Description of the attraction
The Russian cemetery in the suburbs of Paris Saint-Geneyev-des-Bois traces its history back to 1927, when Princess Meshcherskaya founded the “Russian House” here for elderly emigrants. It was then that the first Russian graves appeared in the town's cemetery.
Now, in a special area, several thousand Russians are buried here, who have found rest in French soil. The names of many of them are widely known to the world. Therefore, the whole cemetery is called "Russian".
The cemetery is mostly Orthodox. On it stands a small church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, which was consecrated in 1939. It was built with public donations designed by the Russian architect and painter Albert Benois. The church was built in the tradition of the Novgorod-Pskov architecture of the 16th century. Together with his wife, the artist painted the inside of the temple. Here, in the crypt of the church, both are buried.
The church belongs to the Archdiocese of Orthodox Russian Churches in Western Europe. In 1975, she was included in the list of monuments under the protection of the French state. The cemetery itself contains up to 10,000 Russian graves. Since 1960, the local municipality has been pushing for the demolition of the cemetery, believing that the land was necessary for public use. According to French law, the burial is preserved only until the end of the lease term. In 2008, the Russian government paid 692 thousand euros to pay off debts and extend the lease of land at the cemetery.
Poet Alexander Galich and writer Ivan Bunin, historian Andrei Amalrik, film director Andrei Tarkovsky, great dancer Rudolf Nureyev, artist Konstantin Korovin, chemist Alexei Chichibabin are buried at Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois. Hundreds of names of people are carved on crosses and tombstones, who are the flower of Russian culture and science, and are examples of military honor.
According to the project of Albert Benois, a monument to the participants of the White movement was erected here, repeating in shape a stone mound, built in 1921 near the city of Gallipoli on the shores of the Dardanelles. That, the first mound, was destroyed by an earthquake, the monument on Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois took over from him the baton of memory.
