand, who also designed the Alexander Column, which we would see later. Construction on the cathedral began in 1818 and took 40 years to complete; 24 years for the main construction of the building, the remaining 16 to decorate and furnish the interior. It was finally dedicated in 1858. The Finnish expression, “To build like the church of Isaac,” grew out of this because construction took so long.
By the numbers
Its construction featured 112 red granite columns. It is the fourth largest domed cathedral and largest Orthodox cathedral in the world. By the way, those domes? They’re gilded. Inside features what is called the great dome. There is a large skylight, a dove sculpture, 12 windows with paintings of the twelve disciples underneath each. Marble floors cover the interior. Doors are bronze with reliefs carved in and above them. I can’t even imagine how heavy those doors are. And how are they supported? What kind of engineering was employed to allow something this heavy to be moved by people power alone?
Sixteen kinds of marble including malachite (the green stone) were used in the project. Inside the cathedral is a bust of Montferrand, fashioned from the same materials used in the cathedral, and a scale replica of the wooden apparatus used to erect the granite columns. By the way, those doors weigh ten tons and contain a special gearing in the walls to facilitate their movement. The gilded bronze doors leading to the altar weigh five tons.
Here’s another interesting fact: between the gold (over 400 kgs, including 100 kgs of gold for the main dome alone), doors, 1,000 tons of other bronze, the columns (over 110 tons each), marble, gemstones, and weight of the structure of the cathedral itself, its staggering, literally crushing weight would have caused the foundation to sink. So what the engineers did was drive more than 10,000 pilings into the (probably marshy) ground, added a base of crushed and compacted stone, then built on top of that.
Stairs lead up to an observation deck which offers a very good view out over the city. Unfortunately, due to restoration work going on on one of the smaller domes, we were not permitted to go up there.
Sculptures. Bas reliefs. Mosaics. Frescoes. Cornices. Bronze work. Column work. Marble work. All of these items inside the cathedral display a craftsmanship that is long lost today. You can begin to understand why it took 16 years to complete.
Paintings by renowned Russian painters honor the stories of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. After it was discovered that the moisture-laden and cold climate inside the cathedral was causing some of the painted works to deteriorate, they were ordered to be recreated – but as mosaics! Not all of them were able to be converted, but of the mosaics that were finished, some of them are so finely detailed and elaborate, they look just like paintings. You cannot tell they are mosaics until you get right up in front of them. We saw a few some mosaics on easels throughout the church. I guess these are the ones that are still ‘in work’.
Lift your head
There does not appear to be even one inch of bare wall or unadorned space in the entire cathedral. Every surface has a mural, relief, fresco, gilding, gemstone, or marble. That includes the doors and floor. Even the spaces between where the arches intersect have murals painted in them.
If you were to stand back and take a wide-angle look, you’d probably notice that the walls are mostly marble and gemstone. They frame the mosaics. But then as you lift your head and your eyes move up toward the ceiling, you’ll see the murals. I think there is some symbolism in that aspect of the design.
One of the most commanding parts of the church is the iconostasis, or wall of icons. The colored marble columns framing it attract your attention, beckoning you closer. Apparently, there are rules for the positioning of the icons within the iconostasis and on which of the five levels they appear.
I haven’t even told you about the sound quality. As you might imagine, the acoustics inside the cathedral are simply superb! Picture with your mind’s ear what a full choir might sound like in here. Or a small instrumental ensemble. Or a large one, for that matter.
You might notice there are no pews or chairs. That is because in an Orthodox church, prayer and worship is traditionally done standing up; there is no sitting unless you are infirm or elderly. If you attended church services here in St. Isaac’s early days, you might have found yourself standing alongside as many as 14,000 other worshippers!
The Theotokos
As we walked around the inside pretty much slack-jawed, we came upon a shrine dedicated to one single icon. The icon is set in a frame of gold. The shrine which was built around it is fully gilded except for the marble altar and steps leading up to it. It looked like the Madonna and Child, but one unlike any other I had seen before. It is called the Theotokos (Greek for “God-Bearer”. Or Dei Genitrix, Latin for “Mother of God”); this one specifically, “The Wonderworking Tikhvin Icon of the Theotokos”. Both the Mother of God and Christ child portrayed in the icon had dark skin. There are countless claims of miraculous healing and protection attributed to the icon.
In Orthodox Christianity, the Theotokos of Tikhvin is one of the most highly regarded icons. Mystery shrouds its true history, but there are two main stories behind its origin. The first one states that the original was painted by St. Luke, himself. Yes, St. Luke from the Bible. The other says that in 1383, a fisherman was out on a lake near Tikhvin (hence the name), when the Theotokos appeared to rise above the lake in front of him. He captured the image on canvas when he got back to his home.
I stayed at the shrine for a couple of minutes, not knowing what to think. My mind has just been expanded; I was intrigued. As an African-American, l had never seen anything like it back home. I wondered, “Is this the only one? Are there more?” The answer came when I conducted some research afterward: Yes, there others; several hundred others.
Opulence, grandeur, massive, excess, majestic, vast, impressive, decadent, ostentatious, over the top, spell-binding, splendorous, regal, luxurious, breath-taking, lavish. All words that can be used to describe this cathedral – and even these may not be enough.
Having had a few moments to process what I just saw, I admired the design, the form, how the lines of the interior flow, the arches, use of murals and frescoes painted on the ceilings and walls instead of just hanging paintings, vibrant colors not just in the paintings but in the stone and marble work selected and used. I was impressed, blown away.
Earlier I gave you a bunch of facts and figures about St. Isaac’s Cathedral. One thing that really hit me hard after leaving: Apparently no expense was spared in the construction and furnishing of the cathedral. The amount of gold used, the time and materials it took to build, the artwork, and a total cost of over 23 million rubles, more six times the cost of the Winter Palace… How much did Russians value their Christianity, revere important biblical figures, and honor other icons of Christianity and their own heroes of Russian history (link opens a PDF file) to build such a magnificent edifice as this? The other question I have is one that I keep trying to dismiss but it is one that won’t go away: How much of this was a show of opulence and power?
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