Peter and Paul Cathedral outside and inside. Peter and Paul Cathedral outside and inside Peter and Paul Cathedral facade

The Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Baroque style in the city on the Neva is part of the architectural ensemble of the famous Peter and Paul Fortress and belongs to the Church Diocese of St. Petersburg. For many years it has been considered an architectural monument. The cathedral houses the tomb of royal families dating back to the time of Peter I. The height of the temple is 122.5 m. Until the middle of the 20th century, the temple was considered the highest building in the country, and in St. Petersburg a building of greater height was built only in 2012.

The history of the construction of the cathedral

The biography of the cathedral begins from the time of Peter I. It was thanks to the decree of this sovereign that it was decided to build a temple in honor of Peter and Paul.

Building background

The construction of a new temple by Peter I was conceived for a reason. In 1712, St. Petersburg became the capital of Russia, and it was necessary to emphasize the new status of the city. For this, according to the idea of ​​the sovereign, it was decided to build a temple on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress, which will be located in the center.

According to the preliminary design, the cathedral was supposed to rise above the Moscow buildings: the Menshikov Tower and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. The temple became an architectural expression of the ideas of that time.

The construction of the cathedral and its life

Initially, during the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1703, along with the construction of earthen ramparts, a wooden church was built. Its laying took place on July 10 on Peter's day. Eight months later, on April 1, the church was consecrated. On May 14, solemn services were held in honor of the famous victory over the Swedes on Lake Peipus.

The construction of a stone church at the same place began on May 30, 1712. At the same time, the wooden church was not destroyed, it was located inside the new building. The cathedral was built according to the drawings of the Italian architect D. Trezzini, the construction management was also entrusted to him. Peter I ordered that work begin from the bell tower. The construction of the temple was delayed due to a lack of labor and building materials, and the main work was completed only in 1720. Harman van Bolos, a master from Holland, was invited to install the spire. A little later, its coating was trimmed with gilded copper. The idea of ​​Peter I came true: the height of the Peter and Paul Cathedral at its highest point was 112 m - this is 32 m more than the bell tower of the Moscow Kremlin. Construction and finishing work was completed after the death of the king in 1733.

In 1742, the Peter and Paul Cathedral received the status of a cathedral. Sixteen years later, this status was transferred to the newly built St. Isaac's Cathedral, and in 1769 the Peter and Paul Cathedral was transferred to the department at the court of the sovereign.

In 1756 lightning struck the cathedral and started a fire. The temple was heavily damaged, significant damage was done to the spire and the clock located on the facade. The restoration of the building lasted until 1772. In 1773, a new chapel of St. Catherine was built, and its consecration took place. A new clock was installed in 1776, 20 years after the fire. The chimes were made on special order by the Dutch watchmaker B. Oort Kras. Residents of St. Petersburg had the opportunity to listen to the anthem of the Russian State every hour.

In 1777, a terrible storm took place in St. Petersburg, in which the spire was damaged. Its restoration was entrusted to the architect Peter Paton, and a new figurine of an angel with a cross to replace the lost one was made by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi. After 53 years in 1830, it became necessary to repair the figurine: fix the cross and solder the angel's wing. A truly heroic deed was performed by the roofing master Peter Telushkin. With the help of ropes on his hands, he climbed the spire and performed the required work.

In 1857-1858, according to the project of the architect K. A. Ton, instead of the wooden rafters of the spire, metal ones were installed. At the suggestion of engineer D. I. Zhuravsky, an octahedral pyramidal structure connected by rings was developed. After the completion of the new spire, the height of the building increased by 10.5 m.

In 1866, the replacement of the royal gates with new ones was completed, which were made of bronze according to the project of the architect A. Krakau. In 1877, the painting of new plafonds was completed, which lasted two years. The work was done by the Italian painter D. Boldini.

Members of the royal family often attended divine liturgies in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Some requiems were honored by the sovereign himself. When Peter the Great died, it was decided to build a tomb inside the temple, where his body was laid to rest. Since then, all members of the royal family have been buried there. In 1865, the tombstones were replaced with slabs made of white marble. On top of them were carved gilded crosses.

In 1919 the Peter and Paul Cathedral was closed. Since 1924, a museum has been set up in the building. Many valuable relics were transferred to other museum institutions.

Significant damage to the cathedral was inflicted during the war. The façade was renovated in 1952. In 1954, the temple was transferred to the Department of the Museum of the history of the city. In 1957, the restoration of the interior decoration of the building was completed.

Current state

In 1990, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was again returned to the Orthodox Church, at the same time memorial services for the Russian tsars began to be held. In 2000, services and liturgies began to be held. Now the head of the temple is Arch-p Alexander. In a separate hall of the cathedral there is a museum, which contains unique collections of church utensils.

Features of the architectural ensemble

The architecture of the Peter and Paul Cathedral differs sharply from the hipped temples and churches with domes of that time. The temple is made in the style of Western European architecture: a building in the form of a rectangle, located in length from east to west. The length of the building is 61 m, the width is -27.5.

The general view of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is modest. The frames of the windows are decorated with cherubs, the walls - with columnar pilasters. 6 of the same pilasters adorn the main entrance on the west side. The façade on the east side is painted with a fresco made by art. P. Titov. A small drum with a dome crowns the pre-altar part.

On the western side of the temple, a bell tower was built in several tiers. From the main building to the bell tower, a smooth transition is provided by the first two tiers, which gradually expand. The third tier has a gilded eight-pitched roof, on which there are round windows framed with white stone on four sides. The final element is a drum with narrow windows-openings. The dome of the drum is made in the form of a crown, on which an elegant golden turret is installed. Next comes a spire 40 meters long, at the top of which is a figurine of an angel holding a cross in his hands. From a distance, it can be difficult to see, but in fact it weighs 250 kg and has a wingspan of 3.8 meters and a height of 3.2 meters.

The interior of the cathedral

The interior of the Peter and Paul Cathedral amaze with its magnificence. Large marble columns divide the main hall into 3 naves. The floor is made of limestone slabs. Rhodonite, jasper and marble were used to decorate the walls. The columns and walls are decorated with elegant stucco molding made by masters A. Quadri and I. Rossi. When drawing images from the Gospel on the walls, the artist Andrey Matveev supervised the work, under his supervision were the famous painters of that time D. Solovyov, I. Belsky, V. Ignatiev, M. Zakharov, V. Yaroshevsky, G. Gzel. Pyotr Zybin decorated the plafonds of the central vault. The walls were painted by artists Negrubov and Vorobyov.

The cathedral is illuminated by 5 bronze chandeliers, decorated with crystal and Venetian glass of various colors. Four chandeliers are exact copies made in the post-war period, the fifth is an original dating back to the 18th century.

Publications in the Architecture section

Peter's baroque is an architectural trend that appeared in 1703–1730. It arose against the background of Peter I's passion for the Dutch and German style of building construction. We have collected 10 buildings in the Petrine Baroque style, built in the city on the Neva among the first.

Menshikov Palace

The Menshikov Palace became the first stone building in the new Russian capital. Its construction lasted four years and was completed by 1714. The palace was designed by the architects Giovanni Maria Fontana and Gottfried Johann Schedel. This three-story building with an attic has long been one of the most luxurious in St. Petersburg. There were solemn dinners of the royal family and even weddings - Tsarevich Alexei with the German princess Charlotte Sophia and Anna Ioannovna with Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Courland.

An urban legend is connected with the palace: Alexander Menshikov, the first governor of St. Petersburg, had to pay Peter two hundred thousand rubles a fine. In order to pay off this debt, he sold some of the furnishings of his palace. Peter Menshikov shamed: “On your first reception day, if I find here the same poverty that does not correspond to your rank, then I will make you pay another two hundred thousand rubles”. Menshikov fulfilled the will of the king, and his house again shone with rich decoration.

Summer Palace of Peter I

Summer Palace of Peter I, built in 1710-1714, was a model for the construction of houses of "very eminent" persons. Unless the decoration of the facade and the internal layout distinguished the royal palace from the houses of its dignitaries.

The two-storey stone building was built in the Dutch style, designed by Domenico Trezzini. The facades of the building look exquisite - they are decorated with terracotta bas-reliefs - illustrations of battles in the Northern War, made by Andreas Schlüter. The internal layout of the palace is simple - it has only fourteen small rooms and two kitchens. Contemporaries found the palace unsuitable for the royal residence, one of the ambassadors called it "a miserable house, not at all commensurate with everything else". According to him, the Summer Palace was “so cramped that a wealthy nobleman would probably not want to fit in it”. After the death of Peter, both members of the imperial family and royal dignitaries lived in the palace.

Peter and Paul Cathedral

The Peter and Paul Cathedral, whose construction began in 1712 on the site of the 1703 wooden church of the same name, was for a long time Russia's tallest building. The height of the bell tower, from which construction began, was 122.5 meters. At the same time, as the legend says, Peter ordered to erect the spire of the bell tower over the place where Tsarevich Alexei was buried, “so that sedition would never rise from the earth and spread throughout Rus'” (Tsarevich Alexei, son of Peter I, was accused of treason). The Peter and Paul Cathedral is very different from traditional Russian churches: it is an elongated building with very restrained facades, which are decorated only with flat columns - pilasters and architraves with cherubs. The Peter and Paul Cathedral was the first Russian church built in the tendencies of Western European architecture.

Chambers of Kikin

Chambers Kikin - one of the oldest private houses in St. Petersburg. It got its name from the name of the first owner - Alexander Kikin, an associate of Peter I. His position at the court made it possible to build a luxurious house, somewhat reminiscent of the Grand Palace in Peterhof. After Kikin, who was accused of high treason, was executed, the Peter's Kunstkamera, which did not have its own building, and the Tsar's personal library were placed in the chambers.

Under Kikin, the chambers were one-story, later a second floor was built on. In 1733, when the barracks for the regiment of the Horse Guards appeared nearby, the infirmary and the office were located in the chambers. The large hall was converted into a regimental church - a wooden bell tower with a dome and a cross appeared in the middle part of the chambers. In the 19th century, the building was rebuilt several times. Now the chambers look the same as under Kikin - after the end of the war, the building, which was badly damaged by shelling, was reconstructed in the forms of Petrine baroque.

Monplaisir

Peter I was known for his undemanding and sometimes even contempt for luxury, so his palace in Peterhof, called "Monplaisir", or "My pleasure", has little in common with the palaces of other European monarchs. A small building was built according to the drawings of the king by architects Andreas Schlüter and Johann Friedrich Braunstein. The facade of the one-story red brick building was made in the Dutch style.

If outwardly the palace looks very restrained and modest, then in creating interiors Peter I departed from his ascetic rules: the rooms have marble floors, oak-panelled walls, painted ceilings, a rich collection of paintings and art objects.

Monplaisir has never been rebuilt, its interior decoration has not changed - the palace was preserved as a memory of the first Russian emperor. He loved him very much, especially for the beautiful view of the Gulf of Finland from the terrace.

Trinity Alexander Nevsky Monastery

The Alexander Nevsky Lavra was founded in 1710 on the spot where Alexander Nevsky defeated the Swedes. This symbolism was very important for Peter - Moscow with its St. George the Victorious had to be contrasted with something, and he saw the future monastery as the main Russian monastery. To date, the oldest church in the monastery, around which the monastery was built, is the Annunciation Church (1717–1724). The author of the project was Domenico Trezzini. He built a building rectangular in plan, the facade of which is discreetly decorated with pilasters and stucco. The temple is completed by a faceted dome mounted on a skylight. Subsequently, members of the imperial family and royal dignitaries were buried in this church.

Kunstkamera and Academy of Sciences

Peter I, after a trip to Holland and England, was inspired by the idea of ​​​​creating his own cabinet of rarities, or, in the German manner, a cabinet of curiosities. He systematically purchased both individual items and entire collections. Soon this meeting required a separate building. In 1718, the "Chambers of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the Library and the Kunstkamera" were laid on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island.

According to legend, Peter I personally chose the place for the construction of the museum. He saw an unusual pine tree: “This cut is worthy of note for the bough in it, thick as a thick human hand, which, having grown from one place and bending in a semicircle, finally grew into another at a distance of 1 arshin and 10 vershoks from its origin”. Peter said: “Where I found this curious tree, let the Kunstkamera be built here”. The first sketches of the museum were made by Andreas Schlüter, and after his death, finalized by Georg Mattarnovi. Peter was so interested in the construction of the Kunstkamera that he donated the so-called cabinet (that is, his personal) funds to it. Until the middle of the 19th century, the first astronomical observatory in Russia was located in the tower of the Kunstkamera. At first they planned to make a weather vane at the top of the tower, but then it was decided to install an armillary sphere there, representing a model of the solar system.

marley

A small two-story palace, located in the western part of the Lower Park of Peterhof, got its name in honor of the residence of Louis XIV Marly le Roy. They decided not to make a two-story palace immediately: at first, Peter ordered the construction of a one-story building, and already when it was brought under the roof, it was decided to build a second floor. Marly became the first Russian building with a corridor planning system - a system of isolated rooms connected by one gallery. Members of the royal family came to Marly - Catherine I, Anna Petrovna with her husband, the Duke of Holstein, Nicholas I with Alexandra Feodorovna. The building was also used as a place to store personal belongings of Peter I - clothes, dishes, diplomatic gifts and paintings. Some exhibits can still be seen today in the museum exposition deployed in the halls of Marly.

Pavilion Hermitage

The Hermitage was built according to the then current fashion for the so-called hermitage. The author of the project was Johann Braunstein, who began construction in 1721 and completed it after the death of Peter I. A ditch was dug around the building in a medieval manner, through which a drawbridge was thrown.

In the lower floor of the Hermitage there were utility rooms - a closet, a kitchen, a buffet, from there food was delivered on special lifts to the second floor. Guests also went up on a kind of elevator - a lifting chair. True, after one of the cables broke during a visit to the Hermitage by Paul I, it was decided to build a staircase.

The building of the state boards

In 1718, Peter I passed a law on the establishment of state colleges. Soon they needed a separate building. Architects Domenico Trezzini and Theodor Schwertfeger began construction on Vasilievsky Island in 1722. Peter I ordered that all colleges be located in separate buildings, but at the same time it was possible to go into each of them one by one - Trezzini designed a plan according to which each building had its own entrance, was covered with a separate roof, but all the colleges were connected into a single 400 meter composition. The architect created the project under the impression of the Stock Exchange in Copenhagen, where he lived before moving to St. Petersburg.

The location of the building is also interesting - perpendicular to the embankment. One urban legend is connected with this fact: before leaving St. Petersburg, Peter I entrusted the construction of the building to Menshikov. In gratitude for his service, he promised to give all the land remaining after construction to the Menshikov estate. The courtier reasoned that if the building was located along the embankment, then there would be very little land left, which is why he decided to put it in such an unusual way. Of course, Peter I, seeing this, was furious, but he could not do anything.

The building never fulfilled its purpose. Under Anna Ioannovna, the city center was moved to the Admiralty side, where the boards gradually moved. Now the building houses St. Petersburg State University.

), but there was always one place that seemed inaccessible - the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

1. View towards Vasilyevsky Island

As you understand, we still climbed Petropavlovka, I want to tell you how we did it.

Walking around the fortress with Olya and tankizt "Oh, we decided to go to the museum of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, but we were refused, they said that the museum was closed, they offered to come another time. Then it was decided to look for other methods of getting into the Peter and Paul Tower. What would happen inside, we did not know what the road to the spire would be Same.

Quite simply and imperceptibly, Olya and I first found ourselves on the roof of the cathedral, and then went into the open window in the tower. Then there was a series of spiral staircases and not very, several doors, which, to our surprise, were open! A bunch of bells, a clock mechanism and other interesting things we passed by in the hope that the final door to the insides of the spire would not be closed. We were lucky, and we got to the last spiral staircase, which was already part of the spire. First thoughts - now there will be a hatch, we will get out into it, and then along the outer stairs to the Angel! But our hopes were dashed when we heard voices just above us.

It turned out that the watchmaker arranged an excursion for his acquaintances to the spire. People, two by two, climbed to the very top to the hatch, admired from it for several minutes and were replaced by others. Everyone went down satisfied, told about their impressions. We decided that we would not lose anything if we went up too. Having waited for our turn, we were the last to go up to the watchmaker, said hello and immediately began to photograph the views from the hatch. The watchmaker was surprised at us, asked who we were and how we got here. We said briefly - "We are photographers!". It was enough to hear the answer "I don't know who you are and how you got here, but you only have five minutes, then I have to leave, I'm already late."

There was little time, and there was only one lens - 10-20mm, so I managed to shoot a little, which I regret - beautiful views open up from there, which can be photographed on a telephoto for a long time.

2. frame down

After the spire, we went down with everyone, filmed everything that was on the way down. Below is a historical note.

3. towards Trinity Bridge

May 16, 1703 on the island of Lust-Eland (Yenisaari, Hare) in the Neva delta, the fortress of St. Peter - St. Peter-Burkh was laid.
It was intended to protect the lands reclaimed during the Great Northern War with Sweden. The fortress was built according to a plan drawn up with the participation of Peter himself. According to the rules of fortification art, bastions were erected at its corners. Kronverk became the defense from land. By the end of 1703 the earthen walls of the fortress were erected, and in the spring in stone. They got their names from the names of the dignitaries who oversaw the construction. In the reign of Catherine II, the walls facing the Neva were lined with granite.

4.

In 1712 on the site of the wooden church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, Trezzini laid a stone cathedral in the name of the chief apostles Peter and Paul (Peter and Paul), which became the burial place of the Russian Emperors. All the emperors and empresses from Peter I to Alexander III inclusive were buried in the tomb, with the exception of Peter II, who died in Moscow in 1730, and Ivan VI, who was killed in Shlisselburg in 1764.

According to the name of the cathedral, the fortress began to be called Peter and Paul, and its first name, which sounded in German St. Petersburg, was transferred to the city.

5. Golovkin Bastion and across the river the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Signal Corps.

In the entire history of the fortress, not a single combat shot was fired from its bastions (although this statement is controversial ... during the Great Patriotic War, anti-aircraft guns, machine guns and searchlights were placed on the territory of the fortress and they repelled enemy air raids). But the fortress was always ready to repulse enemies.

The main political prison of tsarist Russia was located on the territory of the fortress in the Trubetskoy bastion, it functioned from 1872 to 1921. Even in Petropavlovka there is one of the oldest industrial productions in the city - the Mint.

6.

If we talk about the cathedral itself in modern times:

The height of the cathedral is 122.5 m, the spire is 40 m, the hatch from which we filmed is at a height of just over a hundred meters. The cathedral was consecrated on June 28, 1733, services are held according to a special schedule (since the 1990s, funeral services for Russian emperors have been regularly held in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, since 2000 - divine services, since Christmas 2008 services have been held regularly), the rest of the time it functions as a museum.

7. We start going down

The spire was damaged several times by a storm, the first time in 1777, the second in 1829.

For the first time, the correction was carried out according to the drawings of arch. P. Yu. Paton. The new figure of an angel with a cross according to the drawing by A. Rinaldi was made by master K. Forshman.

The second roofer Petr Telushkin made repairs without erecting scaffolding. The repair, carried out in October-November 1830, went down in the history of domestic technology as an example of Russian ingenuity and courage.

8.

In 1856-1858. according to the project of engineer D. I. Zhuravsky, instead of a wooden one, a metal spire was built. Inside the spire, a spiral iron staircase leads to a hatch in the casing, arranged at a height of 100 m above the apple, a six-meter cross with an angel (sculptor R.K. Zaleman) The angel weather vane rotates around a rod installed in the plane of the figure itself. The volumetric parts of the angel are made by electroforming, the rest of the parts are stamped from forged copper. Gilding was carried out under the guidance of the chemist G. Struve by the gang of merchants Korotkovs. The height of the angel is 3.2 m, the wingspan is 3.8 m.

9. Outside the windows dial with arrows

10. Clockwork

At a height of 16 m, the shaft of the clock mechanism begins, going up to 30 m. Until the 20th century, weights were raised and lowered inside the shaft, providing a winding watch.

The chiming clock for the cathedral was made by the Dutch master B. Oort Krass in 1760. With the help of bells, the clock played various melodies.

Now in the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral there is a set of bells unique in quantity and variety; authentic Dutch bells of the 19th-20th centuries, modern Flemish bells. In total, there are about 130 bells in the bell tower.

11.

12. Hours - chimes. Performing 2 melodies, every hour (Kohl our Lord is glorious in Zion) and a melody (God save the Tsar) at 6 and 12 o'clock. The drum in the photo sets the melody.

During the Great Patriotic War, the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was painted over with gray paint. The camouflage of the spire deprived the fascist artillery of a reference point for conducting aimed fire at the most strategically important objects.

According to the memoirs of M.M. Bobrov, a participant in camouflage work in the winter of 1941-1942, a "Corner of Besieged Leningrad" was made in the museum, which shows the conditions in which climbers lived in the cathedral under the stairs to the bell tower.

14. We go even lower

17. I don't know where the museum starts and ends, but these and the following photos were probably taken on its territory.

18. Tower structure

19. On the left is shown how the ascent to the angel was realized in 1830

20. When we went down to the first floor, we were met by a policewoman who told us at the very beginning that the museum was closed. This time she said smiling "Well, are you done yet?" We answered "That's it!" and went out to meet the upset Tankman (on the left in the photo). Upset because he didn't climb with us. (But today I saw photos in contact that he also climbed the other day, with which I congratulate him.)

That's all. The last photo is for those who do not know how the Peter and Paul Cathedral looks from the outside.

21.

Thank you for your attention.

Peter I, a swift and cruel man, possessed incredible energy and did everything on an unprecedented scale, remaining adamant in his own decisions. Having conceived the construction of a new capital of the “European” type, he directed all his efforts to creating his own “paradise”, which would in no way remind him of patriarchal, boyar Moscow. The Peter and Paul Cathedral truly became the embodiment of this desire.

The height of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is 122.5 meters, the height of the spire is 40 meters, the height of the figure of an angel is 3.2 meters, and its wingspan is 3.8 meters. More than 8 kilograms of pure gold were spent on the gilding of the spire. The complex of bells of the cathedral is unique - it includes Dutch chimes of the 18th century, Russian church bells and a carillon.

The "horizontal" dimensions of the cathedral are relatively small: its length is 61 meters, width - 27.3 meters. The height of the walls to the cornice is 15 meters. For internal gilding, two hundred kilograms of pure gold were issued from the sovereign's treasury. When decorating the cathedral, various types of stone were used: marble, jasper, rhodonite. The floor is paved with limestone slabs. The central nave is illuminated by five chandeliers made of gilded bronze, colored Venetian glass and rock crystal. The chandelier hanging in front of the altar is an 18th-century original; the rest were restored after the Great Patriotic War.

According to its plan and appearance, it is completely different from Orthodox, cross-domed or tented churches. The temple is a rectangular building of the "hall" type, elongated from west to east, which is characteristic of Western European architecture.

Its exterior is strict and rather modest. The walls are decorated only with flat columns - pilasters - and heads of cherubs on the window frames. On the eastern facade there is a fresco by the artist P. Titov "The Appearance of the Apostles Peter and Paul before Christ." The western facade, which is the base of the bell tower, is decorated with six pilasters on both sides of the main portico entrance. The crossroads of the temple is displaced to the east and is marked by a small drum with a dome above the pre-altar part.

The bell tower is the dominant detail of the cathedral

The dominant detail of the cathedral is a multi-tiered bell tower on the western facade, decorated with pilasters. Its first two tiers, as it were, are distributed in breadth, supported by volutes, which form a smooth transition from the main building of the cathedral to the high tower. The third tier easily rushes upward; it is crowned with a gilded eight-pitched roof with four round windows in massive white stone frames. Above the roof is a slender, graceful octagonal drum with narrow vertical openings. Above it is a high, also octahedral, golden crown, and on it, instead of the traditional cross, there is a thin golden turret, which serves as the base of a sparkling needle-spire. At the very top there is a figure of a flying angel with a cross in his hands.

The bell tower, among other things, performs an important function - it is a kind of landmark in the city, a town-planning dominant. Indeed, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, whose height is 122.5 meters, has long been the tallest building in St. Petersburg. Now it is inferior in height only to the television center tower.

Despite its strict rectangular shape, the Peter and Paul Cathedral leaves an impression of lightness and general aspiration upwards. This is one of the main attractions of the city on the Neva.

Dome of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The dome above the altar part of the cathedral, made in the German Baroque style, is rather modest. It is mounted on a light high drum and crowned with a small dome. The drum and dome, like the bell tower, were also significantly altered after the fire of 1756. The dome was reduced in size and richly decorated with intricate garlands; in addition, he acquired magnificent lucarnes - all this added to his "baroque".

Porticos of the cathedral

The western and southern facades are decorated with classical marble porticoes. The main façade of the Boat House (which houses Peter's boat, the "grandfather of the Russian fleet"), located next to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, is decorated in the same way - thus, the entire ensemble of the Cathedral Square of the Peter and Paul Fortress is made in the same architectural style.

1. The Peter and Paul Cathedral was built in 1712-1733 according to the project of Domenico Trezzini on the site of a wooden church that stood on this site in 1703-1704. The bell tower of the cathedral is crowned with a spire and has a total height of 122 meters, which allowed it to be the tallest building until 2012 Petersburg.

2. From the very beginning, the cathedral was the burial place of the Romanovs and their relatives. In 1896, a tomb building was erected nearby for the Grand Dukes of the Imperial Family and His Serene Princes Romanovsky. Eight graves were moved here from the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

3. The Grand Duke's tomb was badly damaged during the years of Soviet power, has been under repair for many years and is still closed to the public.

4. A white corridor connects it with the cathedral. As you can see, everything is ready here, but the passage is still closed.

5. Let's examine the interior of the three-aisled cathedral.

6. The main entrance to the temple from the Cathedral Square.

7. The ceiling is decorated with gospel paintings.

8. Lush chandeliers are suspended from the vaults.

9. Pulpit, decorated with gilded sculpture.

10. The gilded carved iconostasis of the cathedral was made in Moscow according to Trezzini's drawings.

11. In front of the iconostasis are the burial places of emperors and empresses of the 18th century.

12. On the left in the first row - the burial of Peter I, crowned with a bust of the king. Next to him is Catherine I (Marta Skavronskaya), his wife. On the left is Elizaveta Petrovna, their daughter, prudently titled “Elizabeth I” in case another Elizabeth appeared among the empresses. Behind Peter I lies his niece Anna Ioannovna, daughter of Tsar Ivan V. On the left in the second row - Catherine II and Peter III, transferred after the death of his wife from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Their tombstones bear the same date of burial, which creates the illusion that they lived together and died on the same day.

13. Peter the Great is signed as "Father of the Fatherland". When he died in 1725, the walls of the cathedral barely rose to human height, and his body lay in a temporary wooden chapel until 1731.

14. On the other side of the royal doors, there are also two rows of tombstones of Paul I and Maria Feodorovna, Alexander I and Elizabeth Alekseevna, Nicholas I and Alexandra Feodorovna, as well as the daughter of Peter I, Grand Duchess Anna.

15. All tombstones are fenced with black fences, crowned with knobs in the form of vases, covered with a mourning cloth. The gravestones of the spouses are outlined by a single fence.

16. All tombstones were replaced in 1865 with marble ones, which still exist today, but two sarcophagi differ from the rest. They were made in 1887-1906 from green jasper and pink eagle for Emperor Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna.

17. All marble tombstones are covered with gilded crosses, the imperial tombstones are decorated with images of double-headed eagles in the corners. One of the tombstones is clearly fresher than the others.

18. It was placed over the burial place of Empress Maria Feodorovna (Princess Dagmara), wife of Alexander III. The empress, who died in 1928, was buried next to her parents in the tomb of the cathedral in the Danish city of Roskilde. In 2006, her ashes were taken to St. Petersburg by ship and buried next to her husband.

19. And in 1998, the remains of the last emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and their daughters Tatyana, Olga and Anastasia rested in the Catherine's aisle of the cathedral.

20. But the very first burials in the cathedral can only be seen on an excursion to the bell tower of the cathedral, which was built during the life of Peter the Great. Here, under the stairs, are the graves of Princess Maria Alekseevna, sister of Peter I, and his son Alexei Petrovich next to his wife, Princess Charlotte-Christina Sophia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

21. We will climb the worn steps to the lower level of the bell tower, which is flush with the roof of the cathedral.

22. Here, during the blockade, there was an air defense post.

23. Here you can see the original view of the temple. The cathedral was painted in pink, the angel on the spire was completely different.

24. The entrance was decorated with a magnificent porch with sculptures.

25. I remind you how the cathedral looks today (photo from the Grand Layout).

26. The frame of the figure of an angel, which has been on the spire since 1858, is also presented here.

29. The frame of the angel was replaced at the end of the 20th century with a modern one.

27. The copper figure, which was on the spire until 1858, is in the museum of the history of the fortress. It was replaced during the reconstruction of the spire of the cathedral in metal, because until 1858 the spire was wooden.

28. The current weather vane figure was repaired and re-gilded in 1995.

30. The bell tower itself begins from this tier. Below are collected old weights of the mechanism of the tower clock-chimes.

31. And also this old winch.

32. The locking mechanism on the doors leading to the open area of ​​the cathedral.

33. Let's go up the stone steps.

34. The carillon of the cathedral is installed on the support beams.

35. Carillon is an impressive multi-voiced bell musical instrument, originally from Belgium. By the way, “raspberry ringing” is named so not for the sweetness of the sound, but in honor of the Belgian city of Malines.

36. Initially, the carillon was brought and installed in the Peter and Paul Cathedral by Peter I, but later burned down in a fire, and was restored today.

37. The instrument consists of many fixed bells of various sizes.

38. Tongues of bells can be controlled with steel cables.

39. You need to play the carillon from this remote control. The teacher of playing the instrument, despite the "beard", speaks Russian with a strong accent, he is clearly from somewhere in Belgium.

In the video you can listen to how this instrument sounds peculiar:

40. Above the carillon is the lower belfry, traditional for Orthodox churches.

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43. The largest bell, with a diameter of more than a meter.

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45. These bells are rung quite traditionally - with the help of a system of ropes tied to tongues.

46. ​​There are also loads of chimes located in a tier above the chimes.

47. The tour is not designed to rise above the lower belfry, so at the end there are two shots from a forty-meter height.

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