Smol'nyy Cathedral

This guide to Smol'nyy Cathedral in Saint Petersburg opens with a vow: cornered by rivals for the Russian throne, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, ordered this convent built as her own retreat and hired Bartolomeo Rastrelli, architect of the Winter Palace, to raise it. Then a palace coup changed her path entirely, and the project's purpose shifted with her. Along the way you'll meet Rastrelli's unbuilt dream of a bell tower meant to out-top every spire in Russia, and Catherine the Great, who inherited the project and despised the style her predecessor loved.