The Russian Orthodox Church in Copenhagen: A View from the Architect's Homeland

St. Alexander Nevsky Orthodox ?hurch in Copenhagen (1881-1883) is associated with the name of Princess Dagmar of Denmark, who became the empress of the huge Russian Empire under the name of Maria Feodorovna. The church, which was designed by academician D. I. Grimm, is unique not only for the Danish capital, but also unusual for Russian ecclesiastical architecture of the second half of the nineteenth century, since this type of the Basilica structure during that period is represented by very few samples. Orthodox origin of the church is mainly evident in the distinctive domes and some other architectural details associated with Russian architecture. It is shown in this article for the first time ever, that the design of St. Alexander Nevsky church in Copenhagen is based on and inspired by D. Grimm's earlier project - namely, the church in the village of Starozhilovo (1867). However, the choice of materials and decoration techniques demonstrate, that the architect definitely took into account the immediate environment - namely, the buildings of the Eastern Supreme Court (Ostre Landsret), St. Ansgar Catholic church and particularly the Moltke mansion, whose exterior features are also analyzed in the article.The author suggests a hypothesis to explain the unusual choice of the architectural model and location for the church.