Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church and President Vladimir Putin Fr. Igor Palkin /foto.patriarchia.ru
A huge glass and camouflage green cathedral dedicated to Christ’s Resurrection and the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany is being built at Patriot Park, a venue run by Russia’s Defence Ministry in a forest near Moscow that is used for arms shows and patriotic rallies.
Last month President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church led the consecration of the cornerstone of the church, which is to be built in the Russo-Byzantine style.
During a tour of the site, Putin met with Vassily Nesterenko, the artist in charge of frescoes for the new church. Nesterenko, who worked on frescoes and icons for Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, which was reconstructed in the 1990s, told Putin that the first fresco would be called “The Return of Crimea.” Others will be devoted to Soviet and Russian military operations in Vietnam, Angola, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria, the Kommersant newspaper reported. Nesterenko is best known lately for monumental paintings that depict Russian troops saving Syria from ruin.
Plans to build the church were announced just two weeks earlier, on 4 September, by Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister. The church is to be built by 2020, in time for the 75th anniversary of victory in the Second World War, and will be devoted to that theme. Read more