St. Isaac's Cathedral

History

2017: Transfer of the Russian Orthodox Church Cathedral by decision of Russian President Putin

St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, regional authorities will transfer the Russian Orthodox Church. This was confirmed in January 2017 by TASS head of the city Georgy Poltavchenko. "The issue has been resolved," Poltavchenko told the agency. The Governor of St. Petersburg added that the museum component in the work of St. Isaac's Cathedral will remain.

agreement between the patriarch and me, the cathedral will retain its museum and educational function," he explained.

The Russian Orthodox Church receives a religious building for free unlimited use, press secretary of Georgy Poltavchenko Andrei Kibitov explained to Kommersant. At the same time, the duties of maintaining the cathedral in full will go to the church, he added. While the building is managed by the state museum-monument "St. Isaac's Cathedral." As can be judged, the Russian Orthodox Church will also pay for the restoration of the monument. They amount to about 200 million rubles. per year, previously reported the director of the museum Nikolay Burov. Now the restoration is financed from the income of the state institution (about 650 million rubles annually).

"If the building is transferred to the use of the St. Petersburg diocese, all the costs of its maintenance, restoration and protection will fall on the owner - the city of St. Petersburg. This will entail additional serious expenses in the city budget and a reduction in funding for other socially significant projects and programs, which is unacceptable in the current economic situation, "the Smolny press service explained at the time

In early March 2017, the authorities of St. Petersburg asked the director of the St. Isaac's Cathedral Museum to transport the exhibits to another place by Easter. Thus, officials want to coincide with the transfer of the church of the Russian Orthodox Church to one of the most important Orthodox holidays. The director of the museum and employees assure that it is physically impossible to transport 26 thousand exhibits in such a short time^[1].

Vladimir Putin personally approved the transfer of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg to the Russian Orthodox Church in December 2016. RBC writes about this with reference to a source in the Russian Orthodox Church and two interlocutors close to the Kremlin in April 2017. According to the newspaper, Patriarch Kirill made a corresponding request to the president.

1816: Alexander I entrusts the construction of the cathedral to Augustine Betancourt, who proposes Montferrand for the role of architect

In 1816, Alexander I instructed Augustine Betancourt to prepare a project for the reconstruction of St. Isaac's Cathedral, who proposed to entrust the project to the young architect Auguste Montferrand, who had come to Russia from France shortly before. For more engineering solutions in the construction of the cathedral, see Betancourt Augustine Augustinowicz.

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