How a small Orthodox church in Nice is resisting Russia

In an upscale district of downtown Nice, called the Carré d'Or with its beautiful shops and a price per square meter also very "golden", the facade of the Russian Orthodox Church of Saint-Nicolas-Sainte-Alexandra is of the discreet kind.

Never trust appearances: the object of a standoff with Moscow which covets it ardently, it remains in the bosom of the local Orthodox community, has just decided the French justice.

“It was built in 1860 when Nice was not French.

Russia wanted to feel European.

A library was created at the same time.

An iconostasis, made in the workshops of St. Petersburg, arrived by boat.

It was too big and overflows a bit… ”, explains Alexis Obolensky, director of Acor, the Russian Orthodox religious association in Nice which manages the site.

Locks and property deeds changed

The building, considered the oldest building of Russian Orthodox worship in France, has for years been at the center of an epic conflict, to say the least, tense between the Russian Federation led by Vladimir Putin and this small associative structure of 35 active members. , often descendants of "white Russians" loyal to the Tsar.

The Kremlin wishes, in fact, the return to its fold of the place of worship as well as a cemetery of 6000 people buried in the west of the city with, as a bonus, the manual expulsion of the association.

And to achieve this, he seems ready for anything according to his opponents on the Riviera who criticize him for a certain brutality in the methods.

“They have a comprehensive policy of anything that can be salvaged, they have no brakes.

They have, for example, changed the locks on the cemetery.

We resisted, we've shared the keys ever since.

A little earlier, in 2015, we realized by chance, while we were negotiating an underground parking project, that notarial deeds had been filed with the Land Registry and gave them the property, no one had warned us », Assures Alexis Obolensky.

Too much is too much, Acor then took legal action to cancel its “illegal” acts according to him.

And it is on this point that justice gave him largely right this Thursday after examining the case last November.

The Acor is indeed the owner of the old church and the cemetery "by acquisitive prescription".

In other words, the court considers that the religious association, which has maintained and operated them since 1927, without anyone contesting it during this period, can legitimately claim ownership.

On the other hand, specifies the lawyer of the Russian Federation, Andrea Pinna (who does not know if his client will appeal), the judge did not accede to the claims for compensation of Acor, nor did not grant him the property of three plots located around the emblematic Saint-Nicolas Cathedral, built in 1912.

A showcase of Russian power

This flagship of Russian architecture had also already opposed the two camps.

But after a long legal battle, the Russian state won its case and took over, a little over seven years ago, the place which is among the most visited monuments in Nice.

It has since been restored at great expense by Moscow after two years of work and is a true showcase of Russian history and power.

Three relics of Tsar Alexander II including his bloody shirt in the last hours of his life, which were in Nice, also gave rise to a standoff between the Acor and the Kremlin.

The latter finally recovered them recently by legal means.

Is this saga with multiple episodes between the current regime and part of the local community in Nice just patrimonial, as Alexis Obolensky assures it?

It is obviously not that simple.

The disputed buildings were often built before the Russian revolution thanks to funding from the imperial family or the “White Russians” who left their country.

They therefore belong to the state, considers Moscow.

"The court is well aware that the present procedure goes far beyond the purely legal debate and is part of a complex religious and state history", also recognizes the judgment of this Thursday.

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Acor, attached to the Romanian Orthodox metropolis of Western and Southern Europe in 2019, does not recognize the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church, which it accuses of being too close to the central power.

Today in Nice, everyone therefore has their own place of worship.

But the courts have probably not finished examining this thorny legacy of a dense and tormented past.