Smolny Cathedral St. Petersburg

According to the legend, the daughter of Peter the Great Elizabeth wanted to get a haircut for a nun and chose for the monastery one of the most beautiful places on the banks of the Neva, where there was a palace in which she spent her youth.

The construction was started on the project of architect B. Rastrelli in 1748. Its location in the center of the monastery courtyard and a height of 93.7 meters create a sense of the aspiration of the structure sky high. The building can accommodate up to 6000 people. According to the architect's intention, the tallest five-tier bell tower in Russia (140 meters, 18 meters higher than the spire of the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral) was to be built next to it. But these plans were not destined to come true. Rastrelli died in 1771, and did not see his creation in its final form. And his followers decided that the high bell tower would not fit in the city landscape. The whole monastic complex was built for 87 years, breaking all records of long-term construction. Interior decoration was completed only in 1835.

The monastery was first called the Resurrection Novodevichy, then for short - the Smolny. Was consecrated as a cathedral of all educational institutions in the name of the Resurrection of Christ in the presence of Empress Elizabeth in 1748. Since 1765 in the buildings of the monastery was an educational institution for girls of noble and philistine origin. Later, Catherine II established a school for girls of the lower classes, located in a building built nearby and called the Alexander Institute. It was performed in the style of early classicism, designed by the architect Yu.M. Felten. The third part of the ensemble is the solemn building of the Smolny Institute, built in the classical style by the architect J. Quarenghi (1864). The central part of this building is decorated with a majestic eight-columned ionic portico with a pediment. During the revolution of 1917, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies was located here.

After the revolution in 1922, the iconostases, the crystal balustrade, the preaching chair of the church were looted. The premises of the monastery were used as a warehouse. The iconostasis of the church was dismantled only in 1972. In 1990, a concert and exhibition complex was opened, which is located here and now.
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