Publications in the Architecture section

Court temple of the Romanov family. 10 facts about the Kazan Cathedral

The Azan Cathedral was built in St. Petersburg in 1811. It became a real decoration of Nevsky Prospekt and was the largest church in St. Petersburg for almost half a century. We present 10 interesting facts about the Kazan Cathedral.

Out-of-competition project by Andrey Voronikhin

Monument to Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov. Square in front of the Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg. Photo: artpoisk.info

The grave of commander Mikhail Kutuzov. Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg

Monument to Field Marshal Mikhail Barclay de Tolly. Square in front of the Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg. Photo: petersburg4u.ru

Temple of the House of Romanov

The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary was the court church of the Romanov dynasty. A list of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God was kept here - she was considered the patroness of the dynasty. When the Kazan Cathedral was built, it inherited both the shrine and the role of a court temple. All members of the royal family were married here, thanksgiving services were held here after unsuccessful assassination attempts on Alexander II, and the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov was celebrated here.

Gifts from the imperial family were kept in the sacristy of the cathedral: a Gospel in a gilded silver frame weighing more than 33 kilograms, a cross made of lapis lazuli, a golden church cup decorated with diamonds, rubies and mammoth ivory.

Main cathedral shrine

The temple was consecrated in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, one of the most famous Orthodox shrines. The cathedral houses a copy of it, which is also considered miraculous. It is believed that Peter I personally ordered the delivery of the shrine to St. Petersburg, and until the construction of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the icon was kept in a chapel on the Petrograd side.

After the Patriotic War of 1812, Mikhail Kutuzov returned to Russia hundreds of kilograms of silver items that the retreating French had taken from Russian churches. Part of this silver was transferred to the Kazan Cathedral. It was used to decorate the shrine of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the iconostasis of the main chapel. Vasily Sadovnikov. View of the Kazan Cathedral. 1847

Fedor Alekseev. Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in St. Petersburg. 1811

Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism

In 1932, the Kazan Cathedral was closed. Instead of a cross, a gilded ball with a spire was installed on the dome of the temple, and church utensils were distributed among city museums. Inside the cathedral there is a Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. Its exposition told about the emergence and development of Christianity, Islam, and Eastern beliefs. Here one could see a collection of Orthodox icons of the 17th–20th centuries, amulets and amulets, ritual objects and the largest collection of books on the history of religion and religious studies.

Relics in the attic

The relics of saints, which were kept in the temple, were hidden in the attic of the Kazan Cathedral for almost 20 years. Employees of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism transferred there the relics of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, Saints Zosima, Savatius and Herman of Solovetsky, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Saint Joasaph of Belgorod. Only in 1991 were the shrines returned to the temple, and the relics of Saint Joasaph were sent first to Moscow and then to Belgorod.

Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg is one of the largest religious buildings in St. Petersburg.

As always, let's start with the history of the Kazan Cathedral. On September 6, 1733, a stone court church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Baroque style, with a wooden dome and a bell tower above the entrance, was founded on Nevsky Prospekt. The author of the project was architect Mikhail Zemtsov. The consecration of the temple took place on June 13, 1737 in the presence of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The day before the consecration, the revered image of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, found at the end of the 16th century, was transferred to the temple. In 1747-1748, the painter Louis Caravaque created the temple image of the “Nativity of the Virgin Mary”.

In 1773, Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich was married in the temple. The church was the place where many victories of the Russian army were celebrated.

In the middle of the 18th century, it was planned to give the temple a more formal appearance. Thus, the architect Semyon Volkov developed a project for a five-domed completion and a new bell tower, but it was not implemented. At the end of the 18th century, another project was developed by Giacomo Quarenghi and Nikolai Lvov.

In 1799, Emperor Paul I announced a competition for the design of a new cathedral to replace the dilapidated Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. Among the competition participants were famous architects: P. Gonzaga, C. Cameron, D. Trombara, J. Thomas de Thomon. However, not a single submitted project was approved.

A year later, Count Alexander Sergeevich Stroganov, near whose residence the temple was located, proposed the emperor a new project created by the young talented architect A. N. Voronikhin. This project was approved, and Count Stroganov became the chairman of the board of trustees during the construction of the cathedral.

The foundation stone of the new temple took place on August 27, 1801 in the presence of Emperor Alexander I. Construction was completed in 1811 and cost the treasury 4.7 million rubles. On January 1, 1811, the author of the Kazan Cathedral project, architect A. N. Voronikhin, was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree.

On September 15, 1811, Metropolitan Ambrose consecrated the Kazan Cathedral. That same year the old church was dismantled.

The Kazan Cathedral was perceived by contemporaries as a monument to the military victories of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812. In 1812, honorary trophies were delivered here: French military banners and the personal baton of Napoleonic Marshal Davout. Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov was also buried here.

Until the end of 1829, finishing work continued in the cathedral, led by O. Montferrand. The first renovation of the cathedral took place in 1844-1845, the second, which included the restoration of images and wall paintings, in 1862-65.

In 1834-1836, the iconostasis of the main chapel was lined with captured silver taken from the French. 40 pounds of this silver was sent by the Don ataman M.I. Platov. After 30 years, the iconostases of the northern and southern aisles were also lined with silver. After the confiscation of church valuables, the iconostasis was lost. Currently, the silver on the iconostasis has been restored.

In 1837, in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the defeat of Napoleon, bronze monuments to the famous Russian commanders M. I. Kutuzov and M. B. Barclay de Tolly were solemnly opened on the semicircular square in front of the Kazan Cathedral. The author of the project was the outstanding Russian architect V.P. Stasov, and the figures of the commanders themselves were cast according to the models of the outstanding sculptor B.I. Orlovsky. The monuments emphasized the memorial significance of the Kazan Cathedral as a kind of monument to the unfading exploits performed by Russian soldiers in the name of the Fatherland.

At the end of the 19th century, next to the royal seat, made of Finnish granite, under glass hung a message from the Holy Synod on the assassination of Alexander II, and on a nearby column - the 1815 manifesto on the Holy Alliance.

On January 18, 1921, Metropolitan Benjamin consecrated the “cave” winter chapel of the Holy Martyr Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow.

The persecution of the church, which began after the revolution of 1917, also affected the Kazan Cathedral - on January 25, 1932, the cathedral was closed, and on November 15, 1932, the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism was opened in the building. The interior was restored in 1950-1956, and the facades were restored in 1963-1968.

Divine services resumed on May 25, 1991 in the left aisle. The following year the main chapel was consecrated. On April 30, 1994, a cross was raised onto the dome.

By decree of Patriarch Alexy II of December 31, 2000, the cathedral was returned to its cathedral status and it became the main church of the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Emperor Paul I wished that the temple being built at his behest would be similar to the majestic St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. A reflection of this wish was the grandiose colonnade of 96 columns erected by A. N. Voronikhin in front of the northern facade. If the colonnade of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome closes the square, then the colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral opens towards Nevsky Prospekt. This architectural solution allowed A. N. Voronikhin to solve the problem that faced all the builders of churches on Nevsky. The avenue stretches from west to east, and churches are organized in the same way - in the west there is an entrance, in the east there is an altar. Therefore, religious buildings were forced to stand sideways to the main highway of the city. The colonnade made it possible to make the northern part of the cathedral a ceremonial one. From the south, the cathedral was supposed to be decorated with the same colonnade, but A. N. Voronikhin’s plan was not completed. Having secured the ends of the colonnade with monumental porticoes, Voronikhin designed passages along the canal and the street towards which the western façade of the cathedral was facing.

The facades of the cathedral are faced with gray Pudozh stone. Previously, they were decorated with reliefs and statues made by I. P. Martos, I. P. Prokofiev, F. G. Gordeev, S. S. Pimenov, V. I. Demut-Malinovsky. Not everything planned was achieved. Thus, two pedestals on the sides of the colonnade have survived to this day; until 1824, there were plaster sculptures of angels on them, which had to be replaced with bronze ones.

The northern gates of the Kazan Cathedral were cast in bronze, modeled after the famous “Heavenly Doors” of the 15th century in the Florentine Baptistery.

Inside the temple there are 56 columns of the Corinthian order made of pink Finnish granite with gilded capitals.

The Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (Kazan Cathedral) in St. Petersburg was built in 1801-1811 by the architect A. N. Voronikhin to store the revered copy of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Kazan. After the Patriotic War of 1812, it acquired significance as a monument to Russian military glory. In 1813, commander M.I. Kutuzov was buried here and the keys to the captured cities, standards, banners, Davout’s marshal’s baton and other military trophies were placed, some of which are kept in the cathedral today. During construction, St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome was taken as a model. On the outside of the cathedral there are 182 columns made of Pudost stone, inside the temple there are 56 columns of the Corinthian order made of pink Finnish granite.

Photos are clickable, with geographic coordinates and linked to a Yandex map, 02.2014.

1. Modern view of the Kazan Cathedral from above

2. The initial project of the Kazan Cathedral, not completed. It was planned to build two colonnades - northern and southern, only the northern one was implemented

3. Panorama of the northern facade of the Kazan Cathedral

4.

5. Pediment "All-Seeing Eye"

6. Dome of the cathedral. The cross crowning the dome rises 71.6 m above ground level. The Kazan Cathedral is one of the tallest domed buildings. The dome is supported by four powerful pillars - pylons. The diameter of the dome exceeds 17 m. During its construction, Voronikhin, for the first time in the history of world construction practice, developed and used a metal structure

7.

8.

9. Colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral, includes 96 columns

10. In front of the cathedral in 1837, according to the design of the sculptor Orlovsky, monuments to Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly were erected. During the Great Patriotic War, they were camouflaged and soldiers passing by them gave them a military salute. Near the monuments they swore an oath of allegiance to the Motherland.

11. Bas-relief “The flow of water from a stone by Moses in the desert”, I.P. Martos

12. Bas-relief “Appearance to Moses in the Burning Bush”, P. Scolari based on the model of I. Commander

13. Monument to M.I. Kutuzov

14. The facades of the cathedral are lined with gray Pudost stone. Pudost stone is calcareous tuff mined near the village of Pudost, Gatchina district, Leningrad region (the quarries were exhausted in the 1920s), its deposits date back to the late Pleistocene and were formed on the site of a small lake. Pudost stone is easily processed and changes color depending on the light and weather, taking on various shades of gray and yellowish-gray. The stone is interesting because the original viscosity was retained inside, while the outer part acquired the hardness of baked brick. For the cladding of the Kazan Cathedral, 12 thousand cubic meters of Pudost stone were required

15. Mummers

16. Capital of the column of the Kazan Cathedral

17. A person compared to the columns of the Kazan Cathedral, the total number of external columns is 182. The columns are assembled from blocks of Pudost stone, and the joints between them are worn out. Due to the fragility of the stone, immediately after the creation of the columns it was covered with so-called Riga alabaster, but this did not help the preservation of the columns

18. Bronze statue of St. Vladimir, the baptist of Rus', in his left hand he holds a sword, and in his right hand a cross, trampling on a pagan altar. Sculptor S.S. Pimenov, 1807, cast by Ekimov

19. Bronze sculpture of St. Andrew the First-Called, sculptor V.I. Demut-Malinovsky, 1807, cast by Ekimov

20. The two-meter base of the cathedral and its colonnades are made of huge blocks of Serdobol granite. Stairs leading to the colonnade were made from slabs of red-pink rapakivi granite

21. Bronze statue of Alexander Nevsky, sculptor S. Pimenov, 1807, cast by Ekimov. At Alexander’s feet is a sword with a lion, the emblem of Sweden, and a Russian shield rests on it.

22. Sculpture of John the Baptist, sculptor I.P. Martos, 1807, cast by Ekimov. All four statues took 1,400 pounds of bronze.

23. Bas-relief "Adoration of the Magi" on the northern portico, F.G. Gordeev

24. Each such column weighs 28 tons, height is about 14 meters

25. Capital

26. Column close up

27. Cross on the dome

28. Cathedral Doves

29. Monument to Barclay de Tolly, on top is the high relief “Copper Serpent” by I.P. Prokofiev

30. Bas-relief “Giving the Tablets to Moses on Mount Sinai”, P. Scolari based on the Lactman model

31. The carved portal of the northern doors of the temple is made of Ruskeala marble. The northern gates of the cathedral are cast in bronze, modeled after the famous “Gates of Heaven” of the 15th century in the Florentine Baptistery (Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Ghiberti), V. Ekimov. This is a copy, but with the plots mixed up

32. Bronze compositions on Old Testament subjects on the original in Florence, cast from left to right in pairs:
1 "The creation of Adam and Eve. Their fall into sin and expulsion from paradise."

2 "The sacrifice of Abel and his murder by Cain."

3 "The killing of the Egyptian by Moses and the exit of the Jews from Egypt."

4 "Abraham's sacrifice to God of the son of Jacob."

5 "Isaac's blessing upon Jacob."

6 "The sons of Jacob in Egypt buying grain from Joseph."

7 "The Jews in the Desert and Moses Legislating on Mount Sinai."

8 "Encircling the ark around the walls of Jericho, destroying Jericho."

9 "The defeat of the proud Nicanor, who threatened to destroy Jerusalem."

33. Inside the temple there are 56 columns of the Corinthian order made of pink Finnish granite with gilded capitals. The interior of the cathedral is divided by granite monolithic columns into three corridors - nave. The central nave is four times wider than the side naves and is covered with a semi-cylindrical vault. The side naves are covered with rectangular caissons. The ceiling is decorated with rosettes imitating painting in the form of a stylized flower. They are made of French alabaster, the only material, according to A.P. Aplaksin, “which hardly had anything foreign in it, except for the name; no other materials of non-Russian origin were used for the entire construction... were not used.”

34.

35. Commemorative plaque with the inscription “Began 1801 with the permission of PAUL I”

36. Memorial plaque with the inscription “The care of ALEXANDER I died in 1811”

37. In 1812, honorary trophies were delivered to the Kazan Cathedral: French military banners and the personal staff of Napoleonic Marshal Davout. The Kazan Cathedral began to turn into Russia's first museum of military relics of 1812 on the initiative of Kutuzzov. At the same time, Russia was at war with Persia and 4 Persian banners taken near Lankaran were brought to the cathedral. At the beginning of the 20th century. In the inventory of the cathedral there were 41 French banners and standards, 11 Polish ones, 4 Italian ones, 47 German ones, as well as 5 military badges - 3 French and 2 Italian. Total - 107 banners and standards. Field Marshal M.I. Kutuzov was buried here on June 11, 1813. Above the grave there are 5 standards and one banner, which have survived to this day. Later, a painting by the artist Alekseev “The Miracle of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Moscow” was placed above the grave. The painting depicts the liberation of Moscow by the militia under the leadership of K. Minin and Prince D. Pozharsky in October 1612 with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God

38. Kutuzov's grave

39.

40. After the successful liberation by Russian troops under the command of M.B. Barclay de Tolly of Western Europe, from Napoleon, keys from French fortresses taken by Russian troops began to arrive in the cathedral. 97 keys were placed on the walls of the cathedral, most are now in Moscow, but 6 sets of keys are located above the grave of M.I. Kutuzov: from Bremen, Lubeck, Aven, Mons, Nancy and Gertrudenberg

41. Banner and standards of the Napoleonic army, keys to European cities

42.

43. Standard

44. Standards of the Napoleonic army

45. Keys to Mons

46. ​​Keys to Nancy

47. Keys to Lubeck

48. Keys to Aven

49. Keys to Bremen

50. Keys to Gertrudenberg

51. Royal Doors

Contrary to reason and offended by eternity,
And the smart ones laugh
I built it so that it will not be forgotten,
A pyramid made of dust.

Nikolai Lvov, architect and builder of the pyramids.

Today, when much is known about the technologies of the past, it is increasingly difficult for official historians to hide the truth from the people. The unthinkable conclusions of these would-be specialists about the construction of the pyramids of Giza with the help of millions of workers are becoming a thing of the past. The discovery of geopolymer concrete, or rather its return to humanity, after centuries of oblivion, absolutely explains the entire technology of the ancients. All pyramids were not built by dragging and lifting megaliths, but as a result of the formwork method. Each stone of the pyramid is a block cast from geopolymer concrete, right at its location. In such cases, neither the size of the block nor its shape affects the execution technology. Those who have built their own garage or other structure know that three men: father, son-in-law and son, can lay the foundation of any shape. And at the same time, they will not have to involve neighbors, security guards to force them into slave labor, create social and sanitary facilities, or housing for slaves. It’s simple – I mixed the solvent with buckets, buckets, buckets…. You can use stretchers, bags made of mats, in general: the need for invention is cunning.
What is geopolymer concrete and how does it differ from ordinary concrete? To obtain the industrial cement we are accustomed to, special production with high firing temperatures is required, which the ancients clearly did not have. The concept of ancient is relative. The pyramids of Giza are from the 12th to 15th centuries, and the chronology of Egypt has been greatly exaggerated.
To obtain geopolymer concrete you need:
A) maintaining the proportions of the solution
B) natural phenomenon of adhesion
B) rubbing mechanisms or devices.
D) the presence of 100-200 low-skilled workers and a dozen supervisors.
To this day, geologists in the field obtain dust from rocks for their analyzes using a simple method. They simply rub stone against stone and get powder. It is important that the stones are of the same type or that the sample being studied is softer than the one with which it is ground. In general, the principle of an ordinary mortar. Of course, the Egyptians were smarter than modern historians, who were ready to seize on this idea. Some are already seating hundreds of thousands of slaves in endless rows, rubbing stone against stone to obtain ordinary dust.
For what? The Egyptians acted differently. The brought stone was placed on a slab with a recess. On top of the stone they put a device similar to a children's swing, where our boys ride on a board fixed and wrapped around in the middle, alternately pushing off from the ground. Down-up, down-up! Remember that childhood cry?
Thus, a lever appears, which, according to Archimedes, is ready to turn the Earth over, not like a stone.
The Egyptians rode on swings, and the stone rubbed against the slab and turned into the desired dust. All this is depicted on the pyramids, only the swings are perceived as levers for lifting blocks, although not one of them is depicted there either in the process of lifting or in the process of clinging to it.
So, you can understand how the dust came about. But why is she?
There is a law of adhesion in nature. It consists in the obligatory adhesion of dust. You can observe it in the form of mud after rain, when it is impossible to pull your foot out of a construction ditch. True, there is clay there, but it doesn’t change the essence.
What happens to dust after rain? Have you seen dried lumps of dirt? You can’t even take others with a crowbar.
But if you add silt from the Nile containing aluminum oxide to the dust, an interesting thing happens - you get an artificial stone, such a solid compound appears. Today this technology can be found in cemeteries, in the form of crumb monuments. Do you want it like marble, do you want it like granite, do you want it like diorite. It all depends on the dust.
Well, then, everything was the same as during the construction of a garage - they were kneaded, into bags, on their backs and dragged to wooden boxes. To save dust, sand is added - there is a lot of it.
The reader will ask, what about the granite type of blocks? Dear Thomas the Unbeliever, today not a single cladding is made of natural stone. And at that time, a fur coat was applied to the concrete base, which was later polished. Images were extruded onto it using pre-prepared matrices, so there was no diamond cutter there, much less a laser. This explains the “mathematical precision” of the master’s cutter, which the Arab guides, who have long forgotten how to work with their hands, explain to you. It's easier to grind with your tongue!
I won’t talk about the images of submarines and helicopters on the walls of tombs. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism is not capable of such a thing as to lure the lazy people who decided to voluntarily celebrate the New Year in the dusty desert. The geopolymer concrete business is booming. They even installed a gate there, opening the entrance to the pyramids. There is a gate, but no fence. Everyone goes and goes through the gate. At 21:00 the gates were closed, people scratched their turnips - there was nothing to do, we’ll come tomorrow!
A country that has nothing but pyramids has built modern resorts, with the money of the rotozeans and perhaps even one of them who is now reading this miniature.
I want to inform you that the pyramids are not tombs and there is nothing magical in them or in the Sphinx. Of course, there is a cemetery there, but it is away from the pyramids. And the pyramids themselves are repositories of the imperial treasury, standing in plain sight of everyone. Moreover, it was difficult to open it. Here you need to roll away the stone, here you need to seal the entrance, and even kill the guards. It is unthinkable to talk about undermining or undermining. Napoleon fired a cannon and fired a couple of shells into the sphinx's forehead, but only scrunched up his nose and knocked the Coptic cross off his forehead. All! This is all that the imperial power of France was enough for.
Odd man, it would be better if you went to Lake Baikal, to the Russian North, visited the taiga, held your hands in the Volga, saw Altai, the steppes of Transbaikalia.
In the mountains of the latter, when I was still a boy, I could wash a teaspoon of gold grains in a stream in an hour and a half. The price for it among the Guran Cossacks is not great - “just think it’s a grain, it’s not a nugget” - a jar of stinking Chinese hancha (rice alcohol) and waking you up. And you, boys, are not allowed to eat. Give me your gold, half a kilo of candy or halva. This is what accounting is like in Rus'. We earn money at home and spend it with the Chukhonians. Why! Their concrete is better - it leans against your back, which is useful for hemorrhoids. And if you place your woman on top of the pyramid, pregnancy is guaranteed. I would tell you where you need to put your wife, for the sake of the children, but I’m afraid to embarrass the female race. Remember, reader, there is no better method for procreation than the one that God advised, and has not yet been invented.
Perhaps in the future you will go to Stonehenge for this matter, trample your bodies, but it’s better to go to the Khokhlatsky farm, for honey and sour cream, closer to the hayloft, to a quiet pastoral, and heartfelt evenings. The children turn out like hazelnuts – strong and vigorous.
Eh, you are a tourist and an all-inclusive gourmet! Take an example from the Egyptians. Place a gate with a view of Elbrus. Just have time to remove the foam and open the gates.
Odd man! You look for all your happiness in other lands, but you don’t see bliss in your own fatherland.
Okay, out of the way, let’s talk further about how foreigners in Rus' are deceiving us.
I wrote earlier that Leningrad-Petersburg is a city older than Moscow. It was built not by Peter, but by Georgy Danilovich in the 14th century. That is the same St. George the Victorious, canonized by the Old Believer Church. Russian prince and khan. And he named this city Oreshek. He built it according to the Byzantine model, like the Forum of Constantine, because he himself was from the Roman dynasty of Byzantine emperors. The Kazan Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Peter and Paul Fortress, in general all the buildings with colonnades and even the arch of the General Staff are buildings of the 14th-17th centuries. Most of the buildings in this city were built by Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
Today you can hear from guides and read in books about the hard labor of Russian peasants in making columns of St. Petersburg cathedrals. The examples amaze with their sophisticated invention and unbridled imagination of historians.
Continuing the story about the falsification in St. Petersburg-Oreshek, I want to tell you how all these columns were made. And we will draw a conclusion together with the reader at the very end.
But first, the official version.
In the fall of 1801, the wedding of the architect Voronikhin and the draftsman Mary Lond took place in the palace of A.S. Stroganov. Today Voronikhin is considered the architect of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The newlyweds went on their honeymoon to the Karelian Isthmus. Having visited these places, Voronikhin came to the conclusion that durable and beautiful Vyborg granite would be the best material for making columns in the interior of the cathedral under construction. Vyborg granite is called rapakivi in ​​Finnish, which means “rotten stone”. Apparently, it was named so due to the fact that its outcrops on the surface of the earth were often in swamps that smelled of rot.
The Vyborg rapakivi granite massif is the largest in the world. The breaking of granite near Vyborg began in 1803. People sent by a commission from St. Petersburg worked at the breaking sites. Basically, these were Russian peasants from Yaroslavl, Vologda and other nearby provinces. The number of workers at the Vyborg scrap mill reached 350 people.
Granite breaking technique at the beginning of the 19th century. was not much different from the times of antiquity: metal wedges and rods for drilling, sledgehammers, gates, pulleys, log rollers. The breaking process required a lot of time, experience and dexterity of the mason. First, the top layer of rock was removed, exposed to prolonged exposure to sun, frost, rain and winds, exposing the granite in its original form. Then, in the sheer rock, the shape of a parallelepiped was outlined in size, supposed to be separated from the rock. Then came the long, painstaking and dangerous processing. With the help of rollers and wagons, the column blanks were loaded onto ships, which delivered them to St. Petersburg. The long journey ended on the banks of the Neva at the Admiralty. After unloading, the columns were again moved using rollers to the workshop on Konyushennaya Street, where, as a result of processing, they acquired a completed appearance. The removal, processing and delivery of one column with a height of 10.7 m cost 3,000 rubles. A total of 56 columns were delivered and installed for the colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral.
Tell me, reader, don’t you experience a state of deja vu? Swap Karelian granite for Aswan, ships for Egyptian boats, Yaroslavl peasants who became skilled stonemasons for fellahs of the lower Nile and the familiar picture will appear - a woman on a pyramid awaiting conception.
In general, St. Petersburg stonemasons are tough guys - in just a dozen years they have mastered millions of tons of stone and dressed St. Petersburg in granite. And everything is done in a cooperative manner, and it is dying out mercilessly. Here you have palaces, here you have the Neva in granite, here are the canals on Vasilievsky Island, first dug and then buried. And note, all this is done by hand. By the way, the canals, and now the arrows of Vasilyevsky Island, were buried in vain. They were the ones who saved the city from flooding. It was such an anti-resonator of sea waves from the Marquis Puddle and the Neva. Everything was extinguished there - no floods or troubles. It was in vain that these irrigation canals were filled up, oh in vain!
Here's what I'll tell you, reader. By the time the Romanovs came to Rus', Oreshek stood in all its glory, now known to you in the panoramas of modern St. Petersburg. All these Voronikhins may have existed, but they either added to something already built, or this construction was simply attributed to them. Perhaps it was restored.
Their contemporaries, just like us, did not understand how columns of enormous weight got to St. Petersburg and historians, by analogy with Egypt, came up with a version. Because contemporaries of construction did not observe any construction. So they wrote whatever they wanted, creating new legends. “smart” historians, trying to create a “golden age” for the enlightened Catherine, attributing non-existent great deeds to her reign.
I will return in other works to Catherine’s “genius” and explain why an incredible incident for Rus' happened to her: the habit of throwing mud at previous rulers did not work with Kato. Here such a trick was invented that to this day, many do not understand how this cup passed. I won’t consider various gossip about her women’s problems - she was a healthy woman and gave birth to children like no other. And her moral behavior is also not a subject for discussion. Every person is the master of his own destiny. Another thing is the government, during which mass falsification affected all aspects of Russian life. It was to Catherine’s rulers that the lies turned into centuries belonged. But I have no doubt that Catherine trembled all her life with fear for her life. The gloomy Pictet, supposedly her bodyguard, was in fact her guard, ready to kill the queen for violating the obligation she signed in Sans Souci to the Vatican. This Swiss was assigned to Kato forever and ever, and all the close guarding took place with his knowledge. I know who Pictet is. But more on that another time.
In the meantime, to the columns of Kazan and other cathedrals.
In accordance with the strict canons of religious construction, the altar part of the cathedral should be located on its eastern side, and the entrance - on the western side.
Today there is a version that Voronikhin supposedly conceived not one, but two colonnades. But funding failed. In this case, the colonnade conceived by Voronikhin would have been on the side of Bolshaya Meshchanskaya (now Kazanskaya) Street. It was then that Voronikhin had a brilliant idea: to build a grandiose four-row colonnade on the northern façade of the cathedral, facing Nevsky Prospekt. Historians regret that the project was not fully implemented. According to Voronikhin's plan, another colonnade was to decorate the opposite, southern, façade of the temple.
All this is speculation; Voronikhim may have restored a certain temple that already stood behind the colonnade, but did not build a cathedral. But for the second colonnade it was not the money that was missing, but the skill. In the time of Paul, the construction secrets of the ancestors who built Oreshek were already half forgotten. Perhaps they tried to cut down the columns, as in Aswan, researchers of the “antiquities” of Egypt, but they realized the pointlessness of these undertakings.
The cathedral is also missing another essential detail, conceived by Andrei Voronikhin. The colonnade on the side of Nevsky Prospekt, according to the project, was to be decorated with two powerful figures of archangels, stone pedestals for which can still be seen today. All this suggests that earlier there were sculptures on the colonnade that were thrown down by the Romanovs because they depicted something that should not be depicted and contradicted the Romanov version of the history of the city. This colonnade and cathedral are only part of the spiritual forum-complex built in the city. The colonnade was built with a clear intention - to perpetuate the name of the Virgin Mary. Obviously the sculptures were connected with this intention.
Until 1824, plaster statues of archangels stood on pedestals. They could not be replaced with bronze ones, as the architect intended. A legend was born among the people that it was the archangels themselves who did not want to take the places offered to them. And so it will be until, as the legend says, “a wise, truthful and honest ruler appears in Russia.” The folk echo, sometimes, conveys real events of the past. Orekhovsk residents remembered very well who had stood there before. It is not visible to the archangels that there is a place there, but to those for whom this triumphal colonnade was built.
The drawings of the approved version of the Voronikhin Cathedral project show an obelisk in front of the temple building. On the one hand, according to the architect, it determined the center of the entire composition, on the other, as some sources claim, it would indicate the location of the dismantled Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. In the book “Kazan Cathedral” A. Aplaksin noted that, oddly enough, “in the construction of the Kazan Cathedral there is no case or mention of the construction of the obelisk, and the Voronikhin drawings show only its plan. On the canvas by F. Ya. Alekseev “View of the Kazan Cathedral from Nevsky Prospect”, created in 1811, and on the watercolor by B. Paterson with the same name and from the same time, and on the famous “Panorama of Nevsky Prospect” by V. S. . Sadovnikov 1830 he is no longer there. Today there is a fountain in its place. By the way, in other engravings there is also an obelisk and a colonnade. But they are dated before the beginning of the construction of the Kazan Cathedral, that is, they stood there a long time ago.
What is an obelisk? Today it is translated as a skewer, a blade and the obelisk itself. In fact, this is the spear of Longinus, not a simple pike, but a cavalry spear, since Longinus was precisely a cavalryman. That is, the obelisk is a cavalryman’s weapon.
As you know, the spear caused the death of Jesus, and not the crucifixion. When we say that Jesus died on the cross, we understand this literally, forgetting that he was KILLED on the cross with a spear - an obelisk.
I already wrote that the cross on the church is depicted like this:
- the cross itself
- in the center there is a star with the inscription Jesus Christ
- lower at the base there is a small circle, and at the very base there is a crescent. I suspect that this is not a crescent moon, but a sign of the mother's womb. That is, the stages of Christ’s life are depicted on the cross: conception and birth - an inverted crescent, a small circle or oblique bar - the obelisk of Longinus or death, a circle or star in the center of the cross - the crucifixion and resurrection (if it’s a circle, like the Catholics, then only a crucifix, but if circle with rays, then crucifixion and resurrection).
If you draw a straight line from the obelisk (fountain) of the Kazan Cathedral, you will definitely find yourself in the very center of the Peter and Paul Fortress, built in the shape of a star. The spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, breaking out like a ray from the sky into the center of this structure, means the Resurrection of Jesus. Thus, the Kazan Cathedral of Our Lady and the Peter and Paul Complex are a single whole structure and Voronikhin has nothing to do with it. Strictly speaking, this is a cross lying on the ground.
By the way, in Orthodoxy, the ends of the cross are marked with three rings - two together, one above them. These are bezants - coin symbols. Today their meaning on the cross has been forgotten, although in coats of arms they mean good luck, joy, wealth. Let's start with the fact that today the crucifix is ​​also a coat of arms belonging to one or another Christian church. Catholics have their own coat of arms, the Orthodox have their own, Adventists and other sects are designated differently, Old Believers do not know the crucifix at all, only the cross itself. The real meaning of bezants is different. The coin is an artificial non-heraldic symbol that has received limited distribution in territorial and tribal heraldry. The coin represents wealth, less often a test of faith. Three coins on each side of the cross is nothing more than 30 pieces of silver - or a test of faith.
The above proves that Voronikhin did not carry out the construction of what was built there a long time ago. But he was unable to make the second colonnade due to the fact that the peasants of the Yaroslavl province were unable to deliver the columns, cut them down, or even polish them. They didn't know how to do it easily.
How was the colonnade built, the slow-witted reader will ask. The clever one, as I have long understood from the epigraph to this miniature, is the architect Nikolai Lvov. Now, unlike Voronikhin, he actually built a lot in St. Petersburg, for example, the Main Post Office. Not only did he build, he also solved the problem of building the pyramids of Egypt, massively constructing copies of them on his estates. And all by the hands of 5-7 craftsmen using Pi and the Golden Ratio in measurements. With the help of patterns created on the basis of these rules of mathematics, any peasant is able to build an ideal pyramid oriented to the cardinal points.
I will not go into details; those who wish will find the answer to this question themselves from Pythagoras, in the well-known theorem: “Pythagorean pants are equal on all sides.” By the way, Pythagoras is one of the many reflections of Jesus Christ in world events, along with Buddha, Charlemagne, Osiris, Isa, Andrei Bogolyubsky, Andronikos Komnenos, etc. Andronicus is a real face and a prototype of Jesus.
So the columns are built from dust, just like the pyramids.
And this is how they were built. First, parts of the columns were cast. Have you seen how in Greek and Roman ones consisting of stumps placed one on top of the other? I don’t see it clearly? Then I'll explain it more simply. Everyone in childhood had a pyramid of multi-colored rings. I hope you remember this one - the base, and a round stick sticking out of it? When you folded the rings correctly, you got a Christmas tree, if not correctly, then a baluster. So, your mother bought it for you so that you, the reader, would think and develop your thinking.
The base of the column was made in advance. A wooden stick was inserted into it, which was controlled by a plumb line. Next, a pre-prepared pattern was placed around it, tapering towards the top. The pattern designer was given the following conditions: the lower and upper size of the circle. How? And here's how! “Remember those who have trouble remembering: Pi Er is a square, there is the area of ​​a circle.”
The pattern was mounted on a stick and filled with geopolymer concrete. The first cut of the column was obtained. Then it froze and a new pattern was placed on it. For the Russian people who made barrels for cabbage, such work is a piece of cake - the technology is more complicated there. This happened until the column rose to the desired level, where it was crowned by a head. To turn it upside down just meant to topple the column. By the way, in cemeteries to this day there are circumcised or uncircumcised (with the head) columns. They mean that the person did not finish the work of his life - at the cut or broken columns, and crowned with heads, that he passed away, the person having paid off all his debts. For example, a cut column above the remains of Kutuzov’s embalmed body says that he died on the campaign and did not take Paris, and a broken column speaks of a violent death.
Finally, the column was stretched to the desired height. However, it had the appearance of a assembled product, such as we see in Athenian buildings. I think that these are not ruins, but most likely just unfinished temples.
And then the plasterers took over the column and applied a coat of artificial stone to it. Like in a modern cemetery. There was no actual grinding; apparently, patterns were again used, which were rotated manually around the applied material. However, there are many options, but the perfect fit suggests that it could not have been done without adaptations. I think that if among the readers there are builders who are familiar with plastering curved or convex surfaces, then they will comment on this process better than me. Professionals always know better. Unfortunately, I am not a builder, although I have some experience.
Well, then the ceilings on the columns and other subtleties of the craftsmanship of the architects, who, unlike modern builders, had a conscience and responsibility for their creations. That's how much has been built to last!
What was the binder in Russian geopolymer concrete, instead of aluminum oxide from the silt of the Egyptian Nile? I think chicken eggs, due to their widespread use in construction. However, this is only a version. Perhaps something else. Analysis will show. By the way, the fact that this is plaster is known from numerous photos of natural destruction of columns. This is how concrete peels off. There is a photo on the splash screen for the thumbnail.
I want to tell the reader that geopolymer concrete is seen everywhere in the world. Artificial stones in US parks, huge monoliths thrown into the sea on the beaches of Brighton, the Library of the US Congress, a lot of structures that were allegedly taken by American millionaires from Europe, where they were dismantled and then assembled in the USA, all this is geopolymer concrete. Algae does not grow on such monoliths thrown into the sea. They cannot grow on artificial stone - adhesion pushes them out. For the same reason, there is no moss on “ancient” stones in US parks. All this is the activity left over from the legacy of the Great Empire of the Slavs, Great Tartary, Rus', the Horde, which previously lay on 4 continents. The Russian Federation is the pitiful remains of a once huge empire, the common homeland of humanity, which Western separatists took into small pieces to suit their ambitions. Every whip thinks of himself as a prince and strives to circumcise his foreskin, believing that this will make him God's chosen people. Back in the 17th century, there was Rus' in the Americas, which the Anglo-Saxons conquered at the time of the fall of the empire. There were no European states either. They will appear as a result of the Peace of Tilsit, during the wars of the Reformation. The Great Troubles in Rus' are hidden under this name. And finally, the Romanovs will come to Rus', who will begin to destroy the very memory of the empire, instill legends about their achievements and successes and plunge Rus' into a state of confusion that continues to this day. The Slavs will turn from masters of the world into slaves of their cunning slaves, forgetting who they are and why such buildings as the Kazan Church, St. Isaac's Church, Peter and Paul Fortress and others were built. The Russian Nut will become St. Petersburg, the spear of Longinus will become an obelisk, Mary the Mother of God will become a Jewish girl, and Christ himself will turn from the emperor of Byzantium into a complex combination of fiction and superstition. The faith of our ancestors will follow into exile, the best books will burn, the archpriest Avvakum will die in prison, the noblewoman Morozova will suffer torment, the schismatics will burn in their monasteries, and we, the descendants of a great people, will believe the fables of historians about our past. And look like sheep at the colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral, marveling at the skill of Voronikhin, invented by the favorite of Catherine the Second, Sanya Stroganov. And we will believe that the impostor on the throne of the empire named Isaac, replaced by Peter Romanov, is the man who founded the great city, Northern Palmyra of the empire, not even suspecting that the Bronze Horseman was converted from a monument to St. George the Victorious by welding a new hands and a new head.
Remember the reader: in 1380, the Russian prince Georgy Danilovich, aka George the Victorious, canonized by the Old Believer Church, aka the Great Khan (Genghis Khan), aka Alexander the Great, aka the brother of Ivan Kalita (the king-priest (caliph, not the purse) of the khan Batu) founded a pantheon city, based on the prototype of the forum of Constantine the Great in Byzantium. All the sculptures of the cathedrals and St. Petersburg itself, made in the Roman style, and even the sculpture of Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow, are monuments taken by the Russian tsars from Byzantium. Tsars - relatives of Jesus Christ - Andronikos Komnenos through his mother, Russian princess Mary the Virgin.
The Forum of Constantine had an oval shape: from the north and south it was surrounded by a two-tiered semicircular colonnade, and from the west and east there were two large monumental arches made of white marble, connecting the square with the main street of the city.
In the north of the forum stood the city's first senate building. If you believe the description, it was a rotunda with a portico supported by four large columns. The famous bronze quadriga was kept here, which originally included a statue of the Invincible Sun (Sol invictus) driving horses. During the annual processions dedicated to the city's birthday (May 11), the quadriga was moved to the city hippodrome, and the rest of the year it was in the Senate building. When this ceremony was abolished, the quadriga was finally placed on the hippodrome, from where the crusaders took it to Venice in 1204. The seat of the Senate was soon moved to another place, and this building was not used further and probably existed until the great fire that destroyed the forum of Constantine in 1204.
In the left portico of the forum there was a chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built by Emperor Basil I in the first years of his reign. Next to it they were selling church utensils.
In the center of the forum stood a large porphyry column 37 m high (now 34.8 m). She was crowned with a golden statue of Apollo. In 1150, during a strong storm, the statue and the three upper drums of the column collapsed, and soon Emperor Michael I Comnenos (r. 1143-1180) erected a cross on top of the column. During the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders, the column was severely damaged. In 1453, when the city was captured by the Ottoman Turks, the cross was immediately thrown down from the column. In 1779, after a severe fire, the blackened and cracked column was strengthened with additional iron hoops.
The Forum was decorated with numerous ancient statues: among them figures of a dolphin, an elephant and a hippocampus, statues of Palladium, Thetis and Artemis, as well as the sculpture “The Judgment of Paris”. There may have been statues of Poseidon, Asclepius and Dionysus. However, today it is almost impossible to determine their appearance or exact location. According to the official version, in 1204 they were all melted down by the crusaders who captured the city. This is not so, they were all delivered to Oreshek, and later passed off as the work of a certain Shubin. Look at the sculptures of St. Petersburg, reader, and find everything described above for yourself. It wasn't difficult for me. And take the Alexandria Column, on St. Petersburg's Palace Square, as your starting point. The same one that Apollo crowned.
It was not difficult for Russian craftsmen to restore the structures of the forum dedicated to Christ. But the sculptures brought by the Russian squads, they kept the same spiritual values ​​and put them in their places, accurately maintaining all sizes and proportions based on the Golden Ratio and the number Pi known to them. Do you know why you feel free and good in Russian churches? They are built on the living dimensions of their architects. Before construction, they measured the person who led the construction and made a pattern from his fathom, elbow, arshin, step and other things. In any Russian building, the real dimensions of the master who created it. That’s why there are no two identical huts in the village and no two identical houses in the city. Even the Moscow Kremlin is made in elbows. That’s why it’s so pleasing to the eye.
But there are no sizes of Voronikhin in the Kazan Cathedral. There is only appropriated, alien creativity, an action that is not essentially legal.
Finally, I want to say one more thing. I didn’t come across a photo from the modern Turkish Cemberlitas Square.
There is an interesting building there. Imagine a kind of concrete depression from the middle of which rises a column made of thick copper or bronze trunks. There are either three or four of them. It looks like a spring, only very powerful. I’m wondering if this is the same “wooden” stick that we used to put rings on as children? Such a stick will act as a shock absorber and will withstand a lot. Reinforcement was invented in our time, quite recently. However, one should not think that our ancestors were dumber than us. I wish I could probe the columns of the Kazan Cathedral with a mine detector. It wouldn't be bad. A discovery is possible that will change the world's views on construction. Hey, St. Petersburg people! Take your butts off your chairs and your eyes off your computers. Ring these columns of Isaac and the Kazan Cathedral, and write to the author. I give my word to tell your honest names to the whole world. Something tells me that I'm right.
Today anyone can check that the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral are hollow in the middle by bringing a metal ruler and sticking it into the numerous cracks that have appeared in these columns. I also provide a photo confirming this in the intro. Perhaps they were made in two versions, depending on the load-bearing load. For example, decorative ones are simply hollow pipes covered with granite or marble. The load-bearing ones have a spring in the middle, and the auxiliary ones are simply castings. In any case, we are dealing with geopolymer concrete and neither Montferrand nor Voronikhin simply saw how the Kazan and St. Isaac’s churches were built, just as Catherine’s nobles, who wrote stories about numerous slaves moving huge megaliths, did not see it. These are ordinary liars who covered up the crimes of the Romanovs and invented the Golden Age of Catherine. History is not science, but mythology, and we have just convinced the reader of this. But to consolidate the material, may I offer you one more short study?
To attribute the authorship of St. Isaac's Cathedral to Montferand, in my opinion, is stupid. Here is an excerpt from the assignment for the reconstruction of St. Isaac's Cathedral in Wigel's Notes: “In words, the Emperor asked Betancourt to entrust someone with drawing up a project for the reconstruction of St. Isaac's Cathedral in such a way as to preserve the entire previous building, perhaps with a small addition, to give a more magnificent and beautiful appearance to this great monument."