PARIS ORTHODOX CHURCH MADE OF NATURAL STONE
Construction works of the Cultural and Spiritual Russian Orthodox Centre are slowly coming to an end. The facade of the centre was covered with white limestone whilst granite and limestone were used inside the Holy Trinity church.
The works related to building the Cultural and Spiritual Russian Orthodox Centre officially finished in October 2016, but some finishing works are still in progress. The centre houses the Russian centre for economic and cultural cooperation, an Orthodox seminary, a French-Russian elementary school and, obviously, the church which can accommodate 500 people. The whole complex has a total area of 4,000 square metres and is located near
Quai Branly museum and close to the Eiffel Tower. Russia paid 70 million EUR for the land and spent additional 170 million EUR on building this complex.
The centre was mainly built of stone – a typically Parisian Burgundian limestone, which was also used for building Notre Dame cathedral or Louvre. The stone which was used to build the Cultural and Spiritual Russian Orthodox Centre was supplied by Rocamat company.
12,000 limestone elements were used to build the facade. Some of them have very special shapes which required advanced processing. The floor was covered with Pierre de Massangis limestone and Sierra Elvia granite. Making all the slabs and stone elements took about 8 months whilst installation of the limestone facade took 4 months.
Photo: wikipedia.org
This project was designed by Jean-Michel Willmotte.