I have been dreaming about visiting Russia for a long time now, and part of that dream includes seeing Russia's famous onion dome churches. As Russia is not on the cards until next year, with our exciting visit to Poland's Warsaw last month, I had the Russian Orthodox Church St Mary Magdalene on my must-see sights while visiting the capital. St Mary Magdalene is truly a gem. Constructed between 1867 and 1869, it was originally built for the large population of Russians that were living in surrounding areas of Warsaw and those moving to Poland from Russia.
The five-domed building has golden interior with beautiful and intricate detail on the inside and is surprisingly small on the inside. What makes it special is that it was the first stand alone Orthodox church to be constructed in Warsaw. Before that, there were only private chapels around the city. Built on a carefully chosen land that saw incoming and departing passengers from the railway station across the road connecting Warsaw to the central Russian lands. When Poland gained independence in 1918, the new government started a program against Orthodoxy in Poland that would see most Orthodox chapels and churches destroyed. In a bid to make the country fully Roman Catholic, all but two of the Orthodox churches were spared, one being the Mary Magdalene Church. In 1921 it then became the Metropolitan Cathedral.
