In Sunday, Patriarch Kirill consecrated a new Russian Orthodox cathedral in Paris. The building - nicknamed "St Vladimir's", after the man who ultimately bankrolled it -is at the heart of an enormous Russian "spiritual and cultural centre" on the Seine's Left Bank, between the Eiffel Tower and the invalids. Beneath the cathedral's five gilded domes are a primary school, an auditorium, an exhibition space, offices, apartments, a bookshop and a cafe.
The French capital already has a Russian Orthodox cathedral. But it is under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch ate of Constantinople and frequented by descendants of White Russians, who fled their homeland after the 1917 Revolution. The Moscow Patriarchate therefore built its new spiritual hub from scratch. Holy Trinity Cathedral, to give it its proper name, is now arguably the most eye-catching Orthodox church in Paris.
