Holy Trinity Cathedral

The first Russian church in Paris is the Saint Alexander Nevsky Church, consecrated in 1861 during the Second Empire.

Following the October Revolution of 1917, which brought the Bolsheviks to power in Moscow, this church came under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, while remaining dedicated to the Russian Orthodox cult, and was elevated to a cathedral.

The Moscow Patriarchate was without its own place of worship until the inauguration of the Cathedral of the Three Holy Hierarchs in 1931, a modest church whose size gradually appeared insufficient.

The project for a new cathedral was officially launched in the fall of 2007 by Patriarch Alexy II during an exceptional visit to Paris, and received support from President Nicolas Sarkozy. In February 2010, Russia purchased a 4,000 m2 plot of land in a protected area near the Eiffel Tower, also coveted by Saudi Arabia for the construction of a large mosque. This site was the location of the Météo-France headquarters, which planned to relocate (its move to Saint-Mandé took place at the end of 2011).

On October 15, Alexander Orlov, the Russian ambassador to France, kicked off the international architectural competition for the construction of a new Russian Orthodox spiritual and cultural center.

On March 17, 2011, the jury, composed equally of Russians and French, awarded Spanish architect Manuel Núñez Yanowsky over his French counterparts Jean-Michel Wilmotte and Frédéric Borel. The project was strongly disliked by the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who considered it unsuitable for the banks of the Seine, classified as a World Heritage site since 1991. He strongly opposed the project, even appealing to UNESCO citing a "national security" risk. Amidst the controversy, Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand confessed to having "let the case rot" until the 2012 presidential election, won by François Hollande.

In September, the Territorial Service of Architecture and Heritage (STAP) issued an unfavorable opinion on the initial project, and Russia withdrew its construction permit application two months later. During a visit of the French President to Moscow in February 2013, a commitment was made to advance the project, which was important to Vladimir Putin. The runner-up of the 2011 competition, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, emerged as an ideal compromise solution: the construction permit was issued on December 24, and work began almost immediately.

On March 19, 2016, the bishop of Chersonesus, Nestor Sirotenko, blessed the cross of the main dome, accompanied by the choir of the Sainte-Geneviève Orthodox Seminary in Épinay-sous-Sénart. On August 23 and 24, 2016, the four small domes were put in place, and the cathedral was inaugurated in October of the same year, at an estimated cost of 170 million euros.

The cathedral, occupying 450 m^2, is inspired by the Cathedral of the Dormition in Moscow, the oldest (1475), largest, and most imposing church of the Kremlin. A tree-lined pedestrian street connects it to the Alma Palace (11, Quai Branly).

It is topped with five bulbs that were manufactured in Vannes (Morbihan). They are made of twenty fiberglass petals covered with 90,000 sheets of a gold and palladium alloy, giving them a relatively matte appearance. These five bulbs symbolize Christ and the four Evangelists of the New Testament: John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew. The largest is 17 m in circumference and weighs 8 tons.

Much of the interior decoration (frescoes and mosaics) is not yet installed. Its cost is estimated at 170 million euros, fully financed by Russia.

Ties with the Russian State

The work is sometimes nicknamed the "Kremlin-on-Seine," "Saint-Vladimir," or the "Putin cathedral."

The opposition historian Galia Ackerman speaks of it as a propaganda tool that is part of a vast project to "enlist Russian diasporas," a project already implemented between 2010 and 2012 when Russia took over the administration of the Saint-Nicolas Cathedral in Nice.

Historians Antoine Arjakovsky and Jean-François Colosimo, themselves Orthodox, mention the embarrassment of some of the faithful, especially those of the Saint-Alexander-Nevsky Cathedral in Paris, dependent on the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who consider the Moscow Patriarchate "conservative" and "nationalist."

The Attempt to Seize by Russian State Creditors (2014-2016)

During its construction, several former shareholders of the Russian oil company Yukos and their heirs tried to seize the cultural center and cathedral following a judgment in their favor by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2014, to compensate them for the Russian government's takeover of the company in 2003. In May 2016, the French judiciary ruled against them, invoking a precedent from 1924: the "chapel right," which makes the center a diplomatic property that cannot be seized.

The Diplomatic Incident of the Inauguration

The cathedral's inauguration was scheduled for October 19, 2016, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart François Hollande in attendance. However, following Russia's veto on October 8 at the United Nations Security Council of a French resolution to establish a truce in Syria, the French president questioned Vladimir Putin's presence at the ceremony. On October 11, Putin preferred to cancel his visit.

Thus, the center was inaugurated on the scheduled date in the presence of the Russian Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky, and the ambassador Alexandre Orlov. The French government was represented by Secretary of State Jean-Marie Le Guen, and the city of Paris by its mayor, Anne Hidalgo, and the mayor of the 7th arrondissement, Rachida Dati. Other French political figures were present, including former minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement and deputy Gilbert Collard.

The cathedral was dedicated on December 4, 2016, in the presence of Patriarch Kirill.

The monument was visited by Vladimir Putin only on May 29, 2017, during his visit to Paris at the invitation of the new president Emmanuel Macron.