Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
255
Impressions
It was always known in advance when the students would riot in front of Kazansky
Cathedral. Every family had its student informer. The result was that these riots were
attended—at a respectful distance to be sure—by a great mass of people.
-Osip Mandelstam, St. Petersburg poet and author
who fell victim to Stalin's secret police
curved facade faces Nevsky—but Orthodox custom requires that the nave run east-west,
so the entrance to the cathedral is actually around the side. Completed in 1811, the
cathedral was partly inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Its centered single dome,
horizontal line, and gray color scheme have little in common with the more vibrant,
vertical cathedrals typical of previous centuries. The cathedral was named after the icon
of Our Lady of Kazan, whose intriguing tale is the first item in church brochures. For
more than 60 years it housed the State Museum of Atheism and Religion, and for a while
in the 1990s it managed to be simultaneously a functioning church and a museum to
godlessness. The museum has since moved and dropped the “Atheism” from its name.
2 Kazanskaya Ploshchad. & 812/318-4528. www.kazansky.ru. Free admission. Mon-Sat 9am-8pm.
Services every day at 10am and 7pm. Metro: Nevsky Prospekt.
St. Isaac's Cathedral (Isaakevsky Sobor) St. Isaac's mighty, somber facade rose
only in the mid-19th century but has become an indelible part of St. Petersburg's skyline
since then. Critics of the day called it “The Inkwell” because of its boxy shape topped by
a single enormous gray dome, in contrast to the multilayered and multicolored domes
and towers of most Orthodox churches. Its massive hall can accommodate 14,000 peo-
ple, though it probably never has. More popular with tourists than believers, the church
earned residents' respect during World War II, when it endured Nazi shelling and its
grounds were planted with cabbage to help residents survive the 900-day Nazi blockade.
Its interior is as awesome as its exterior, with columns made of single chunks of granite,
malachite, and lazurite; floors of different-colored marble; and never-ending frescoes. If
the viewing balcony around the dome is open, it's well worth a climb for the view of the
city and of the cathedral from on high. However, ticket prices for this activity are rising
at an alarming pace. Allow an hour, more if you visit the balcony.
Isaakevskaya Ploshchad. & 812/315-9732. www.cathedral.ru. Admission 300 rubles adults, 170 stu-
dents with ID and children 8 and older. To climb colonnade, an additional 150 rubles adults, 100 rubles
students and children. To take photos 50 rubles, to take video 100 rubles. Thurs-Tues 10am-7pm (closed
Wed); colonnade closes 5pm. June-Aug the cathedral and colonnade until 10:30pm. Metro: Nevsky
Prospekt.
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St. Petersburg Mosque (Mechet) Built in 1910, the mosque's enormous blue-tiled
roof was modeled after the striking complex of tiled buildings in Samarkand, Uzbekistan,
housing the mausoleum of medieval Muslim conqueror and thinker Tamerlane. The
mosque was a gift to St. Petersburg from the emir of the Silk Road city of Bukhara, then
part of the Russian empire. Closed down by the Bolsheviks, it was used as a medical
equipment warehouse during World War II. It was the largest mosque in the Soviet
Muslim world—even larger than the Uzbek ones it emulated—and is still a major sym-
bol for Russia's 20 million-plus Muslims. Its gray granite walls contrast vividly with the
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