A Church at the End of the Earth

Antarctica’s Church of the Holy Trinity

The work and housing structures used by international polar expeditions in Antarctica are for the most part rectangular metal cabins: functional and transportable, but awfully ugly. So the addition of an Orthodox church to the polar continent was a breath of fresh air, architecturally speaking. 

The defiant silhouette of the wooden Church of the Holy Trinity appeared on Antarctica’s King George Island in 2004. It was the brainchild of Oleg Sakharov, head of Bellingshausen Station, and was funded by several Russian entrepreneurs, with bells donated by a Russian-American patron.