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THE BRIDGE AND CHURCH OF ST. ISAAC, PETErsburg.

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The Church of Saint Isaac.-This Church, which, when completed, bids fair to rival the most splendid specimens of modern ecclesiastical architecture, dates from the time of Peter the Great, who erected a modest church of wood, in honour of Saint Isaac, in the year 1716, which, however, was destroyed by lightning in 1735. Catherine the Second entrusted the erection of the new church, in 1768, to two German architects, Wuest and Stengel. It was to be built after the designs of Rinaldi in Rome, of varied marble, which gave an air of pettiness to the otherwise magnificent plan. The frequent wars in which Russia was subsequently involved hindered its completion. Thirtyone years afterwards the Emperor Paul determined to continue the edifice of brick; but it was not until after his death that it was consecrated, May 30, 1802, the birth-day of Peter the Great and the feast of Saint Isaac. It was afterwards determined to resume the original plan, and to rebuild the church in marble. The foundation of the new building failed, and the work was suspended until the present emperor resolved to complete it on a scale of extraordinary magnificence, after the plan of the French architect Montferrand. The materials are granite and marble, which are brought from the quarries of Finland. Thus in costliness of material it will surpass even St. Peter's of Rome. Forty-eight granite columns, each of one single mass, fifty-six feet in height and seven feet in diameter, form on the four sides the peristyle, of one hundred and twenty feet in length. The columns are of the Doric order, and are surmounted by bronze capitals. Sixteen columns form the chief front, and eight the sides. In the summer of 1836, three thousand workmen were employed on the church. Since this time, twenty-four granite pillars, each forty-two feet in height, support the dome. The exterior, we believe, has been recently completed, and the works in the interior, it is hoped, will admit of its consecration in the course of the year 1846.

The Statue of Peter the Great.-The celebrated equestrian statue of Peter the Great is perhaps the most distinguished ornament of Petersburg. It was begun by command of Catherine the Second in the year 1768, and was inaugurated in 1782, on the seventh of August, the day on which Peter ascended the throne. It is seventeen and a half feet high; the height of the rider is eleven feet. Peter on a noble horse is galloping up the inclined plane of an immense block of granite. The calm attitude of the rider is in expressive contrast with the animated movements of the animal which he bestrides. He extends his right hand to the Neva, and the wonders that surround him seem to have risen out of the void at his command. The monarch wears the old Russian costume, with a mantle; on his head he wears a laurel wreath, and sits upon a tiger-skin, without stirrups. Under the hind feet of his horse writhes a serpent, as emblem of the opposition against which the reformer had to contend. As the fore-feet of the animal are raised, the weight of the whole statue rests on the hind legs and tail, together with the dragon. The pedestal con

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sists of a block of ash-coloured granite and two pieces that have been joined to it: it is thirteen feet high, and on the lower surface forty-three feet long and twenty-one broad. The block was originally one mass, and much larger than at present, viz. forty-four feet in length, twenty-two in breadth, and twenty-seven in height. It was partially cleft by lightning and the dimensions subsequently diminished. It is much to be regretted that this mass was not left in its original rough shape; hewn as it is, it is but an affectation of nature, and disturbs the effect of the whole work. Its history is as follows: This granite rock was found in the year 1768, imbedded fifteen feet in the earth, near the Finnish village Lakhta, not far from the Bay of Cronstadt. Its weight was originally forty thousand hundred-weight. Incredible exertions were required to raise it, to transport it on a road constructed for this purpose more than eight versts, (about six miles,) and to place it upon a vessel built expressly to convey it about nine miles on the Neva. The French sculptor Falconet made the model of the statue in Petersburg, with the exception of the head, which was modelled by Marie Callot. Benedict Ersman undertook to cast it, but a difference arising between them, Falconet superintended this operation himself, and with the help of a Russian, Kailoff, effected it in 1777. The thickness of the bronze does not in some parts exceed from three to six lines: that of the tail is four inches. The weight of the whole mass of bronze is forty-four thousand and fortyone pounds, and ten thousand pounds of iron have been inserted in the hind-quarters of the horse. One front exhibits the Latin inscription, "Petro primo Catharina secunda MDCCLXXXII.," on the other, the same inscription is repeated in the Russian language.

WASSILI BLAGENNOI;

OR,

THE CATHEDRAL OF SAINT BASIL, MOSCOW.

"ONE might imagine," says Dr. Clarke, "that all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a building by way of representative to Moscow; timber huts from the regions beyond the arctic; plastered palaces from Sweden and Denmark; painted walls from the Tyrol; mosques from Constantinople; Tartar temples from Bucharia; pagodas, pavilions, and verandahs, from China; cabarets from Spain; dungeons, prisons, and public offices from France; architectural ruins from Rome; terraces

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Wafsili Blagennoi, or the Cathedral of !! Basil Moscow

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