St. Isaac's Cathedral

St. Isaac's Cathedral is St. Petersburg's most famous church in a city with many churches. It is the second largest domed church in the world behind only St. Peter's in Rome. The interior is ornately decorated with Russian mosaics, murals and contains numerous types of mineral and semiprecious stones. It was built between 1818 and 1858, by the French-born architect Auguste Montferrand. The cathedral's facades are decorated with sculptures and massive granite columns (made of single pieces of red granite), while the interior is adorned with incredibly detailed mosaic icons, paintings and columns made of malachite and lapis lazuli.