Sightseeing

SAMPSON CATHEDRAL One of the few examples of the church architecture of the early18th century preserved to present time, St. Samson's Cathedral features the largest icons of all orthodox churches in St. Petersburg and the heaviest bell (6,400 kg) in the city. Located on the Vyborg Side the St.Sampson Cathedral was built to the project of architects D. Trezini and M.Zemtsov in commemoration of the Poltava victory on June 27, 1709 (the memorial day of St. Samson the Hospitable –hence the name of the cathedral) during the Northern war, which allowed Peter to concentrate all his efforts on the north to acquire an exit to the Baltic sea and to continue his reforms. The construction of first wooden church was begun near the Vyborg road (now called Bolshoi Sampsonievsky Prospect) leading northwestern part of the country, towards the realm of the Swedish king for the soldiers going to the battles of the Northern War to be encouraged by that victory of the Russian army. Located at some distance from the administrative center, the territory of the St. Sampson Cathedral was regarded to be convenient for the first city cemetery for orthodox and people of other faiths. Opened in 1711, it became the burial place for oustanding Russian dignitaries, such as architects Domenico Trezzini, Andreas Schlüter, Jean-Baptiste Leblond and Georg Mattarnovi, sculptor Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the first Russian economist Ivan Pososhkov, the painters Louis Caravaque and Stephano Torelli., the first president of the Russian Academy of sciences L. Blumentrost, first Russian economist I. Pososhkov. The organizers of the conspiracy against Count Biron, the favorite of Czarina Anna Ioannovna - Artemy Volynsky, Andrei Khrushchov and Pyotr Yeropkin - were executed and also buried here. The construction of the present-day St. Sampson complex including the church building, a bell-tower, a chapel and a bakery, all made of stone was started in 1728 after Peter's I death, but completed only in 1740 thus making the complex a unique combination of pre-Peter epoch and European architectural forms. The one-storied building of the Cathedral with its calcareous socle and the brick plastered walls, topped with an octahedron with the false windows, and five domes with richly decorated crosses, was repeatedly reconstructed (or instance, in 1761 four decorative wooden drums with small cupolas were added to the major dome and the roof of the temple was covered with iron), but nevertheless the exterior of St. Sampson Cathedral has not changed considerably. Looking modest from the outside, the church boasts a stunning interior: the carved and gilded wooden iconostasis executed in the best traditions Russian wood carving of the first half of the 18th century, rare 18th century icons, including those by the artists Ivan Kvashnin and Andrei Pospelov; entrance decorated with a pediment with a high relief representing angels with trumpets and two semi-niches with cherub heads; the open galleries with five apertures each with the gravestone boards built into the walls of the galleries.

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