Description
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Alexandre-Nevsky) is the Russian Orthodox cathedral of Paris, on Rue Daru in the 8th arrondissement: five gilded onion domes in a style its builders called "Byzantine Muscovite", consecrated in 1861 as the first Russian Orthodox church in France.
Inside, the plan echoes Hagia Sophia and every surface is painted and gilded. The highlight is the iconostasis, the screen of icons that hides the altar, with the Annunciation and the four Evangelists on its central doors. Murals tell the life of Christ, from the Sermon on the Mount to the Last Supper.
The five towers stand for Christ and the four Evangelists, and the gilded domes for the flames of the worshippers' candles. Services are sung in Church Slavonic; the crypt below holds its own parish, partly in French.
Pablo Picasso married the dancer Olga Khokhlova here in 1918, with Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire as witnesses. The funerals of Turgenev, Kandinsky and Tarkovsky were held here too.
Inside, the plan echoes Hagia Sophia and every surface is painted and gilded. The highlight is the iconostasis, the screen of icons that hides the altar, with the Annunciation and the four Evangelists on its central doors. Murals tell the life of Christ, from the Sermon on the Mount to the Last Supper.
The five towers stand for Christ and the four Evangelists, and the gilded domes for the flames of the worshippers' candles. Services are sung in Church Slavonic; the crypt below holds its own parish, partly in French.
Pablo Picasso married the dancer Olga Khokhlova here in 1918, with Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire as witnesses. The funerals of Turgenev, Kandinsky and Tarkovsky were held here too.