Paris and Ile-de-France prefect Daniel Canepa refused to sign off on a plan for a Russian Orthodox center on the Seine next to the Eiffel Tower, Le Parisien reported, citing “confidential” information.
Local authorities are now looking to pick a different project for the center that would fit the surrounding architecture better.
Paris City Hall said residents of the 7th arrondissement, where the Russia government bought 4 hectares in 2010, did not like the project, Le Parisien reported.
The government paid attention to these concerns, and now it will be revaluated.
Earlier, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe spoke out against the construction, criticizing the project for “architectural stylization.” However the mayor does not have a right of veto.
The architecture project was chosen during a competition out of 110 candidates. The winner was Spanish architect Manuel Nunez-Yanowsky, working with a French-Russian group of construction experts.
His project is a building with five golden onion domes and glass roof that covers several thousand square meters. In March, it was presented to the public by Russian Embassy in Paris.
Delanoe said at the time that the church with five domes connected to the center under the glass roof will violate the harmony of historical Paris, especially, considering that the Seine’s embankment was a heritage site protected by UNESCO. He added that there have been superior projects in the competition that would have fit better with surrounding buildings.
However, the French newspaper is worried that the Russian side may object to this turn of events, which could cause a diplomatic scandal, as the Kremlin follows the project very closely.