The streets of Neva, Peter the Great, golden domes with Orthodox crosses, mosaics. “A Russian corner” in the center of cold, stiff bourgeois Ottoman Paris. “This is very curious, very original, very beautiful,” exclaimed Napoleon III upon seeing the plans for the future Russian church, and allocated a small piece of land on Daryu Street for its construction.
The first stone was laid in 1859, and just two years later the church was consecrated. Built according to the designs of architects Kuzmin and Strom in the style of tent architecture of the 17th century, decorated inside with frescoes by Russian artists – gold medalists of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, it immediately became more than just a place of worship, but the heart of Russian Paris.
Here, in the pre-revolutionary era, young Ilya Repin and Vasily Polenov come to meet with older friends, here Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev is buried. After the revolution, Russian officers of the White Guard bring regimental icons here, a copy of the crown in which Nicholas II was anointed king is carefully preserved here. Here, in the school attached to the church, which is still operational today, first-generation emigrants raised their children in the Russian spirit. Here Pablo Picasso married the ballerina Olga Khokhlova. Here, Bulat Okudzhava, who passed away in Paris, was buried. And many, many other events are connected with this church on Daryu Street…
