Russia was chosen this week for submitting the highest bid for a plot of land in downtown Paris, where it will build a spiritual and cultural center on the banks of the Seine River near the Eiffel Tower, according to the Russian Novosti website.
Russia plans to build an Orthodox Church on the plot of land -- for which it is estimated to have paid at least $70 million -- and to relocate a divinity school currently located on the outskirts of Paris.
Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of Russian parliament's International Affairs Committee, said that the Russian state would hand the piece of prime real estate over to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The plot will be the second major French acquisition this year for the Russian Orthodox Church, after a court ruled in January, 2010, that Russia was the rightful owner of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Nice on the French Riviera. This church -- originally the property of Tsar Nicholas II -- had been given to the Archbishop of St. Petersburg on a 99-year lease, which expired on December 31, 2007.
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