Saint-Michel-Archange

Saint-Michel the Archangel Church (or church of the Archangel-Saint-Michel) is a Russian Orthodox Church located in Cannes, on Alexandre-III boulevard, in the Alpes-Maritimes department. It is dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael, patron saint of the Grand Duke Michel Mikhailovich of Russia, president of the committee created for the construction of the church.

History

Eugène-François Tripet (Paris, 12 November 1816 - Paris, July 1896), a French merchant in Moscow, French consul, had married Alexandra Feodorovna Skrypitzine (1819-1895), a rich heiress,. He was allowed to join his name to hers in 1864. In October 1848, the Tripet-Skrypitzine couple travelling to Rome had to stop in Cannes because of a car accident. Finding the place pleasant, he decided to settle there. Eugene Tripet then bought a large piece of land at the head of the Croisette. He had the Villa Alexandra in California built  in the Moorish style in 1849-1850, by the Parisian architect François-Joseph Liger (destroyed today). In 1886, Alexandra Skrypitzine raised the villa by one floor and had a chapel for 30 people installed in a wing. The Tripet-Skrypitzine family promoted Cannes to the Russian nobility. Eugene Tripet-Skrypitzine was elected municipal councillor of Cannes in 1861. His son Oleg-Eugene Tripet-Skrypitzine (Paris, April 24^th, 1848 - June 16^th, 1935), a military, and then a painter, published a Chronicle of the History Cannes, and was Curator of the Fragonard de Grasse museum, delegate of François Carnot, president of the Fragonard Society.

The Russian colony of Cannes was becoming more and more important. In 1904, more than 800 Russians lived in Cannes. The chapel became too small to accommodate them all. It became necessary to build a church.

Archbishop Grégoire Ostrooumoff (1856-1947) and Grand Duke Michel Mikhailovich of Russia (1861-1929) were the originators of this church's project. The Grand Duke Michel granted a large sum to carry out this project. Mrs. Alexandra Tripet-Skrypitzine gave a land of 1,750 m2. A subscription, opened at the beginning of 1894, brought in the same year the sum of 77,605 gold francs. The greatest donors were: Ivan Ivanovich Elagin who donated the bell tower and its seven bells, Fedor Pavlovich Chikhacheff who donated the iconostasis and a large sum of money, Emperor Nicholas II, Mr. Kouznetzoff , Prince Serge M. Galitzine, who had the tiles glazed, gilded the dome and offered walnut furniture for the church service, Madame Elisseieff, M. de Silvansky, who offered the carpets of the church, the Grand Duke Serge de Mecklembourg-Schwerin (1857-1905), who offered the garden barrier, M. de Balacheff, M. d'Oustinoff, several members of the Imperial family and many other wintering Russian families, but also the Syndicate of the Butlers of Cannes and the Association of Traders of Cannes. The following year’s donations were regularly collected, including the 25,000 gold francs awarded by Baron Alphonse de Rothschild in 1904. These sums of money were used to buy three complementary plots, one of which was donated by Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, widow of Alexander III, also to build the presbytery.