Arizona republican., 1895-01-15
THE CLAk>S TOMB.
Room for Only a Few More Bodies
in tho Great Cathedral.
Dowdy Decorations Of Decadent School
Mar the Interior-Sarcophagi That
Mark Where the Roman
Offs Lie.

before knowing duGnt OF Its origin
(the Cathedral of SIS. Peter and Paul.,
save that it was founded by Peter the
Great, whose modest cottage lies close
by, carefully shielded from the weather,
and whose experiences in western
Europe gave him a preference for the
style of the time in which he lived. one
could vouch by merely looking at it
from the south side of the Neva, across
the stream, that it was designed by a
Dutchman, writes the St. Petersburg
correspondent of the London News
1t is devoid alike of stateliness and
race. It has singular spire, true
fieche, rising from nondescript rotund
protuberance that is supported by a
stucco tower. But, perhaps, the most
remarka bic thing about this structure
is the fact that the knob and spire were
covered, to begin with, in beaten gold
worth over four thousand one hun
dred pound sterling, which has had to
be laid out more than once, for the
spire has suffered several times from
lightning. The building itself, which
is of dull green-a washed-out eau de
Nils two hundred and ten feet long
and ninety-eight feet wide, thus differ
ing from most Russian churches, which
are in the form of Greek, or equal
armed, cross. Within few inches of
sixty feet high the ''cathedraI' Church
Of SIS. Peter and Paul strikes one as be-
Ing badly proportioned, but this evil is
abated by the space of the high altar
behind the ikonostas, OF sacred picture
screen answering to our western rood
screen, which shortens the east and
west dimensions at all times save for a
few minutes at high mass. The in
ternal decorations are a'bizarre combin-
alton of Byzantine art, with that of the
worst period, the most dowdy, the
1ecadence, of the renaissance, and not
even during great function can the in
side be called imposing.
Right and left outside the gre at gate
Of ikonostas are six very plain white
marble sarcophagi and at the west end
are two similar rows, while the whole
of the north side and nearly the whole
of the south side of the church are
filed with similar tombs. Not that
they are real tombs. They merely
mark the spaces below where the Ro-
manoffs lie in vaults And there is
not room for more than eight or nine
more without building mausoleum as
an annex to the church, a project
which has already been mooted. If it
should be carried out we may hope in
the interest of good taste that the
Dutch style of architecture will be TO
igiously tabooed. On the sarcophagi.
whose only structural ornament, if it
can be so called, is. a beveled edge
around the lids, are laid ormolu.
dor BILE or Byzantine crosses, and these
are scarcely visible for the wreaths of
evergreens and flowers, some new and
fresh daily for those whose memory is
still green, some dry and withered. as
BETTING what David calls "a dead man
out of mind" On the west end of
every sarcophagus is a brass escutcheon
giving in the Russian language the
styles and titles of him or her who lies
below, little rocking of the gray-coated
soldiers who keep guard over them,
and who, capless, bear themselves as
though they felt to their souls the
solemnity of the place and their duty.
Interspersed among the white marble
tombs are palms in pots, plants which
would be all the better for little
water, though am told they are fire.
quently changed and attended to.
There is not a single seat in the edifice
save throne for the emperor and an
other for the empress, as the Russian
worshiper is not by any means allowed
to take his ease in Domus Del
Close to the south door is the tomb of
Peter the Great, near an ilzon of st.
Peter, the frame of which gives the
height and width of the first emperor
at his birth. Facing this picture is
the tomb Of the Great Peter, with