Archeologists of the Institute of Material Culture History of the Russian Academy of Sciences have discovered bases of the belltower of Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
      
      The excavation works were conducted in front of the church’s main facade from the side of Rastrelli Square.
      
      The customer of the research is the Petersburg housing developer Ozerki JSC. Archeologists were to state definitely if the 140-metre belltower was started to be built in the 18th century, or it remained only in Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli’s project.
      
      Experts in their turn believe that Ozerki JSC is connected with Gazprom, since its structures were the first to start talking about the possibility of reviving the dominant.
      
      “We can already state now that we have found the belltower platform. It is a very mighty construction that was supposed to bear the load of a very high building” — said the head of the excavation Natalia Solovyeva, a research assistant of the the Institute of Material Culture History. She also headed research on the site of the would-be Okhta Centre.
      
      According to Ms Solovyeva, upon describing the finds they will fill up the pit.
      
      Source: karpovka.net
      
Author: Vera Ivanova