This church was built in 1931 on a quiet tree-lined street in the French Concession, where most of the Russian refugees had settled. It apparently was quite an active church, as in 1939 it had two bishops, two archimandrites, three arch-priests, six priests and priest monks, two proto-deacons, a church warden and a secretary.

After serving as a machine shop for a number of years, the church was recently restored by the Religious Affairs Bureau of the Chinese government. In the process, all the gold Cyrillic writing and icons on its walls and domed ceiling were  painted over.

Perhaps it is just as well. The Bureau has leased the ground floor to a securities exchange firm, with a second floor recently added under the dome to accommodate a disco-the "St. Peter's Club".

This delightful small church on Rue Corneille with its many multi-storied domes (now sadly truncated) also hired out for society weddings, from which it gained considerable income. It is now occupied by the offices of a washing machine manufacturing firm and the ground floor bears only small traces of its original use. 

In this church also a new floor has been laid under the dome to form a second story. The persevering authors spotted a small staircase tucked away in one corner, leading to a rewarding find: an office containing two battered desks and several clothe lines-arched over by fifty feet of dome, pierced by long windows and still in the original green and white color scheme. In the walls are candle niches, now framing calendars or containing office supplies. Alas, the office workers seemed to find their lofty office  less awe-inspiring than the authors.

The Russian churches of Shanghai have suffered a particularly dismal fate: The exterior of this one has just been modified to sport a bright red roof topped by a glass cupola which is lighted at night from within, plastic "stained glass" windows, and Christmas tree lights over the entrance. This indicates that the leasing unit will soon capitalize on Shanghai's restaurant boom-the fate of so many other lovely western buildings in the city.