Architecture. Зайцева И.В. - 55 стр.

      5.4.3 Make up 7-8 questions to the text to cover the contents

      5.4.4 Make up a written story about one of Moscow attractions. Use the text or
additional material

     5.5 You went on an excursion to St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Peresburg.
Describe its exterior and interior using information from the text

                                        Text 5 C

                                 St. Isaac’s Cathedral

       St. Isaac’s Cathedral is a remarkable monument of Russian architecture. The
history of the construction began in 1710, when the first wooden church was put up in
honour of St Isaac of Dalmatia; it was on St Isaac’s Day, according to the Orthodox
Calendar, that Peter I was born. The present Cathedral is the fourth that stood on this
place.
       In the early 19th century a contest was announced for the best design of a new
cathedral, in which well-known architects took part. In 1818 Alexander I approved a
project submitted by A. Montferrand, a talented artist who had just arrived from Paris;
however, he had little experience in architecture.
       The Cathedral took 40 years to be built. When putting up this gigantic structure a
lot of complicated engineering problems had to be solved for the first time. In 1828,
even before the walls were erected, installation of the 48 monolithic columns had
begun, each weighting about 110 tons. The ideas of A.Betancourt, an engineer, made it
possible to raise the 67-ton granite columns to the height of 40 metres and install them
around the dome drum. St Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the largest domed structures in the
world. The building, rectangular in its layout, rose 101.5 m high. Having area of 4
thousand square metres, the Cathedral can hold up to 12 thousand people.
       The dome is an original construction, including 3 domes; placed one over the
other. The cathedral was completed in 1842, but it took 16 years more to decorate the
interior with a lot of lazurite, malachite, porphyry, and other kinds of marble. The walls
and vaults of the Cathedral bear paintings and mosaic works made by well-known
Russian artists: C.Bryullov, F.Bruni, P.Basin, P.Shebuyev and others. On the whole
more than 200 artists took part on the dйcor.
       Both inside and outside the Cathedral is decorated with sculptures made to the
designs by I.Vitali, N.Pimenov, A.Loganovsky, P.Klodt and others. It was for the first
time that the galvanoplastics method developed by B.Yakoby was used for making
monumental sculptures.
       When you enter the Cathedral you pass through one of the porticos – note that the
columns are made of single pieces of red granite and weight 80 tons (about 177,770
pounds) each. Inside the church many of the icons are exquisite mosaics. The
iconostasis (the icon wall that separates the altar from the rest of the church) is
decorated with 8 malachite and 2 lapis lazuli columns. The cathedral, which can
accommodate 12 thousand worshipers, now serves as a museum, and services are held
only on major occasions.