Since the belfry is not standalone, but an integral part of the main building, the cathedral is sometimes considered the second tallest Orthodox Church in the world.

Its gold-painted spire reaches a height of 123 meters (404 ft) and features at its top an angel holding a cross.

The cathedral's architecture also features a unique iconostasis (the screen which separates the nave of the church from the sanctuary).

The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family, who were finally laid to rest in July 1998.

On September 28, 2006, 78 years after her death, Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, was reinterred in the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul.

In 2005, the governments of Denmark and Russia agreed that the empress's remains should be returned to Saint Petersburg in accordance with her wish to be interred next to her husband.

In the note, renovators from 1953 apologized for what they felt was rushed and shoddy work (Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev wanted the angel refurbished for the 250th anniversary of the city that year).

In Amsterdam the only bellfounder at that time, Jan Albert de Grave [nl], was married to the widow of Claude Fremy.

In 1757, only one year after this disaster, a new carillon was ordered from Holland - this time by a bell-founder in Hoorn named Johan Nicolaas Derck.

The bells were cast and the carillon installed by the Royal foundry workshop Petit & Fritsen from Aarle-Rixtel in North Brabant.

The contribution was presented in the name of Her Majesty Queen Fabiola of Belgium, the Belgian King Boudewijn Fund, the Government of Flanders, the authorities of various Flemish cities and communities, including businesses, and financial institutions, cultural communities, schools and universities, and also ordinary citizens of Belgium, Russia, England, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, the US and Japan.