ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) – In the latest scandal involving the powerful Russian Orthodox Church, authorities in St. Petersburg on Thursday defended a controversial decision to give a city landmark cathedral to the church.
Museum experts and locals in Russia’s former imperial capital were rattled by the governor’s announcement this week that he was transferring St. Isaac’s Cathedral to the church. An online petition against that decision had tens of thousands of signatures by Thursday.
The neoclassical church, completed in the 19th century, has been an important museum since Russia’s 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and is now the city’s third most visited site. Some museum experts are concerned that the Orthodox Church will neglect its exhibits, which include a rare Foucault pendulum.
Mikhail Mokretsov, deputy governor of Russia’s second-largest city, on Thursday vowed that the city hall will make sure that tourists get unfettered access to the site. He said the city will retain its ownership of the cathedral and will shoulder maintenance costs while the church will get operational rights.
Church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda on Thursday assured the public that visitors will not even notice the difference when the church begins to operate St. Isaac’s.