Sunday, September 9, 2018

An "Orthodox Vatican" in the works?

(Meduza) - The Russian Orthodox Church hopes to erect an “Orthodox Vatican” in Sergiyev Posad, just outside Moscow, that would require the demolition of several downtown buildings, according to the BBC Russian Service. Journalists learned about plans for an “open-air temple” at the walls of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius with a platform stage that would allow the church to hold outdoor mass.

The new church will feature a library, a complex of various church institutions, a youth center, a “congress center,” and a media center. The “Orthodox Vatican” would gobble up real estate currently occupied by the Sergiyev Posad town administrative building, two hotels, a shopping mall, an outdoor market, an amusement park, and several residential buildings. They’re all slated for the wrecking ball.

In August, arch-priest Leonid Kalinin (who heads the church’s art and architecture council) first announced the plans to “cleanse the town of its Soviet legacy” and transform it into “the spiritual capital of Orthodoxy.” At the time, Kalinin said the development project already had the approval of Patriarch Kirill and Vladimir Putin. The president’s administration initially ignored the BBC’s inquiries about the proposed “Orthodox Vatican,” but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said the matter is a regional issue that doesn’t require consent from the head of state.

Officials decided a year ago to remodel Sergiyev Posad, and the “Strelka” design firm is drawing up blueprints based on a state procurement order. The plan will reportedly go to the authorities in November for approval, followed by public hearings. Town officials and spokespeople for “Strelka” say they only learned about the church’s apparent plans to build an “Orthodox Vatican” from reports in the news media.

The blueprints drawn up by “Strelka” say nothing about a mass demolition of buildings in the area. The town’s plan would remove only a few “awful” abandoned homes, former Mayor Sergey Pakhomev told the BBC. Sergiyev Posad, meanwhile, still hasn’t located funding for its remodeling project.


  1. I read about this on the Russian language BBC site. The language and tone make it sound like a smear campaign, supported by the fact that it has mainly been covered on the BBC and Meduza and similar liberal sites that publish anything they can against the Church.

  2. Also, before anyone starts blowing a gasket, keep in mind that it was not a Church official who used the term "Orthodox Vatican." This phrase appeared in the original article written by a journalist for the Russian language site of the BBC.

  3. Exactly, it is not the size that makes the Vatican the Vatican it is the Papal pretensions contained within its walls.

  4. A much better description of what they have in mind can be found here:

  5. The Vatican is an independent country. This sounds like a nice administrative headquarters.