[2] The complex was opened on 19 March, 2016 by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, and representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate.

[3] The cathedral is the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Chersonesus, which covers the territory of France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Monaco.

However, the Yanowsky design offended the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, who felt it was out of harmony with the historic architecture of the banks of the Seine, which in 1991 had been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After the election of a new French President, François Hollande in 2012, Putin put forward an alternate design by Jean-Michel Wilmotte which had come in second in the original competition.

The specific color chosen for the alloy was designed to harmonise with the light beige of the Burgundy stones, and to be slightly different from the nearby gilded dome of the Invalides and the statues on the Alexander III Bridge.

[9] The facades of the church are covered with four thousand tons of stone, primarily light-coloured granite, chosen and polished to reflect the sky and the nuances of the light.

[10] The decoration of the cathedral (seen in November 2024) was rather sparse, and concentrated in one room; just outside the Iconostasis, the formal boundary between parts of the church open to parishioners and the inner sanctum.

THe Royal Portal doorway paintings depict a dialogue between the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel, along with the figures of the Old Testament, David and Solomon.

The interior of the church, near the iconostasis, has a small but very fine collection of ancient icons, images of saints and particularly of the Virgin Mary and child In addition to the cathedral, the site features a conference center, amphitheatre, a library, the headquarters of the diocese, and a primary school for children taught in both Russian and French.