ST ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL, LENINGRAD - GEORGY BUTIKOV

St Isaac's, one of the finest cathedrals built in Europe in the nineteenth century, is a unique phenomenon in Russian architecture. A characteristic feature of its decoration is the use of different forms of monumental art-sculpture, painting, and mosaics-which combine to form an overall unity of great artistic power. The tall, centrally planned, domed Cathedral is one of the buildings which punctuate the skyline of Leningrad.
The Cathedral is a dominant feature of two great ensembles, St Isaac's Square and Decembrists' (formerly Senate) Square, and to a large extent determines their general character by its monumental architectural form.
The existing Cathedral is the fourth church to be constructed in this area.
All of them were dedicated to St Isaac the Dalmatian, the legendary Byzantine monk, also known as St Isaac of Constantinople and called "Dalmatian"
from the name later given to the monastery which he had founded. The construction of each of the four churches was closely related to the history of the city and reflected the different architectural, artistic, and town-planning trends of the periods in which they were built.
When Peter the Great founded St Petersburg in 1703, he made a decision to erect in his new city a cathedral to St Isaac the Dalmatian, whose feast-day, May 30, coincided with Peter's birthday. Seven years later, in 1710, a small wooden church was built on the Admiralty Green near the site of the present-day Cathedral. On February 19, 1712, Peter the Great and Catherine had their public wedding there (they had been married privately several years before).
This building, unassuming as it was in design and decoration, was felt to be out of keeping with the grand scale on which the new capital of Russia was being constructed. On August 6, 1717, on the bank of the Neva where the Bronze Horseman, a monument to Peter the Great, now stands, the foundations were laid for a second church of St Isaac, which was designed by Johann Mattarnovi.
Its architecture was reminiscent of the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg, the work of Domenico Trezzini. The identical principle of design, similar bell-towers with clocks on them, and carved gilt iconostases inside, both designed (by Ivan Zarudny, made the affinity between the two structures even more striking. The site selected for the church proved unsuitable; the ground on the unfortified Neva banks began to shift and cracks developed in the building's walls and vaults. The work of destruction was completed by a fire