Russian Church

Church of the Nativity of Christ and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Italian: Chiesa della Natività di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo e San Nicola Taumaturgo, Russian: Церковь Рождества Христова и Николая Чудотворца, The Russian Church, Italian: Chiesa russa) is a Russian Orthodox church in Florence, located on via Leone X, near the Basso Fortress. Its style is a late 19th and early 20th century imitation of the earlier Naryshkin Baroque. Nicholas I of Russia's daughter Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaïevna first had the idea of building a church for Florence's Russian community in 1873, but it was only six years later that a large gift from prince Paul Pavlovitch Demidoff of San Donato allowed construction to commence. Pietro Berti was initially taken on to design it by archpriest Vladimir Levitsky, then curate of the Orthodox church at the Russian embassy.

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