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The Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral

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After the January Uprising, the Russification of Polish lands intensified. The symbol of the rule of the invader was to be the Orthodox Cathedral built in the years 1894-1912, dedicated to the Russian prince, Alexander Nevsky. The architecture of the cathedral was eclectic, incorporating both Ruthenian and Byzantine styles.

A Symbol of Russification

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Alexander Nevsky was the prince of Veliky Novgorod. He was famous for having defeated the Swedes in 1240 in the Battle of the Neva River. Two years later, he was victorious over the troops of the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order in a battle on the frozen Lake Peipus. He was perceived as a defender of Ruthenia and Orthodoxy, for which he was revered.
It was no coincidence that the figure of Alexander Nevsky was chosen as the patron of the Warsaw Orthodox church. The building was intended to exemplify Russia’s domination over its Polish territories at a time when competition with the German Empire was also coming sharply into focus. Against this background, during the period of the building of the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Church in Warsaw, two powerful blocs of European states were already being formed &#8211; the Triple Alliance (the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Italy) and the Entente (France, Russia, Great Britain). In 1914, these countries began a conflict that would come to be known as the Great War.
Several decades later, in 1938, Joseph Stalin, the dictator and leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, aimed to place Alexander Nevsky on a figurative pedestal. In the face of an anticipated war with Adolf Hitler&#8217;s Third Reich, he ordered the film director, Sergei Eisenstein, to make the film Alexander Nevsky on an epic scale. Shortly after its premiere, however, the film was removed from cinema theatres. And the reason for this was the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by the Third Reich and the USSR, which contained a secret agreement based on the division of spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe.

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Alexander Nevsky

On Saski Square, between the cathedral and Królewska St., there was a 73-meter tall bell tower, which housed 14 bells cast in Moscow, the largest of which, weighing 26.5 tons, was the fifth largest in the entire Russian Empire.
The tower, modelled on the highest bell tower of the Kremlin, at one time was the highest point of the capital, surpassed only by the towers of the Basilica of St. Michael and St. Florian in the district of Praga; but this particular building was located at a lower ground level than the cathedral.

A shadow cast by the Russian empire

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The ardent Russifier and Warsaw governor-general, Iosif Vladimirovich Romeyko-Gurko, came up with the idea of building a Russian Orthodox cathedral. His plan was accepted by Tsar Alexander III. The author of the design was the architect Leonty Nikolaevich Benois. The cornerstone for the building was laid on August 30, 1894, and the cathedral would be consecrated on May 20, 1912. The construction cost 3,870,000 roubles, with the costs met in part by a “voluntary” fund; although this was in fact a tithe imposed on all village bailiffs and town mayors of the Kingdom of Poland.

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A costly investment

The cathedral was crowned with five bulbous copper-plated and gilded domes.
Many Poles, aware of the ideological importance of the cathedral, did not like the building, and it was jokingly called the “Byzantine-confectionery cake”, and the bell tower was given the name of “the Orthodox water tower”.
The most important celebration to be held in the cathedral took place on February 21, 1913, when the Romanov dynasty celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of its presence on the tsarist throne.

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A Byzantine cake

The Prince of Bavaria, Leopold, Commander of the German 9th Army, which had ousted the Russians from the Kingdom of Poland, greets the parade on Saski Square on August 9, 1915.
The First World War brought about an end to Russian rule in Warsaw. The Germans took the city on August 5, 1915. At the beginning of 1916, the cathedral was transformed into a co-denominational Roman Catholic and an Evangelical garrison church of the German army.

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Germans in Warsaw

Officers of the Polish Army, among them General Józef Haller standing on the top step, during a drum head service on Saski Square, which took place on April 24, 1919.
After Poland had regained independence, the cathedral served as a Roman-Catholic garrison church of the Polish Army.

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A garrison church

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In a free Poland, the fate of the cathedral was the subject of heated debate. Scholars, architects, writers and politicians aired their feelings on the demolition of this symbol of Russian rule.

What to do with the cathedral?

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In the end, the argument that the cathedral was a symbol of foreign domination prevailed. The decision about the demolition was made by the Council of Ministers on February 28, 1923.

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Workers strip the roof of the cathedral. Visible are murals and mosaics on the ceiling.
The demolition of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was a huge logistical undertaking. Work on the demolition of the bell tower itself lasted a year &#8211; from January 1921 to spring 1922. 1600 kg of ammonite (an explosive based on ammonium nitrate, TNT or nitro-glycerine and wood flour) were used to demolish the edifice. 14,800 controlled explosions were carried out. The demolition of the entire cathedral took three years from 1924 to 1926.

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Explosions in the centre of Warsaw

The interior of the cathedral being demolished.
The church was richly adorned not only outside but also inside. The walls and ceilings were covered with mosaics – many of which were to be found in in the dome and representing Christ Pantocrator (the God-King). Once the cathedral had been stripped of its copper roof, many of the works of art began to deteriorate; although some of them were saved during the demolition. Fragments of the mosaic by Viktor Vasnetsov can be admired today in the lower chapel of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Mary Magdalene in Warsaw&#8217;s Praga, and in the Orthodox Church of Alexander Nevsky in Baranavichy (Belarus).

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 Preserved works of art

The cost of the demolition was covered from by the profits from the sale of the building materials, with Warsaw newspapers writing about &#8220;first-class bricks&#8221; obtained from the demolition. Decorative elements were also repurposed or provided with new settings, such as in the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Pyry in Warsaw; whereas six jasper columns were used to build a canopy over the entrance to the royal crypts at Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. Fascinatingly, the marble was used to create the pedestals of the monuments of the Syrenka ‘Mermaid’ in Powiśle and Jan Kiliński on Krasiński Square (after the war, it was moved to the Old Town on a new pedestal).

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 Recycled materials

A fence surrounding the work site.
The demolition site, surrounded by a wooden fence, became one of the capital&#8217;s most attractive &#8220;advertising billboards&#8221;. On the fence, you could find posters advertising beers, cabarets, and book publishing offers. Little wonder, then, that the era of the Second Polish Republic was a period that saw the flourishing of advertising. In addition to traditional forms (press announcements and posters), advertisements were screened in cinemas and broadcast on the radio. The most famous advertising slogan of pre-war Poland was the one invented by Melchior Wańkowicz for the needs of the Polish Sugar Association: “Cukier krzepi” loosely translatable as “Sugar’s Just the Thing&#8221;. The copywriter collected PLN 5,000 for his efforts, the equivalent of more than 10 salaries of a white-collar worker.

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Advertisement gallery

Levelling the site after the demolition.
During the demolition, tunnels under Saski Square were uncovered, which caused something of a sensation. Veterans from the Warsaw Region of the Hallerczyk Association undertook to explore these mysterious tunnels. Soon they were even organizing guided tours through the tunnels. On Palm Sunday 1926, 500 people availed of this opportunity, and a week later, over the Easter weekend 2.500 people undertook this subterranean adventure; on the second day of Christmas that same year, 2000 brave souls descended into the passageways. The fees collected from the visitors were donated to help the orphans of those soldiers killed in the Polish-Bolshevik war. And what had been the purpose of the tunnels? Well, it turned out that they had been a part of the cathedral’s heating system.

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Mysterious tunnels

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter I

Chapter III