A golden dome characteristic of the Orthodox churches emerges next to the Vallcarca viaduct from a corner of Mare de Déu dels Reis street. It is a former Catholic parish converted into the church of the Russian Orthodox community in Barcelona. Inside you can see all the elements of this branch of Christianity in which the classic icons dominate.
This small temple, built in 1910, was originally a chapel of the Camillian fathers that, with the increase in population in the area, ended up being the parish of Sant Jordi de Vallcarca. Burned down during the civil war, it ended up in disuse when between 1965 and 1973 a new parish was built that replaced it due to the increase in parishioners in the neighborhood. It ended up being a warehouse and television studio, until in 2012 it was ceded by the archbishopric to the Russian Orthodox community.
In the first years, they occupied the church on a rental basis, until they definitively acquired it in 2018. In these years, the parishioners themselves have participated in the reform of the building and little by little it was equipped with the elements of the Orthodox faith. . The so-called iconostasis stands out, the wall composed of the figures —icons— of saints that separates the presbytery from the rest of the temple.
Among the icons, there are also Sant Jordi, in memory of the building’s Catholic past, and Santa Eulàlia, for being the patron saint of Barcelona and who is the first representation of the saint following the Orthodox canons.
Many of these icons and other elements that decorate the current parish, called the Annunciation, have been brought from Russia and sponsored by some of the parishioners. Now, Father Serafin, the monk responsible for the temple, who also serves as vicar general in Spain, hopes that the epidemic subsides enough so that the Russian artisans who must complete the set of frescoes that decorate the walls of the church can return.
The Russian Orthodox community in Catalonia is made up of some 1,500 people and its church in Vallcarca has a capacity of between 200 and 300 parishioners.
4
