Saint Isaac’s Cathedral or Isaakievskiy Sobor is a half cathedral – half museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. And during our tour you’ll be able to visit one of the main cathedrals of Russia with skip the line service. Saint Isaac’s Cathedral is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia (Byzantium monk) a saint patron of Peter I, who had been born on the feast day of that saint. It was originally built as a cathedral but was turned into a museum by the Soviet government in 1931 and has remained a museum ever since.

At the same time, the Russian Orthodox church community, which was registered after collapse of U.S.S.R. in the summer of 1991, has the right to worship on certain days along with the museum work.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral is located on the famous St. Isaac’s Square in the center of Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

The construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral lasted for 40 years (from 1818 to 1858). And every day up to twelve thousand people worked on the construction. It was designed by the French architect Auguste Montferrant. The construction was carried out under the leadership of 3 Emperors: Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral is the fourth largest cathedral in the world after Saint Peter in Rome, Saint Paul in London and Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. St. Isaac’s Cathedral is 101.5 meters height. With us you can also visit the observation deck at one of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. You’ll have to overcome on foot more than two hundred steps to get to the colonnade of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. But it worth it. You’ll see magnificent views of the river Neva, St. Isaac’s Square and Palace Square, the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, the Savior on Spilled Blood and other famous sights.

On a sunny day, you can admire the bright radiance of the St. Isaac’s main dome and the domes of the five bell towers: 100 kilograms of pure gold were used for their gilding.

Outside St. Isaac’s Cathedral is decorated with 112 granite columns. The height of the columns of the four lower porticoes are about 17 meters, and the drum columns of the central dome are up to 14 meters high.

Inside St. Isaac’s Cathedral is more than 4,000 square meters. The interior of the cathedral is filled with dozens of mosaic paintings. In the creation of mosaics was used more than 12,000 shades of smalt. The total area of mosaic is 600 square meters.