The History of St. Petersburg’s Iron-Domed St. Isaac’s Cathedral

Until the late 2010s, David Dessler, PhD, functioned as a tenured professor in The College of William & Mary’s Department of Government. As such, he traveled to Russia to develop an international exchange program. While there, Dr. David Dessler stayed at the Angleterre Hotel near St. Petersburg’s St. Issac’s Cathedral.

Requiring four decades to construct, the lavish granite and marble cruciform cathedral was designed by Auguste de Montferrand in the Russian Empire style and finished in 1858. An innovative feature is its iron dome, which represents one of the first attempts to utilize iron as a structural material.

In 1928, the Soviet state turned the cathedral into a museum, and in 1931, the heaviest Foucault pendulum ever made was installed as a way of demonstrating Earth’s rotation in a visual manner.

During World War II, St. Isaac’s Cathedral was spared the destruction of neighboring buildings due to its use by German artillery troops as a reference point. With this knowledge, the Soviets transferred valued artworks from other museums to the cathedral for safekeeping.

Spanning 2.5 acres, the cathedral today encompasses three altars, as well as the treasured Our Lady of Tikhvin icon. With the main building frequented by sightseers, regular Russian Orthodox Church services are relegated to adjoining chapels. However, the main altar is used for church services on major religious holidays.