Cathédrale Alexandre-Nevski

Near the Parc Monceau, this Russian Orthodox cathedral is crowned by five gilded onion domes that glint above the surrounding Haussmannian streets. Consecrated in the 1860s, it served the growing Russian community of Paris and became a spiritual centre for émigrés after the revolution. The interior glows with icons, frescoes and gilded iconostasis in the Byzantine-Muscovite tradition. The painter Kandinsky was married here and the writer Turgenev's funeral was held within its walls, linking it to the cultural life of the diaspora.