Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

This guide to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn opens with Russian governor Sergei Shakhovskoy standing on Toompea hill in 1894, determined to put an unmistakably Russian skyline over the old Estonian seat of power. It follows the empire-wide funding drive and architect Mikhail Preobrazhensky's five gilded domes, sunk deep into the hill's foundations. Decades later, architect Karl Burman stood on this same spot and argued the building did not belong in an independent Estonia's skyline.