A COSTLY CATHEDRAL SINKING.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1256, 23 January 1883, Page 3

A COSTLY CATHEDRAL SINKING.

The celebrated Cathedral of St lasac at St Petersburg, whichwas finished in, 1859, at a cost of 25,000'000d015, is, it is said, giving indications of sinking into the ground As is well know, the Russian capital is constructed on a marsh, and the site of the cathedral was selected in one of the softest portions of it. Upon the foundations, jit the outset, l,o<X),ooJdols were spent 4 in driving piles, but at no period has ' the building maintained rigid attitude,

■ and at present it manifests a dispo- ! sition to topple Jover at one corner | altogether. A short time ago an exami I nation revealed that at one side of the ; structure the columns had parted from the architrave and left a apace of three inches between, which the application of tests has shown to bo regularly increasing. In consequence of this discovery the advice of engineers was taken as to lightening the roof, and workmen were engaged to remove the heavy corner bronzes, but as the work proceeded fresh fissures displayed themselves, and the engineers grew so alarmed that they gave up the undertaking as a bad job. Since then nothing has been done except to hold consultation after consultation, with no result but the expenditure of a deal of talk and the rejection of a number of fancy projects of improvement, more or less impossible to carry out.