Sochi Has a Big, Empty Church

Wedged between railroad tracks and a freeway overpass, the Cathedral of the Holy Face of Christ the Savior has yet to find a congregation

Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends the Orthodox Christmas service at the Cathedral of the Holy Face of Christ the Savior in the Russian city of Sochi on Jan. 7, 2014

On Jan. 7, exactly a month before the Winter Games in Sochi began, Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped by the host citys new cathedral to attend Orthodox Christmas Mass. It seemed like a symbolic moment. In record time, Putins government had built an entire Olympic city, complete with stadiums, hotels, railroads and freeways, on a patch of swamp in Sochis suburbs. It was Putins little miracle, and what better place and time to celebrate than on Orthodox Christmas in Sochis new church? There were just a couple of problems.

The ornate Cathedral of the Holy Face of Christ the Savior, built mostly in the Byzantine style, was still under construction at the time. It had been consecrated only a few days earlier, before the altar had been assembled. And then there was the issue of its location. Wedged between railroad tracks and a freeway overpass, the church was nearly impossible for any locals to approach by foot without jumping fences and running across several lanes of traffic. So people had to be bussed in to stand behind Putin and his key Olympic managers during the Christmas Mass. With that, the cathedral served its first essential function a photo opportunity for Putin. But whom it will serve when the Olympics leave town is so far a bit of a mystery.

Theres an old Russian tradition that when you make a conquest of land, the first thing you do, before building a fort or a bathhouse, is build a church on top of it, says Vasily Gromov, an amateur historian and restorer of Orthodox churches in the region of Krasnodar, which includes Sochi. But this one doesnt make much sense.

On the second Sunday of the Olympics, Gromov, who is 76, came early to the evening Mass to voice some concerns to the priests. How could they put such a massive cathedral in a place where people cant get to it? I circled around for an hour before I figured out how to get here, says Gromov. There are fences and freeways everywhere, he says. Its like a maze! So he was not surprised to see the cathedral nearly deserted during the long evening service, with never more than a dozen parishioners at a time, most of them Olympic tourists. And whos going to come here when the Games are over? Gromov asks.

(MORE: Sochis Sixth Ring)

TIME put that question to the cathedrals abbot in January, a jolly old priest named Father Flavian, who is prone to bouts of giggling that make him place his hand over his mouth. He did not have any great answers. The church, he explained, was not really part of the original Olympic project; it was conceived as an afterthoughta year before the Games began, the holy icing on the Olympic cake. Its a miracle that we even built it in time, he said. We only had four months to cover the whole interior in frescoes, which is some kind of Olympic record! (Indeed, when two reporters visited on Jan. 17, workers on scaffolds were still painting the final touches.)

But with all the rush, few considered the placement of the church or its functionality. I know, its true, its really hard to get here, Father Flavian admitted. Were pretty much on an island. Then, as another fit of chuckles started coming on, he added, When I visit Moscow and the higher clergy asks me where Im from, I tell them I work out on the bogs.

That is technically true. Just like the stadiums hosting the Olympic Games, the church rests on marshlands in a suburb of Sochi called Adler, right on the Black Sea coast, and its lack of solid bedrock has bedeviled the organizers from the beginning. The ground was so moist and unstable that Olympic buildings had to be redesigned several times, contributing to the massive cost overruns that eventually brought the overall price tag to around $50 billion more than all the previous Winter Olympics combined.

Read the original:
Sochi Has a Big, Empty Church