Some researchers drew attention to the fact that there are references to the manufacture and delivery of the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral back in 1820, while before the installation, the final decision on the construction of the currently existing fourth IP under the Montferrand project was made as early as April 3, 1825. Therefore, the columns could not be mined earlier than this date. All the more so 5 years earlier.
In particular, the Russian émigré writer Lukash Ivan Sozontovich in his work "The Dreams of Peter" (1931) refers to the magazine "Son of the Fatherland" for 1820, which published an article by the future Decembrist Bestuzhev.
Magazine archive scanned by Google
But, I have not yet figured out how to find Bestuzhev's article "Kronstadt" there, I'll figure it out later, and if anyone can help, write in the comments.
Here is a quote from the work of Ivan Lukash:
Image
In the "Son of the Fatherland" about 1820 in the month of October, a short entry is given about them, and it is marked like this:
"N. Bestuzhev. Kronstadt". The Decembrist Bestuzhev wrote past and forgotten records about two granite masters.
And who to remember, and now they are forgotten, and now the names of the builders of the city of St. Peter, the same Korobov and Zakharov, the masters of the Admiralty Colleges, the same Sukhanov and Zherbina, builders of one hundred thirty-two columns of the Kazan Cathedral and fifty six (56) columns of Isaac, and the granite pillar of Alexandrov in fifty-three thousand (53 000) pounds of weight, and embankments of all granite-clad St. Petersburg.
Here he mentions 132 columns of the Kazan Cathedral, although there are much more of them, but I am not touching the Kazan Cathedral right now. If you are interested, google it. The impression is that it was written by foreigners who have not been to St. Petersburg.
53 thousand poods = 850 tons for the Alexander Column is also too much. According to OM and according to calculations, it should weigh 600 tons. Suppose it weighed a little more in its unfinished form when it was put up, but not by 250 tons!
But 56 columns of Isaac is my part! You will laugh, but the last Isaac has exactly twice as many columns - 112. Half was eaten by a crocodile.
There is such an anecdote. Thomas the unbeliever was warned that there were crocodiles in the river. He did not believe it, swam, the crocodile bit off half of Thomas, but Thomas insists that he was right:
- You are all lies … There is no cro …!
But maybe it meant that Isaac had 56 columns below? Indeed, in the beginning, it could only be about the lower columns. And then the flight. Isaac has 48 columns at the bottom, 24 at the top around the dome, 32 on 4 bell towers (8 on each) and a few more inside.
It is even more interesting that the same Bestuzhev in his other story "The Columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral" says that the columns are not 56, but … 36. Quote:
There are 36 columns of solid granite stone for St. Isaac's Cathedral;
I could find this story of Bestuzhev in a copy of the magazine scanned by Google for 1820, pp. 173-179.
The question arises, what columns could there be before 1825? The magazine is for 1820. Maybe this all happened in a parallel reality?
Moreover, according to OV, the first column was installed in 1828, and the last of the columns on the lower floor in 1830. Why get them 10 years earlier? Moreover, it can be transported at once on 3 unique ships of increased carrying capacity, 2 pieces on each. Where is the hurry?
And the answer is very simple. The last project of Montferrand was approved in 1825, and before him they began to implement the previous project, approved earlier, and postponed at the very initial stage, instead of which the final current cathedral was already produced.
Image
I collected various sketches of this project on the net:
ImageImageImageImage
That is, to be precise, it is this option that is the fourth cathedral, and the currently existing one is the fifth. But, since the fourth was never built, but immediately proceeded to the fifth, then the fifth is considered the fourth. And the fourth is "the third and a half."It was for him that they drove these columns, which are mentioned by Bestuzhev and some other sources.
The modern IS has 4 columned porticoes, this one has only 2. Here is the plan of the modern cathedral:
Image
The unfinished version from 1818 did not have two side column porticos (west and east), but there were north and south. The modern cathedral has 16 columns in the north and south, 32 in total, but why Bestuzhev speaks of 36 is not clear. Maybe in the previous version there were 36, but I have not found information about this yet.
It also raises doubts why Bestuzhev attributes 132 columns to the Kazan Cathedral when there are 192 of them.
And even more interesting is that Bestuzhev claims that the columns weighed only 190 kg. This is what my previous topic was about.
12 inflatable columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral rolled under the table. Officials are not flattered
There is another dubious thing about OV. A quote from the surviving minutes of the meeting of the commission for the construction of the Cathedral:
Note on the subjects of the occupation of the Commission of St. Isaac's Cathedral at the meeting thereof on August 8, 1824.
1. About the orders concerning the unloading of granite columns from the ship sunk at the pier. …
It seems to be nothing surprising. Why not sink one ship? Anything can happen.
But, in another source, the details of this story are very confusing:
On July 29, 1824, one ship with two columns sank between St. Isaac's Bridge and the Admiralty. The contractor Zherbin, who delivered the convoy, himself wished to unload the sunken ship. To do this, he hired 40 of his own workers and hired more 600soldier, refusing the services offered to him by Montferrand Samson Sukhanov.
RGIA, f. 1311, op. 1, d.237, l. 18, 38 vol. - 40 vol. Excerpts and links are taken from: V. K. Shuisky. Auguste Moferrand. The history of life and work. - SPb.: OOO MiM-Delta; M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2005. Pp. 98 - 101.
First, it speaks of a sunken ship with two columns, and in the next sentence, one column. But maybe a typo.
And it looked something like this:
Image
This is also a drawing by Montferrand. And imagine that this column is at the bottom of the Neva. What high-speed divers were then - science does not know.
Most of all, the figure is embarrassing - 600 soldiers called for help. The fact is that, according to Montferrand's version, exactly the same number of soldiers called for help when the Alexander Column sank in 1832 while being loaded onto a ship in the Puterlax quarry:
Image
Drawing from page 60 of the Montferrand album
When the monolith was moved from the mooring platform to the ship, the wooden supports could not withstand such a heavy weight and broke off. The column collapsed into the water and could go to the bottom of the sea.
In the meantime, help was requested from the nearby Friedrichsgam fortress. six hundred (600)soldier
They seem to be copying from the same anecdote.
Returning to the OV citation about the sunken pair of St. Isaac's columns:
The work was to be carried out in the presence of engineer-general K. I. Opperman, but due to his illness on August 12, at 7 o'clock in the morning, the president of the Academy of Arts A. N. Olenin. The unloading of the ship began at 10 o'clock "in the presence of the British ambassador, Mr. Bagot and other foreigners."
And it was successfully implemented. According to Olenin, all work lasted no more than two hours;and not a single rope broke and not a single rope cracked."
It is impossible to ignore the ascent rate. Columns weighing 120 tons by hand - less than an hour. 120 tons are 2 railway wagons with rubble. And there are 2 of them.
You will laugh, but the Alexander Column was installed on August 30, 1832, also in no more than 2 hours. Different sources figure from 105 minutes to two hours.
Related Topics:
The outlines of a giant statue on the site of the Alexander Column in the painting by G. Gagarin "Alexander Column in the Woods"
12 inflatable columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral rolled under the table. Officials are not flattered
A classified Cyclopean structure on the site of the Alexander Column at the beginning of the 19th century
The main builders of St. Petersburg have neither graves, nor offspring, nor portraits. Because they were not invented.
The unsolvable confusion of the official history in the size and weight of the pedestal under the Alexander Column
Why can tomatoes of domestic and other production purchased in the supermarket in the winter months taste like grass, and the most beautiful radish is strangely bitter in the mouth and provokes nausea? Trying to diversify our diet with what we think are healthy vegetables, we can do ourselves a disservice during the winter months. It's time to figure out which products on supermarket shelves in winter are probably stuffed with chemicals
