Church of St. Alexander Nevsky

In 1876, at the time when the Russian Volunteer Corps was stationed in Serbia, a mobile military Russian chapel was brought to Belgrade. The patron of the chapel was the famous Russian commander, prince and saint Alexander Nevsky. The mobile chapel followed the Russian troops to all the battlefields in Serbia where this army was engaged. After the war, the mobile military church was relocated and instead, a smaller church was built in 1877 dedicated to Saint Alexander Nevsky. In 1891, the Council took down this church and built a school in its place. The new temple was constructed in 1894 at another spot not far away, but also had to be moved due to subterranean waters and cracking of the foundations. In 1912, the construction of a new church began at a new location, in the space between the Dušanova, Dositejeva, Skenderbegova and Francuska streets. World War I postponed the construction and the church was finished in 1928–29. The marble iconostasis (originally planned for the Oplenac church) was donated by King Aleksandar Karadjordjević in 1930. The Church of St. Alexander Nevsky was made in the spirit of the medieval Serbian religious architecture of the Morava School. Project designs were done by arch. Jelisaveta Načić, Serbia’s first woman architect. After World War I, arch. Vasilije Androsov made some changes to the design. Monuments to warriors who died in the wars of liberation (1876–1918) are set in the choirs, as well as the monuments to Russian Tsar Nikolai II and King Aleksandar I Karadjordjević. The current wall paintings were done in 1970–72 by the priestmonk Naum Andrić using the ‘al secco’ method of painting.