Explore Religious Heritage Across Europe

The Russian Church of Geneva, officially called the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, is a Russian Revival style Orthodox church built between 1863 and 1866 and enlarged in 1916. It was initially built for the small Russian diaspora.

The Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker, known as the Russian Church, is one of the most emblematic buildings in the city. Its construction began in the late 19th century and was originally designed as a chapel at the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria. The temple almost immediately lost its role after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

The St. Alexis Memorial of Russian Honour is a Russian Orthodox Church built in 1913. It commemorates the 22,000 Russian soldiers who fell in the 1813 Battle of Nations in and around Leipzig.

The cathedral, designed to meet the needs of the Russian colony, was built in 1903 by Préobrajenski, professor of architecture at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg, inspired by the five-dome churches of the late 16th century in the Moscow region. The realization is made possible by the generosity of Tsar Nicholas II, who authorized the construction of the villa Bermond, his personal property, in the park. The domes of the cathedral, consecrated on December 18, 1912, are made of reinforced concrete. The iconostasis and several icons are the work of the painter Leonid Pianovsky. Restoration work was carried out on the roofs and facades of the cathedral between 1989 and 1992. Near the cathedral, a chapel commemorating Tsarévitch Nicholas Alexandrovich, who died of tuberculosis in 1865, was built in Byzantine style from 1867 to 1868.

The Russian Orthodox Church "Mother of God Parish, Consoler of the Afflicted" and its adjacent monastery were founded in the 1980s. The monastery is housed in a low house for agricultural workers, which is believed to have been built around 1903. In 1988, the small church was built by the architect Hugo Dezutter, allegedly on the model of a wooden church in Novgorod. The colourful roofs with the large hexagonal rider and the smaller onion-shaped tower make the church a real icon.

Above the priory of the Granges, nests a "wooden cathedral", in Russian Orthodox style. Built in Russia, transported and reassembled in France by young Russian carpenters, it offers in the Eastern chapel a "beautiful Iconostasis" as well as a rich collection of holiday icons. The western chapel contains two exceptional Flemish works from the 15th century.

In 1999, the Russian Orthodox Church in the Northern Netherlands acquired the former Reformed church building in the Frisian village of Hemelum. This church was built in the garden of the first deacon of the Reformed Church, Arent Gosses Visser. According to the archives of the Reformed Church, the piece of land was purchased from the first deacon for 150 guilders. In terms of the archive: "the Lord disposed of a piece of land". The church was built as a Doleantie church. The church building was transformed into a monastery, which was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra . The Russian Orthodox community thus continued a tradition. In the Middle Ages, there was a monastery in Hemelum, which was founded by the Benedictines of the monastery of Saint Odulphus in Stavoren . This monastery was also dedicated to Nicholas of Myra. The Reformed Nicholas Church of Hemelum was later built on the foundations of the old monastery.

Rute Church is one of the 92 medieval churches on the island of Gotland.

The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church was built between 1820 and 1847. The Greek-Catholic believers were Ruthenians from Novi Sad who immigrated to the city in the mid-18th century. On the front of the temple, there are three mosaic icons: the icon of St. Paul, the icon of St. Peter and the central icon of Jesus on the shroud with a cross. These three icons together form a magnificent triptych. They were made by the Budapest professor of fine arts, Laslo Puskas. The glass was made in the famous "Olsoni" factory on the island of Murano in Venice. The factory also delivered mosaic glass to the United Nations building in New York.

The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church was built in 1784 and took on its present appearance when it was renovated in 1836. The rich sculpture of the iconostasis wall is the work of Aksentije Marković from 1791. Three years later, Arsenija Teodorović was engaged for the painted decoration of the choir. The mural decoration was painted in 1936 by Milenko Đurić.