On Saturday the two-day festivities on the 190th anniversary of the Battle of Nations near Leipzig began in Germany.
The Battle of Nations is the name of the battle fought by the Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Swedish armies against French Emperor Napoleon.
About 100,000 men were killed in the 1813 Leipzig battle. The greatest losses were suffered by the Russian army: 22,000 Russian soldiers fell on the German soil.
Until 1913, huge long hills - mass graves - were outside the city. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Nations a memorial was built in the place of the cemetery. The then Keizer Wilhelm II proposed building a victory monument in memory of the fallen Russians. But a "live monument", where the heroes could be remembered and a prayer for the dead could be read, was then closer to the Russians. Thus, 90 years ago a one-cupola hipped-roof church of the 16th-century style appeared in Leipzig. It is like an obelisk outside and a church inside.
Since then, the church monument of Russian glory honoring St Alexis has been Leipzig's unique sight, Father Alexy Tomyuk, representing the Moscow Patriarchate, told a RIA Novosti correspondent.
On Saturday participants in a costumed pageant will stage episodes of the historic battle. On Sunday Archbishop Theophanes of Berlin and Germany will serve a liturgy in the Monument Church of Russian Glory, the Leipzig Organizing Committee to commemorate the 190th anniversary of the Battle of Nations said.
On Sunday a costumed procession from the Battle of Nations Monument to the center of the city will be held. Its participants will lay flowers to the Russian Church.
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