RUSSIA SCURK

Included in this SCURK TIL tileset are the following buildings:



THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT ISAAC OF DALMATIA (Isaakiyevsky Sobor)
Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Named after the patron saint of Peter the Great, the colossal St. Isaac's Cathedral 
dominates the Saint Petersburg skyline as the largest orthodox cathedral in the city.  
Commissioned by Czar Alexander I in 1818, the present 300,000 ton building was finally 
completed in 1858 after 40 years of construction.  Architect Auguste Ricard de Montferrand 
embellished his heavily classical design with a gilded dome covered with 100 kilograms of 
pure gold.  The monolithic columns of the austere exterior porches are of pink Vyborg 
granite and reach over 50 feet high and weigh 114 tons each.  The interior is lavishly 
decorated with immense quantities of gilding, lapis lazuli, and malachite, creating a 
sumptuously grand worship space.  Ironically, St. Isaac, in whose name all this titanic 
magnificence was done, was a relatively obscure Dalmatian monk.



THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL (Petropavlovski Sobor)
Saint Petersburg, Russia.

This great cathedral was commissioned by Czar Peter the Great and completed in 1733 
as the centerpiece of the Peter and Paul Fortress.  Designed by the Italian architect 
Domenico Trezzini, its 459 foot (140 meter) high tower includes a needle-thin gilded 
spire that today is often called "Russia's lightning rod."  Built "to improve and 
to convert the world," the cathedral with its spire and domes has become a symbol of 
the city on the Neva River.  The cathedral also serves as the family tomb for 
Russia's imperial Romanov dynasty.  In this SCURK image the cathedral and its 
subsidiary buildings have been flipped horizontally in order the create a better 
overall composition on the tile.



SMOLNY MONASTERY AND CATHEDRAL (Sobor Smolnovo-Monastyria)
Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The magnificent Smolny complex was created by architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli for the 
Empress Elizabeth, who had founded the Smolny convent.  Begun in 1748, the cathedral is 
considered Rastrelli's masterpiece, perfectly fusing together Baroque forms with 
traditional Russian elements such as the five onion domes.  Rastrelli was the favored 
court architect of Elizabeth, who had lavishly exuberant taste and loved the color blue 
highlighted with generous amounts of gilt.  When Catherine the Great succeeded to the 
throne, she found all this extravagance garish, sacked the Italian architect, and 
steered Russia towards more restrained Classicism.



SMOLNY MONASTERY AND CATHEDRAL (Corner Chapel)
Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The beautiful Smolny complex includes the lavish Cathedral surrounded by an enclosure 
in the shape of a Greek cross.  At the corners of the cross are four domed chapels 
which relate back to the central cathedral.  The result is a fairy-tale skyline rich 
with gold topped Russian onion domes.  The architect Rastrelli had also originally
planned a 420 foot bell tower which would have been one of the greatest towers of the 
Baroque era.



Enjoy!


Created by Lee Sojot.
