The Russian Orthodox Church in Wiesbaden was built from 1847 to 1855 by Duke Adolf of Nassau on the occasion of the death of his wife, the 19-year-old Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia, niece of Emperor Nicholas I. Adolf and Elizabeth married in 1844, but the following year, she died in childbirth, as did their newborn daughter. He grieved so profoundly that he decided to build a church around her grave. He obtained the money for this church, with the blessing of Tsar Nicholas, from her dowry. Construction of the church was assigned to senior building officer Philipp Hoffmann, who studied Russian church architecture, particularly at first in Russia. As a template for this church, he took the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. On 25 May 1855 the church was finally dedicated in honour of St. Elizabeth, the mother ofJohn the Baptist and patron saint of the deceased princess. Shortly afterwards, the coffin containing the Grand Duchess and her baby was taken in a procession from the St. Boniface's Church its previous temporary shelter, into the crypt of the Russian church and buried there. Simultaneously with the construction of the church were built a small rectory and a Russian cemetery, located about 100 meters northeast of the church. The church was used by the already-existing Russian Orthodox community, mainly Russian guests, for whom Wiesbaden was a popular resort in the 19th century. Even Emperor Nicholas II worshipped in the church during his stay in Germany, together with his newly wedded-wife, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. This event is noted on a gold panel attached to the church. A lasting community formed around the church only in the 1920s, when many White Emigres fled in the wake of the Russian Revolution, theRussian Civil War and the Bolshevik takeover of their country and came to Germany. During the 1990s, the interior of the church, particularly its marble and frescoes, was renovated and restored. The crypt was renovated in 2002-2005.
Architecture
Exterior
The church is a beige building of hard sandstone, still visible everywhere on the outside. The outer layout of the church is a square with an extended arc in the north. The building is "crowned" with five fiery-gilt domes, with the four smaller ones surrounding the large central dome to the northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest. The domes, typically for Russian churches, are onion-shaped and have grooves running lengthwise from top to bottom. Each dome is topped by a similarly gilt Orthodox cross. All crosses point to the south; the cross in the center is above and slightly larger than the other four, which are of the same size. The domes rest on smaller cylindrical towers, with the main one in the centre higher and wider than the others. This is also at the top under the dome completely covered with window panes cover, so that here, light can fall directly into the interior of the church. The smaller towers have rather narrow, oblong windows, through which the light falls only inside the tower, since these are not connected with the interior. The northeast tower is an exception: this contains a spiral staircase, the entrance of which is directly under the dome; from here it is possible to reach the roof of the church by a small gate in the tower. The church has two entrances: the south and the west entrance. The south entrance was originally only for Fürsten and other members of the nobility. It offered visitors leaving the building a panorama of Wiesbaden, which stood at the feet of the church. After the fall of the last Tsar, Nicholas II, in 1917, this entrance was sealed forever. The entrance for the "ordinary people" and the current main entrance was the west entrance. Visitors entering the church through this door see, as in most Russian Orthodox churches, the iconostasis opposite. Medallions of particular saints, crafted from sandstone, are located above the outside entrances. A medallion of Saint Helena rests above the west entrance; at the southern entrance, one of Saint Elizabeth ; and on the east side, above the window of the sanctuary, one of the Holy Archangel Michael. These were the patron saints of the father and mother of the Grand Duchess, as well as her own. Approximately ten steps of red sandstone lead up to the entrance, which is spanned by an arch that in turn sits on each side upon two columns.
Other information
The church building was featured twice on stamps of the Deutsche Bundespost in the Sights definitive series. In addition, there is an illustration of the church on tourist signs on the Autobahnen around Wiesbaden.
