The Church of St. Alexander Nevsky was built on Kapellenberg Hill, on the territory of the Russian colony Aleksandrovka, in Potsdam. At the beginning of the 19th century, after the joint victory of Germany and Russia over Napoleon, Emperor Alexander I left in Potsdam, at the request of German King Frederick William III, Russian soldiers-singers with their families. In 1825, after the death of Alexander, William III decided to create a memorial to the Russian Tsar in Potsdam: “At my request, as a lasting monument of memories of the bonds of friendship between me and His Majesty Emperor of Russia Alexander I, to establish a colony with Russian singers in Potsdam, whom I received from His Majesty as colonists, and call the colony Aleksandrovka. " The famous master of landscape gardening Peter Joseph Lenne planned the future settlement in the form of the St. Andrew's Cross. The church of Alexander Nevsky began to be built simultaneously with Aleksandrovka, the author of the project of the church was Russian architect Vasily Petrovich Stasov. The drawings were slightly modified by the German architect Schinkel, Russian and German masters took part in the construction. A rich iconostasis, vestments for priests and church utensils were sent from St. Petersburg. Empress Alexandra Fedorovna donated several icons. The first service in the church took place on July 10, 1829, at which the reigning persons of Russia and Germany were present. On September 11, 1829, the church was consecrated in honor of Alexander Nevsky. Since 1945, the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Potsdam returned to the subordination of the Moscow Patriarchate, today the Orthodox community consists of Russians, Serbs, Romanians, Germans. The church building is the oldest Russian church building in Western Europe.