Construction of
controversial 4,800 sq metre complex has been marred by architectural,
financial and political disputes
A view shows the Russian Orthodox church and
spiritual centre before its inauguration in Paris.
A vast Russian “spiritual and cultural centre”
crowned by a golden-domed Orthodox cathedral – widely seen as a grand
expression of Moscow’s quest to project an image of itself as a powerful,
religious country – is set to open in Paris.
The 4,800 sq
metre complex-features the newly-built Holy Trinity Cathedral capped with five
gilded domes; a parish centre comprising an auditorium and foyer, offices and
apartments; a French-Russian primary school for 150 pupils; and a cultural
centre, including a bookshop, exhibition spaces and a coffee shop.
Vladimir Putin
was due to attend the unveiling, highlighting the centre’s symbolic importance,
until the Russian leader last week cancelled his planned visit amid a row with
France and other western powers over the continuing war in Syria.
The
construction project has also been marred by architectural, financial and
political disputes. French officials have expressed concern that the building
is a stone’s throw from a sensitive government compound. As well as housing
France’s supreme magistrates council, the neighbouring Palais de l’Alma
contains the Élysée Palace’s postal service and the private apartments of
senior presidential advisers.
French media
reports say that country’s counter-espionage services have surrounded the
building with jamming devices to prevent the Russians from using it for
electronic surveillance.
The purchase of
the plot was first proposed in 2007 by the head of the Russian Orthodox church
at the time, the late Patriarch Aleksii II, as part of a Russian campaign to
gain control of churches and graves dating from tsarist times and reassert
control over the Russian diaspora, including in France, where there are an estimated
200,000 followers of Russian Orthodoxy.
Former French
president Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly intervened personally to ensure that
Russia could buy and develop the plot near the Eiffel Tower and Alexandre III
bridge.
Initial plans for the site were described by a
former Paris mayor as “mediocre” and “utterly inappropriate”.
Initial plans
for the site were described by a former Paris mayor as ‘mediocre’ and ‘utterly
inappropriate’.
In 2010, the
then Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, signed the deal on behalf of Russia to
purchase the prized property by the banks of the Seine river – a
Unesco-protected site – for €73m (£65m). Reports said other countries seeking
to buy the plot included Saudi Arabia and Canada.
But an initial
request to build the Russian Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural Centre, filed in
January 2012, was met with opposition in the French capital.
Then-Paris
mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, described the plans drawn up by architect Manuel Núñez
Yanowsky – featuring five golden onion domes, white limestone, and glass – as
“pastiche”, “mediocre,” and “utterly inappropriate for the site”.
After François
Hollande succeeded Sarkozy as France’s head of state in 2012, French heritage
officials issued further criticisms, before Russia withdrew its first
application for a building permit.
The project was
then redesigned under the supervision of architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, and a
building permit was issued in December 2013.
Construction
began in 2014 against a backdrop of deteriorating ties between Moscow and the
west over Russia’s actions in east Ukraine, where it occupied and annexed
Crimea and has lent support to armed separatists who continue to control parts
of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The cost of the
construction work, by French company Bouygues, has been estimated at around
€100m.
The Russian
culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky, is set to attend this week’s opening
ceremony for the centre, which officials have described as a “symbol of
friendship” between Russia and France.
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