First construction period

At the end of the 19th century, only two Catholic churches existed in Moscow: the Saint Louis des Français church for the French population and the St. Peter and Paul church for the Polish parishioners. As the congregation for the Polish church had increased to around 30,000 members, the existing buildings were too small. Following the submission of a petition to the Governor-General of Moscow, the local council voted for a new church in 1894. Construction of a new church was permitted with several conditions, including two pertinent to the building site: the structure was to be built away from the old city centre, and was not to be located in the vicinity of any Orthodox sacred sites.[4]

Bearing in mind the council’s requirements, on 16 May 1895 the parish purchased a 10 hectare (22 acre) site on Malaja Grusinskaja street, then located on the city outskirts and surrounded by fields and vegetable gardens. Today, the site is in the Central Administrative Okrug, outside of the Garden Ring road defining the old walled city, just beyond the Moscow Metro’s Koltsevaya Line, and is surrounded by 20th century urban development. The purchase of the land was funded by donations, and cost 10,000 rubles in gold (roughly US$7,300,000 as of 2012).[5] The purchase agreement and a full list of donations are today kept in the city archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg.[4][6]

A further condition imposed by the city read as follows: “In the light of the two existing Roman Catholic churches, the future church shall be larger, with a cross on the gable, but without spires and exterior sculpture”.[4] The plans for the building were produced by a Russian architect of Polish descent, Tomasz Bohdanowicz-Dworzecki. Although his plan did not follow the council’s latter condition, it was accepted. The plan provided seating for up to 5,000 worshippers. Groundbreaking was in 1899, and construction took place from 1901 to 1911. The construction cost was 290,000 rubles in gold (roughly US$210,000,000 as of 2012), much of which was donated by members of the Polish parish of Moscow. More funding came from Catholic parishes throughout Russia, Poland and Belarus.[4][5][6]

The church was consecrated on 21 December 1911 as the “Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary”. It soon obtained the status of a chapel in the Peter and Paul parish. The consecration received extensive coverage in the Russian and Polish press. The Moscow newspaper, Russkoje Slowo, wrote:

In the filthy, wretched Malaya Gruzinskaya (Little Georgian) Street, forsaken by God and the city, there rose the wonderful, high artistic solidity of the new Roman Catholic church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Holy Virgin Mary. Tremendous in magnitude and height, … with a plenty of conning turrets and towers with crosses. The new cathedral makes a deep impression … [Every detail] looks impressive and eminent: Not the slightest stylistic flaw could be seen or detected.[4]

From 1911 to 1917, money was collected for interior furnishings, which were relatively sparse apart from the impressive main altar. (These original furnishings remained until the 1930s.) Parts of the draft plan were abandoned: the floor was not constructed from marble as intended, but poured from plain concrete; outside there were no pinnacles on the façade. Writings vary on when the pinnacles were built: some claim they were built in 1923,[5] but others argue that they were not completed until the renovation of the cathedral in 1999.[4][6] Observers that argue for an earlier construction date stated that they were damaged during World War II and left dismantled for some time.[5]