Television Channel “Culture” [“Kul’tura”]: A New Russian Church is Being Built in Madrid

A new Russian Orthodox Church will be constructed in Madrid in coordination with the Head of the Russian Imperial House, Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna.

“The members of the parish, which was founded a decade ago, have received permission to build a church on a 756 square meter plot of land located in a fashionable district of Madrid, near the metro station Pinar del Rey,” according to a statement today from the press office of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The church has been designed by the Moscow architect Aleksei Vorontsov, in collaboration with the Spanish architect Jesús San Vicente. This will be the first brick Russian Orthodox Church on the Iberian Peninsula.

The blessing of the corner stone is planned for the beginning of December 2011 as a final event of the “Year of Russia” in Spain.

The first Russian parish in Madrid, the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, was built in 1761 and functioned down to the year 1882. In the years after the war, a chapel of St. Seraphim of Sarov was located in the private house of the Russian Imperial Family. More recently, a parish of the Nativity of Christ was founded in 2001, though services have until now been held in a former furniture factory.

The need to build a new church has been under discussion for a long while, but a new impetus began after the visit to Spain of Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev in March 2009. During that trip, President Medvedev’s wife visited the Nativity of Christ parish. The mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, promised at that time to look into the allocation of a suitable property for the construction of a Russian Orthodox Church. A new Nativity of Christ Fund was registered with the Spanish Ministry of the Culture, and is chaired by the parish priest, Fr. Andrei Kordochkin. The Board of Trustees for the Fund includes the director of the Office for Foreign Institutions of the Moscow Patriarchate, Bishop Mark of Egorievsk, and Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna, who resides in Madrid.

This story first appeared at http://www.tvkultura.ru/news.html?id=812448&cid=178