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Saint Isaac's: The iconic St. Petersburg cathedral

Local authorities in St. Petersburg announced lately that Saint Isaac's cathedral would be returned to the Russian Orthodox Church

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The St. Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the St.Petersburg’s landmarks and a UNESCO World Heritage site

© AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky

The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, a patron saint of Peter the Great. Photo: Sculptures of angels on the 'Angel balustrade' at St. Isaac’s Cathedral

© AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky

The St. Isaac's Cathedral was built by French architect Auguste Ricard de Montferrand in 1818-1858 and transformed into a museum after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution

© Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

The cathedral's main dome rises 101.5 metres and is plated with pure gold. Photo: The Palm Sunday procession around the St. Isaak's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, 2014

© AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky

Sculptures of 24 angels were installed on their plinths 63 meters above the ground after five years restoration. Photo: 'Angel balustrade' at the St. Isaac’s Cathedral

© AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky

Church services were resumed at St. Isaac’s in 1990

© AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov

In 2015, the St. Petersburg diocese asked the city government to hand the cathedral back to the Church

© AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva

However, St. Isaac’s was not property of the Orthodox Church even prior to the revolution since its maintenance was very expensive

© Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

The cathedral was managed by the Imperial Ministry of Communication Routes and Public Buildings until 1871 and was then turned over to the Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire. Photo: A light show projected on the St. Isaac's Cathedral during a Festival of light

© AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

According to the St. Isaac's Cathedral museum’s director, Nikolay Burov, the museum at the cathedral is one of Russia’s most popular and visited by some 3.5 mln tourists annually. Photo: A man fishes through an ice hole on the Neva River in St.Petersburg, with the St. Isaac's Cathedral in the background

© AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky

More than 100,000 people lately signed a petition against handover of St. Petersburg's famous St. Isaac’s Cathedral museum to the Russian Orthodox Church. The petition was first published after the Orthodox Church’s attempt to gain control of the cathedral, one of Russia’s most popular museums visited by some 3.5 mln tourists annually.

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