3-070-513 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

In front of the Kazan Cathedral, St. Petersburg: people running to the spot where the Emperor was murdered, 1881. 'The Cathedral or Metropolitan Church of St. Petersburg, dedicated to "Our Lady of Kazan," is conspicuous in our Illustration of the scene on the road beside the Catherine Canal, with the people hastening to look at the spot where Alexander II. received his mortal injuries from the bombshell of the assassins on Sunday, the 13th March. The Kazan Cathedral, as it is often called, stands on the right-hand side of the Nevsky Prospect, but a little retired from the street, half a mile from the Admiralty Square. Its front is adorned with a semicircular colonnade of Corinthian pillars, intended for an imitation of that of St. Peter's at Rome. The dome rises immediately behind the centre of this colonnade; the plan of the building is that of a Greek cross, which should have four equal arms; but one transept is made shorter than the other, for want of space on the side next the canal'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.