By the Senate decree of July 15, 1761, Savva Chevakinsky was entrusted with designing a new building to replace the dismantled one. The project was not realized, but it was Chevakinsky who came up with the idea of moving the church further away from the river — in one of the versions, the site chosen for it was where the modern cathedral now stands.
Catherine II approved the idea of reconstructing the bell tower of St. Isaac's Cathedral, but in its former forms, disregarding Chevakinsky's project, which proposed a completely different appearance for the cathedral. Soon, Chevakinsky resigned. In 1766, a decree was issued to begin work on the new construction site designated by Chevakinsky. On January 19, 1768, Catherine II signed a decree "On the production of marble and rough stone for the construction of St. Isaac's Church in the Keksgolm district, in the Serdobol and Ruskeala parishes, with the arrangement of grinding mills there." The ceremonial laying of the building took place on August 8, 1768, and a medal was struck in memory of this event.
The new cathedral project was developed by Antonio Rinaldi. According to the architect's design, the building was to have five intricately patterned domes and a tall, slender bell tower. The walls were to be entirely clad in marble. Circumstances unfolded such that Rinaldi was unable to complete the work he had started. The building was brought only up to the cornice when, after Catherine II's death, construction ceased, and Rinaldi left for abroad.
Rinaldi’s Project
Paul I, who ascended the throne, instructed architect Vincenzo Brenna to urgently complete the work. Brenna began work on April 1, 1798. Initially, the architect intended to follow Rinaldi’s project, but soon, due to lack of funds, he was forced to distort Rinaldi’s design. By that time, the cathedral had been built up to the base of the domes’ drums. Brenna had to reduce the size of the upper part of the building and the main dome, abandon the construction of four small domes, and reduce the height of the bell tower by one tier. The marble intended for cladding the upper part of the cathedral was redirected to the construction of Paul I’s residence — the Mikhailovsky Castle. The cathedral ended up with distorted proportions, squat, with a strange combination of a luxurious marble base and brick walls.
This structure provoked ridicule and bitter irony among contemporaries. The following epigram became widely known in various versions:
This monument of two reigns,
So fitting for both:
On a marble base
The upper part is brick.
Its authorship was attributed to A. D. Kopyev and was cited as one of the possible reasons for his arrest and exile from the capital in 1797[28]. According to another version, based on the notes of Ya. I. de Sanglen, the epigram was composed by a naval officer named Akimov, who was arrested when attempting to attach a sheet with the quatrain to the cathedral’s facade. Following the emperor’s order, his favorite, General Obolyaninov, and Admiral Balle arranged for his tongue and ears to be cut off and sent him to Siberia. In various versions, Petersburgers recited the dangerous epigram:
This temple will show us,
Who with favor, who with scourge,
It began with marble,
It ended with brick.
Later, under Emperor Alexander I, when the final Monferrand version of the cathedral was being executed and the brickwork was dismantled, folklore responded with a new epigram.
This temple depicts three reigns:
Granite, brick, and destruction.
On May 30, 1802, the third St. Isaac’s Cathedral was completed and consecrated. In a form completely different from that designed by Rinaldi.
Already soon after its construction, the opinion formed that the building needed to be rebuilt.
