Smolny Cathedral

Elizabeth intended to retire to a convent and commissioned Rastrelli to build it, and Smolny is the result: begun in 1748, a cathedral in sky blue and white with a central dome and four flanking domed towers clustered tightly around it, in the exuberant Elizabethan baroque Rastrelli also produced at the Winter Palace and Tsarskoye Selo. It was never finished as designed. Rastrelli's model, which survives, shows a free-standing bell tower of about 140 metres that would have been the tallest building in Russia at the time; Elizabeth died in 1762, Catherine II disliked the baroque and the money ran out, and the tower was never begun. The interior was completed only in the 1830s, in a plain classical manner completely at odds with the exterior, which is the first thing visitors notice. It served as a concert hall for decades and returned to church use in 2010, with a viewing platform in one of the belfries.

History

The convent was begun for Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, who meant to become a nun after she was passed over for the throne; when she became empress in 1741 instead, she kept up her patronage of the convent. Rastrelli built its cathedral from 1748 to 1764, but Elizabeth's death in 1762 ended his plan for a bell tower that would have been the tallest building in Russia, and Catherine II, who disliked the baroque, let the money run out. Vasily Stasov finished the building only in 1835, with a neoclassical interior, and it was consecrated on 22 July 1835; closed in 1923, it was left to decay until it became a concert hall in 1982, and in April 2015 it was returned to the church. Its name comes from the pitch, smola, prepared here for shipbuilding in the city's early days (Wikipedia, Smolny Convent).

The main sights

• The blue and white exterior - Rastrelli's Elizabethan baroque with clustered domes.
• The missing tower - a planned 140-metre belfry that was never begun.
• The plain interior - finished in the 1830s in a classicism that clashes with outside.
• The belfry platform - a viewing level with the city and the Neva bend below.

When to go

Year-round. One hour including the belfry. The viewing platform has separate hours and closes in bad weather.

What to expect

The interior is a severe disappointment after the exterior, which is a genuine feature of the building rather than a fault. The belfry climb is stairs with no lift. It functions partly as a church and partly as a venue, so access varies.

Nearby

The Tauride Garden is west; the Neva embankment is behind the cathedral.

Key facts