Almost as soon as the Russians won the war with Sweden thus recovering lands on the Baltic coast and started the building of Petrograd (later St Petersburg and then Leningrad and then back to St Petersburg), the Tsar asked for a Cathedral to be built.
The first two were a bit small and not fit for the purpose. The third one was rather rapidly built and therefore badly constructed. The present Cathedral exists as a major reconstruction of the 3rd Cathedral. It was named "St Isaacs" because Peter the Great was born on St Isaacs Feast Day.
Heavily Neo-classical, and therefore in my view not very Russian. But still amazing, and something of a fortress during the 900 day siege of SPB.
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