First construction period At the end of the 19th century, only two Catholic churches existed in Moscow: the
Saint Louis des Français church for the French population and the
St. Peter and Paul church for the Polish parishioners. As the congregation for the Polish church had increased to around 30,000 members, the existing buildings were too small. Following the submission of a petition to the
Governor-General of Moscow, the local council voted for a new church in 1894. Construction of a new church was permitted with several conditions, including two pertinent to the building site: the structure was to be built away from the old city centre, and was not to be located in the vicinity of any
Orthodox sacred sites. Bearing in mind the council's requirements, on 16 May 1895 the parish purchased a 10 hectare (22 acre) site on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street, then located on the city outskirts and surrounded by fields and vegetable gardens. Today, the site is in the
Central Administrative Okrug, outside of the
Garden Ring road defining the old walled city, just beyond the
Moscow Metro's
Koltsevaya Line, and is surrounded by 20th century urban development. The purchase of the land was funded by donations, and cost 10,000
rubles in gold (roughly US$ ). The purchase agreement and a full list of donations are today kept in the city archives of Moscow and
St. Petersburg. A further condition imposed by the city read as follows: "In the light of the two existing Roman Catholic churches, the future church shall be larger, with a cross on the
gable, but without
spires and exterior sculpture". The plans for the building were produced by a Russian architect of Polish descent,
Tomasz Bohdanowicz-Dworzecki. Although his plan did not follow the council's latter condition, it was accepted. The plan provided seating for up to 5,000 worshippers.
Groundbreaking was in 1899, and construction took place from 1901 to 1911. The construction cost was 290,000 roubles in gold (roughly US$ ), much of which was donated by members of the Polish parish of Moscow. More funding came from Catholic parishes throughout Russia, Poland and Belarus. The church was consecrated on 21 December 1911 as the "Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary". It soon obtained the status of a chapel in the Peter and Paul parish. The consecration received extensive coverage in the Russian and Polish press. The Moscow newspaper
Russkoye Slovo wrote: In the filthy, wretched Malaya Gruzinskaya (Little Georgian) Street, forsaken by God and the city, there rose the wonderful, highly artistic solidity of the new Roman Catholic church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Holy Virgin Mary. Tremendous in magnitude and height, ... with a plenty of conning turrets and towers with crosses. The new cathedral makes a deep impression ... [Every detail] looks impressive and eminent: Not the slightest stylistic flaw could be seen or detected. From 1911 to 1917, money was collected for interior furnishings, which were relatively sparse apart from the impressive
main altar. (These original furnishings remained until the 1930s.) Parts of the draft plan were abandoned: the floor was not constructed from marble as intended, but poured from plain concrete; outside there were no pinnacles on the façade. Writings vary on when the pinnacles were built: some claim they were built in 1923, but others argue that they were not completed until the renovation of the cathedral in 1999. Observers that argue for an earlier construction date state that they were damaged during
World War II and left dismantled for some time.
Closure and conversions In the aftermath of the
Russian Revolution in 1917, the
Provisional Government was overthrown by the
Bolsheviks, and
Russia became part of the new
Soviet Union. As the promotion of
state atheism was a part of
Marxist–Leninist ideology, the Soviet government
ordered many churches closed. The Peter and Paul parish was formally dissolved by the communist government in 1929, and offering the
Mass was forbidden. The church lost much of its surrounding gardens in 1935—a school was built there the following year—and the church was finally closed on 30 July 1938 (the
St. Peter and Paul Church, Moscow had met the same fate nine days earlier). The church was plundered after its closure, and many items, including the main altar and the organ, were lost. The church was used for several months as a vegetable store, and was then reconstructed as a hostel and its interior divided into four floors. The main tower's spire was removed during the
Battle of Moscow to prevent the
Luftwaffe from using it as a landmark. Shortly after the war ended in 1945, sections of the gardens were annexed for the building of an apartment block. A fire in 1956 caused the collapse of the lantern over the principal tower's dome. Existing tenants were slowly rehoused, and members of the Mosspetspromproyekt (Russian:
Мосспецпромпроект) research institute took possession of the former church. The research institute dealt primarily with project drawings for industrial facilities, but also designed the Olympic cauldron used at
Lenin Stadium for the
1980 Summer Games. During the 1960s and 1970s, the building's exterior became increasingly dilapidated; among those concerned about the church's deterioration was Russian
bard Vladimir Vysotsky, who lived in a house across the street. In the late 1970s the city considered renovating the building, possibly to use as a concert hall for organ recitals, or as a general cultural administration centre. These projects were never carried out due to resistance from the research institute.
Return to religious use The
glasnost (openness) policy, introduced during the rule of
Mikhail Gorbachev, played a major role in developing
religious freedom in the Soviet Union. Consequently, in 1989, a group of Moscow Catholics and the cultural association "The Polish House" (Russian:
Дом Польский), suggested that the building should again be used for religious purposes. Following the city's assent, the first Mass at the site in 60 years was celebrated on the church stairs during the feast of the
Immaculate Conception on 8 December 1990. The Mass was celebrated by the Polish priest
Tadeusz Pikus, who later became an
auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Warsaw. In January 1990, a group of Catholics in Moscow formally founded the parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary. On 13 April 1991
Pope John Paul II promulgated the
encyclical Providi quae establishing the "
Apostolic administration for European Russia". Its apostolic administrator,
Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, issued a decree for the reconstruction of the church on 21 April 1991. With the city's permission, on the
Polish National Day (3 May) a second Mass was held, again on the stairs. The constitution of the parish was officially acknowledged on 31 May by the department of justice of the city council. Meanwhile, parts of the church were subleased by Mosspetspromproyekt to various companies. From 7 June 1991, Masses were celebrated each Sunday in the churchyard—the institute still occupied the building. On 15 July 1991, Father Josef Sanewski, a member of the
Salesians of Don Bosco, was appointed the new parish priest. Religious education had been given regularly under the direction of the Salesian Sisters since 29 November 1991. At the same time, the first charities were founded for nursing and aid to the poor. The vice-mayor of Moscow,
Yury Luzhkov, signed a decree in favour of the Church on 1 February 1992 ordering the institute to vacate the property by 1994. Parish members entered the building on 2 July 1992, and occupied the institute's workshop. Moscow City Council agreed to allow the church to occupy the space, which was subsequently walled off from the remainder of the building. There, in the former workshop, Mass was celebrated regularly. The dividing wall was removed by parish members on 7 March 1995, while others started clearing the truss. The institute called the police,
OMON, for help. The following day, more conflict with the police occurred and several parish members, among them a
nun, were injured. Others were arrested, including a priest and a
seminarian, but were released the next day. After these events, the Apostolic Administrator, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, wrote an open letter to the Russian president,
Boris Yeltsin, on 9 March 1995, requesting his intervention: "It seems that persecution of the church was history. Is that the case? I can't remember seeing a priest arrested, and I can't remember seeing a nun beaten up." As a result, Senior Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, a Yeltsin appointee, signed a decision for the removal of the institute. The decision, dated 7 March 1995, ordered the institute's departure by 1996. Simultaneously, the institute wrote to Luzhkov describing the earlier events from their perspective, and requested compensation for loss of the building. In a meeting with the Polish ambassador,
Stanisław Ciosek, on 15 March 1995, the acting mayor of Moscow, Alexander Musykantski, assured him that the return of the church would be complete by the end of the year. On 19 March 1995, a Mass was celebrated in the reclaimed part of the church under the direction of
Papal Nuncio John Bukovsky, who delivered Pope John Paul II's blessing to the parish. In a new decision dated 2 November 1995, Luzhkov ordered Mosspetspromproyekt to leave the building by the end of the year at the latest. When the order was still not implemented, parish members entered the institute on 2 January 1996 and began the removal. Institute director Evgeny Afanasyev called the police once again, but on this occasion, they declined to intervene. Subsequently, the institute director asked the parish priest for a final extension of the removal date by two weeks—Mosspetspromproyekt vacated the building on 13 January 1996. On 2 February 1996, the Archdiocese of Mother of God at Moscow obtained official permission to use the church indefinitely.
Restoration and reconsecration In the early 1990s, plans were made by the Office for Monument Protection to restore the church by 1997, the 850th anniversary of Moscow's foundation. This proposal was not implemented because of the dispute over occupancy. However, in 1995, the city determined that the parish would be responsible for restoration costs. A commission was founded for the planned restoration, chaired by parish priest Josef Sanevski, Russian historian
Stanislav Durnin, and Polish building contractor and politician
Grzegorz Tuderek. From 1996 to 1999, the church was restored with the help of sponsors
EnergoPol, a Polish company, and
Renovabis, a German association for Catholic churches. The Russian government provided funds towards the conclusion of the project. Reconstruction took place initially under the direction of Polish companies PKZ and Budimex, who completely restored the façade and roof. From September 1998, Father Andrzey Stetskevich and
Jan Tajchman, architect and
restorer from
Toruń, Poland, jointly oversaw the work; they had previously headed the restoration of the Catholic Assumption Cathedral in
St. Petersburg. (Stetskevich later rose to become
vicar general of the Catholic Archdiocese of Moscow.) The interior fittings and the new altar were built by Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian experts. Companies in Moscow carried out all the internal and external
marble work. The church furnishings were produced, under the direction of Vladimir Mukhin, by students from the St. Petersburg renovating school.
Stained glass for the façade's
rose window were made in Toruń, other windows were produced by Tolotschko, a Belarusian company from
Hrodna. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was ceremonially reopened on 12 December 1999 and was reconsecrated by the
Cardinal Secretary of State of the
Roman Curia,
Angelo Sodano. The cathedral incorporates a library, the editorial office of the Russian Catholic magazine
The Catholic Messenger—The Light of the Gospel (Russian: Католический вестник — Свет Евангелия) as well as the local office for the
Caritas charity. ==Architecture and facilities==